Liberty in Indian Political Thinking

Though liberty as a value has occupied an important place in the liberal political thinking in India, it did not have such a deep impact in Indian political thinking for it being predetermined and influenced by class and caste determinants. Therefore, the concept of liberty as a value of the liberal political thought is a recent origin in our country. In our country we can understand it through Gandhian philosophy of ‘Swarajya’. It means ‘Self rule’ and is synonymous with the concept of liberty. His concept of ‘swarajya’ was the mixture of both ideas Indians and Western. The sources of his Western influences were the ideas of Tolstoy, Ruskin and Thorean. In the sphere of Indian influences he assimilated the ideas of ‘karma’ from Geeta and the value of ‘satya’ or ‘truth’ from Buddhism and ‘ahimsa’ fro Jain philosophy. Like Gandhi, Nehru’s liberal attitude also contributed in the development of the concept of liberty. Like Mill, the western philosopher he attaches importance to the personality development of an individual. Then, we find that the study on liberty is an attempt by the author to touch this unexplored area.