A case for the rapid urbanization of India

["S. V. Raju" <freedom@bom3.vsnl.net.in>]

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>From S.V.Raju, Editor, Freedom First (The Liberal Quarterly) and
President, Indian Liberal Group
To: Participants on the Indiapolicy network  =20

It was such a relief to read Dr.Subroto Roy's corrective to Sanjeev
Sabhlok's lauding Sauvik Chakraverti's economic policy prescriptions.
Earlierin in one of Mr.Chakraverti's articles in The Times of India he
equated a liberal society with a "vibrant night life". I agree entirely
with what he has said.

No one can take exception to a dream. We all dream. Just as Chakraverti
dreams of a vibrant night life in cities as an ideal of a liberal
society, I dream of a society where our villages are well connected by
roads, where every farmer plouging the land has the most modern
implements; of a panchayat which dispenses justice without being
influenced by caste and hierarchical considerations; where every hut has
an electric connetion and piped water so that our women do not have to
trudge many kilometers to fetch potable water; of decently built school
houses with teachers actually present instead of being  present only on
payrolls; of such school children decently clad and decently nourished;
where primary health centres do indeed cater to the primary health needs
of the community well equipped with medicines and staffed,  if not by a
doctor, by at least  para medical personnel; where instant communication
with the outside world and information on a variety of matters from land
records, to weather conditions are available to any farmer at the click
of a mouse; where  . And this is not a small dream. It involves 627,000
villages in 1991 (as against 576,000 in 1971). And the Liberal also
dreams of all this in an environment of freedom - of a free economy in a
free society. This dream was what was behind the Swatantra Party's
slogan of  'Farm, Family and Freedom' and the title of their Statement
of Policy adopted in March 1960  "To Prosperity through Freedom" itself
an adaptation of Ludwig Erhard's "To Prosperity through Competition". 20

And this is what the Indian Liberal Group(ILG) believes and has set
about promoting. The ILG founded by Minoo Masani in 1964 felt silent
when failing eyesight reduced Mr.Masani's  ability to aggressively
propagate the liberal point of view. He was not promoting the views of a
Julian Simon or a Hayek a Lipmann ( whose book The Public Philosophy was
compulsory reading to all those who were  close to Masani). He read them
all going back to Bacon, Bentham and Mill, Dadabhai Naoroji,  Gokhale
and Ranade not to speak of Gandhi. And he adapted many of their thinking
to our conditions. Not of them were 'holy gospel' The ILG  needed to be
revived not only to promote the Liberal philosophy but to provide a
delivery system to ensure that the ILG acted as a strong pressure group.
We wanted the ILG to be more than a talk shop or seen around only in
coffee clubs. We wanted to disprove the belief that the Liberal is very
good at seminars but is conspicuous by his absence whebn action was
called for. 20

As at the time of writing the Indian Liberal Group has over 120 Active
Members, and by the end of this year, will have functioning Groups in
Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra and Tamil Nadu - the culmination
of an effort that began in August 1998.  20

Recently Sauvik Chakraverti wrote two articles in the centre page of The
Times of India. His articles caused some consternation among some of our
 members and supporters who wanted to know whether his views represented
the Liberal position.And if that was they would have to reconsider their
association with the Indian Liberal Group. I reassured them it was not
so and  promised to send a rejoinder to The Times of India  knowing full
well that it would not be published.(That's another story and I won't
take your time here)  And therefore, to no one's surprise it was not. I
take the liberty of attaching that article for your perusal.

If any of you who are interested in receiving a copy of the ILG's "Basic
Principles - Guidelines for Action" please let me have your postal
mailing address and I shall mail you a copy along with a folder on the
ILG. If you are overseas then please remit one dollar or its equivalent
in rupees to cover mailing costs.If within the country then Rs.6 in
postage stamps.Incidentally there is no bar on Indians overseas  from
becoming members. 20

Our mailing address (which incidentally is that of the Swatantra Party
Office in Mumbai)

Indian Liberal Group, 1st floor, Sassoon Building, 143, Mahatma Gandhi
Road, Mumbai 400 001
email: freedom@vsnl.com; faxphone: 91 22 284 3416.

Thank you for your time.





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