The Dilemma of an Indian Liberal

'I became a liberal because I believed in the virtues of openness, mutual respect, and a

concern for others. Liberalism offered me an ethically responsible order of human progress

without necessarily involving the state.'

Gurcharan Das has been a lifelong and passionate champion of both economic

and political freedom. 'For over two centuries, ' he writes, 'liberal democracies

and free markets spread around the world to become the only sensible way

to organize public life.' After years of the stifling 'license raj', he watched and

celebrated India's long-delayed move towards a liberal order in the 1990s, as

market reform and a maturing democratic process began to yield remarkable

results, bringing prosperity and dignity to the many millions who had been

denied both for decades. He recorded this progress in his classic study, India

Unbound. But after three decades, that light seems to be fading. As in the rest of

the world, liberalism is in retreat in India as well. Society is hopelessly polarized

and populists are on the march. The debate appears to be about economic

freedom versus political freedom-as if it is a given that the two cannot coexist.

The liberal today is on a lonely road.

In order to elucidate the dilemma of the Indian liberal, Gurcharan Das recounts

his own professional and intellectual journey: how and why he became a liberal.

While telling his story, he also narrates the story of a nation struggling-still-

to become a successful liberal democracy-the late promise and its seeming

betrayal, but also the possibility of course correction.

Written with conviction, insight and scholarship-and with immense clarity-

this is an urgent and illuminating book. It is a book that every Indian invested in

the future of the country should read.