The Indian Libertarian

Summary

The Indian Libertarian, Vol. VII No. 20 (15 November 1959), is an issue of the Bombay classical-liberal fortnightly edited by Miss Kusum Lotwala, published at the height of the 1959 Sino-Indian border crisis. The editorial amplifies General Cariappa’s call for action against Chinese incursions in Ladakh, and the lead articles sustain that theme: M. A. Venkata Rao dissects ‘The Red Dragon in Ladakh or the Mao-Menon Line’, M. N. Tholal warns that India is ‘Playing the Communist Game’, an unsigned report alleges a ‘Secret Sino-Pak Plot to Grab Kashmir’, and Shurokh Sabavala examines how ‘Tibet Agitates India’. The issue’s four-page Economic Supplement carries Prof. G. N. Lawande’s essays on capital accumulation, economic development and monetary control, while the Delhi Letter (‘Cariappa Says the Last Word’), Daniel Bell’s review-essay on Marx and alienation (‘The World of Books’), Book Reviews, ‘Gleanings from the Press’, and a News Digest complete it. The recurring commitments are national defence against Chinese expansion, scepticism of non-alignment, and a classical-liberal defence of free enterprise and individual liberty.

Essays

Editorial: General Cariappa’s Call for Action Against the Chinese

The editorial takes up General Cariappa’s public call for firm action against Chinese incursions into Ladakh. It argues that India has been complacent about the Chinese threat, criticises the government’s hesitancy and what it sees as appeasement, and warns that inaction and continued non-alignment endanger national security on the Himalayan frontier. It frames the moment as one demanding resolve rather than diplomatic drift.

• Backs General Cariappa’s call for action against Chinese incursions
• Criticises government hesitancy and appeasement on Ladakh
• Warns that non-alignment endangers frontier security
• Casts the border crisis as a test of national resolve

The Red Dragon in Ladakh or the Mao-Menon Line

By MA Venkata Rao

M. A. Venkata Rao analyses ‘The Red Dragon in Ladakh or the Mao-Menon Line’, linking Chinese expansionism under Mao to what he regards as the dangerously accommodating posture associated with Defence Minister Krishna Menon. He argues that India’s strategic and economic policy — including its Five-Year-Plan priorities — has left the country ill-prepared for the Chinese threat, and presses for a clearer-eyed, liberal and security-minded re-orientation.

• Connects Chinese expansionism to a permissive ‘Mao-Menon line’
• Faults India’s strategic and planning priorities
• Argues the country is unprepared for the Chinese threat
• Urges a liberal, security-minded re-orientation

We are Playing the Communist Game

By M. N. Tholal

M. N. Tholal argues that India is ‘Playing the Communist Game’ by indulging a false sense of security and by policies that, wittingly or not, serve communist ends. He attacks complacency about the border, the failure to confront Chinese intentions, and a foreign policy that he says mistakes drift for prudence — calling instead for clarity, vigilance and alignment with the free world.

• Charges India with a ‘false sense of security’ on the border
• Argues current policy inadvertently serves communist ends
• Attacks complacency about Chinese intentions
• Calls for vigilance and alignment with the free world

Secret Sino-Pak Plot To Grab Kashmir!

An unsigned ‘Report from Ladakh’ alleges a ‘Secret Sino-Pak Plot to Grab Kashmir’, claiming that China and Pakistan are coordinating to mount a combined move on Kashmir, possibly in the coming winter. The piece reads contemporary diplomatic and military signals as evidence of a multi-pronged threat to India’s hold on the territory.

• Alleges a coordinated Sino-Pakistani design on Kashmir
• Warns of a possible combined move in the next winter
• Reads diplomatic and military signs as evidence
• Frames Kashmir as exposed on two fronts

Tibet Agitates India

By Shurokh Sabavala

Shurokh Sabavala examines how ‘Tibet Agitates India’, tracing how the Chinese suppression of Tibet and the flight of the Dalai Lama have stirred Indian opinion and forced a reckoning with Chinese intentions on the Himalayan frontier. The piece treats the Tibetan question as inseparable from India’s own security and its posture toward Peking.

• Links the Chinese suppression of Tibet to Indian public opinion
• Treats the Tibetan crisis as a security question for India
• Reads Tibet as a barometer of Chinese intentions
• Connects the Dalai Lama’s flight to the frontier crisis

Economic Supplement

The four-page Economic Supplement carries essays by Prof. G. N. Lawande. ‘Capital Accumulation and Economic Development’ argues that the growth of underdeveloped economies turns on raising domestic savings and channelling them into productive investment rather than on coercion or inflationary finance, while a companion piece, ‘New Policy of Monetary Control’, examines proposals for reforming monetary management. Together they make a classical-liberal case for sound money and voluntary capital formation.

• Argues development depends on domestic savings and investment
• Rejects coercion and inflationary finance as paths to growth
• Examines reform of monetary control policy
• Makes a classical-liberal case for sound money (G. N. Lawande)

Delhi Letter

The Delhi Letter, ‘Cariappa Says the Last Word’, reports from the capital on the political reverberations of General Cariappa’s intervention on the China question, the government’s response, and the manoeuvring among parties as the border crisis dominates national debate.

• Reports the political fallout of Cariappa’s China intervention
• Tracks the government’s response in Delhi
• Surveys party manoeuvring over the border crisis

The World of Books

By Daniel Bell

In ‘The World of Books’, Daniel Bell contributes a review-essay, ‘The Meaning of Alienation’ (subtitled a quest for the historical Marx), tracing the concept of alienation through Hegel, the young Marx and Engels, and assessing its place in Marxist thought and its later interpretation. The piece exemplifies the journal’s engagement with the intellectual history of socialism from a critical, liberal vantage.

• A review-essay on the concept of alienation in Marx
• Traces alienation through Hegel and the young Marx
• Engages the ‘quest for the historical Marx’
• Reads Marxist thought from a critical liberal standpoint

Book Reviews

The Book Reviews section notices recent titles, including ‘A Concise History of Mauritius’ by Lennox Boswell, with brief critical assessments aligned to the journal’s liberal interests.

• Brief notices of recent books
• Includes a review of ‘A Concise History of Mauritius’
• Critical assessments from a liberal vantage

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