The Indian Libertarian

Summary

This September 15, 1960 issue (Vol. VIII No. 12) of The Indian Libertarian, an independent Bombay journal of free economy and libertarian democracy edited by Miss Kusum Lotwala, leads with an unsigned editorial on ‘Regionalism versus Nationalism’ that reads the contemporary Assam language agitation as a symptom of the Congress government’s centralising drift and provincial chauvinism. In the rendered pages the issue gathers commentary on the politics of the early 1960s: M. A. Venkata Rao on the Assam crisis, M. N. Tholal’s polemic against India’s ‘pseudo-peace merchants’ and Nehru’s foreign policy, A. Ranganathan’s reflections on the national language controversy, S. R. Narayan Iyer on the communist threat, and a separately paginated ‘Economic Supplement’ carrying Prof. G. N. Lawande’s essay ‘Socialism and Democracy.’ Across these pieces the journal argues a consistent classical-liberal line: against linguistic and provincial fragmentation, against socialist economic planning, and for English as a unifying link language and a free economy.

Essays

The Challenge of Assam

By MA Venkata Rao

M. A. Venkata Rao reads the Assam disturbances as the latest evidence of India’s failure to reconcile regional sentiment with national unity. He treats the linguistic and ethnic clashes in Assam as a test the Indian state is failing, arguing that hasty, ill-considered reorganisation along linguistic lines has inflamed rather than settled provincial feeling.

• Frames the Assam agitation as a national-unity failure, not a merely local dispute
• Criticises linguistic reorganisation of states as a destabilising policy
• Connects provincial chauvinism to weak central leadership

Our Pseudo-Peace Merchants

By M. N. Tholal

M. N. Tholal attacks what he calls India’s ‘pseudo-peace merchants’ — those who, in his view, mistake appeasement for peace in foreign policy. He fastens on Nehru’s record, treating professions of peace as a confession of weakness rather than principle, and ties the argument to a broader critique of the government’s posture toward aggression.

• Polemic against appeasement dressed up as peace policy
• Targets Nehru’s foreign-policy professions directly
• Distinguishes genuine peace from capitulation to aggression

Some Reflections on the Language Controversy

By A Ranganathan

A. Ranganathan offers reflections on the language controversy, opening from Frank Anthony’s denunciation of the President’s address and ranging across the place of English and the regional languages in the Indian polity. He treats the dispute as bound up with the larger question of national cohesion rather than mere administrative convenience.

• Engages the English-versus-regional-languages debate
• Opens from Frank Anthony’s critique of the President’s address
• Links language policy to national unity

The Menace from the Communists

By S. R. Narayan Iyer

S. R. Narayan Iyer warns of ‘the menace from the communists,’ opening from a mid-August speech by the Prime Minister and arguing that the Communist Party represents a standing threat to Indian democracy. The piece reads the government’s tolerance of communist agitation as dangerous complacency.

• Casts the Communist Party as a threat to Indian democracy
• Opens from a mid-August prime-ministerial speech
• Criticises governmental complacency toward communist agitation

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