1. What does it mean to be liberal in India?
On the date of declaration of independence, i.e., 15th August, 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime
Minister of India said “At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life
and freedom.” On this very date, the sacrifices which had been made by the Indian freedom fighters paid
off and led to the end of two hundred year long colonial rule by the Britishers. After few years of the
independence, the Constituent Assembly delivered to the people of India, its constitution. The preamble of
the constitution of India reads
“WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN, SOCIALIST,
SECULAR, DEMOCRATIC, REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens:
JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;
and to promote among them all
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation;
IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT, ENACT AND
GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.”
Both, the statement of Jawaharlal Nehru and the preamble of constitution of India would instill a great
feeling of pride in one’s heart but after sixty eight years of the independence, it actually makes us wonder,
is India fully awake to life and freedom? Have we really secured the justice, liberty and equality to
ourselves? Certainly, the answer to these questions is debatable as the current and historic situations of
India are perceived differently by different people.
Out of the words Liberty, Freedom, Justice and Equality, the word which is most vulnerable to a long
discussion and dilemmatic interpretation is ‘Liberty’as there are no pre-determined criteria to define or
measure it, but of course, we can compare the degree of liberalismfrom country to country, region to
region or culture to culture, within and beyond India. Before moving forward, it should be discussed that
what does liberalismactually mean. In simple terms, liberalismmeans the belief of progress achieved
through maximum individual freedom possible, especially as guaranteed by law and secured by
governmental protection of civil liberties. For instance, one cannot be given enough freedom or liberty to
kill another person as it is destructive of humanity and therefore, cannot be advocated by law. Now, India
being a vast country and the largest democracy on this earth, one may analyze here that the meaning of
liberalism is influenced by various factors consisting of economic and political situation, cultural
backgrounds of people, individual liberties and rights etc. It would be more appropriate to say that being
liberal is different in context of economic and political situation, culture and traditions of people and other
individual liberties and rights.

2. In the contemporary globalized world, no individual country can sustain by being a closed economy as
none of the countries in this world is equipped with the requisite resources to feed its population. Hence,
in order to survive, a country has to engage itself in the international trade and business as business is the
key to economic and financial prosperity of a nation. Fortunately, this theory was realized by the then
Union Minister of Finance, Dr. Manmohan Singh (Former Prime Minister of India)back in 1991 and came
up with the New Economic Policy 1991 to save India from the economic crisis. Such wisdom and sagacity of
Dr. Manmohan Singh laid down the path for liberalization of Indian economic laws and rigid policies that
obstructed the free flow of goods and services which ultimately proved a benefactor for Indian economy.
Evidently, here the liberalismwas thirsty for loosening of political as well as legal clutches that curbed the
free movement of goods and services.
Being a law student, it feels great to learn about what actually runs a country. Yes, it is the legal structure
of a country which steers it towards the right direction. To make India go in the right progressive path, the
current Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi has considerably lured each big economic power of this world
to come to India and set up manufacturing units here through his famous campaign ‘Make In India’ as this
man of marketing acumen perfectly knows that a nation with a biggest constitution and around twenty
five hundred laws are doing no good but vexing the situation. Keeping this thing in mind, he set up a
committee to list down the archaic and redundant laws which have lost the relevance in Indian society and
till date around eight hundred such laws have been abolished, attributable to his belief of ‘Less
Government, More Governance’. In India or in any other country, political parties are always in a bid to
catch hold of the other on one or the other issues due to conflict of liberties and this often lead to a
deadlock in Parliament. Hence, it hurts to see crores of rupees of public money going in drain in respect of
lack of deliberations due to deadlock amongst houses of parliament over irrelevant issues leading to
pendency of key legislations like Goods and Services Tax Bill (GST Bill) and Land Acquisition Bill. Now, what
GST intends to achieve, is to streamline all the different taxes like excise, customs, vat, octroi duty, sales
tax and other applicable taxes into one single tax whereas Land Acquisition bill will facilitate the
acquisition of lands for setting up of factories and industries. Such key laws need to be executed as
expeditiously as possible because of its resultant rise in liberalization of business atmosphere of country,
thereby contributing towards the enhancement of image of India as the perfect destination for investment
and business opportunities.
That was the situation pertaining to a macro level, but of course, the situation at micro level too seems to
be not pleasing indeed. Every human being is born with some unique talent which results in its individual
aspirations of life. Is this something too hard to understand? Blockbuster films like ‘Taare Zameen Par’ and
‘3 Idiots’ have, vehemently spread the message that to let your children chase their dreams and have their
own choice of having an identity. But the scenario speaks of some different situation prevalent in Indian
families. It may take some time to realize one’s own aspirations and career choices and therefore, it is the
obligation of the parents to counsel their children to find out what they actually like to become and not
forcing or emotionally blackmailing them to follow a safe path in life or pursuing what others are doing. It
is high time that we must let go of such herd mentality and let children to follow their heart.

3. On the top of that, the next thing which haunts the liberalization process in India is the culture. Yes,
culture, an intangible tool to convey all the legacies and set of practices from generation to generation,
which barely leaves any chance to eradicate the continuance of conservative psychology, if any.
Celebrating your culture is fine as long as you're not using it to display dominance against someone who is
different, blame a victim of gender violence, justify criminal acts like rape and honour killing, etc. These are
the things that turn “culture” into a negative word and tarnish it. Culture represents the identity of a
person which needs to be protected eternally through dignified and sensible acts that do not attack the
freedom of other person.
When I first read about the topic of essay, the first thing which came to my mind was the news which said
that “The Former Indo-Canadian Pornstar Sunny Leone is facing tough time in finding her a house to live in
Mumbai”. Sunny Leone, who was shot to fame after her stint in Bigg Boss Season 5, found it difficult to
find a decent residence for her as people were reluctant to be her neighbors due to the stigma she carries
of once being a porn actress in America. Prostitution and pornography, being the legalized professions in
U.S., Europe, Australia and other various developed countries, are taboo in Indian society and the people
who are involved in such things are not considered as chaste. It also reminds that, recently, the famous
extra-marital affair website ‘Ashley Madison’ got hacked divulging the secret details of around thirty three
million users in the U.S. This incident will, anyhow, be the biggest Christmas present to the divorce lawyers
of America. Anyways, although secretly, but still thirty three million users got convinced by website’s tag
line stating “Life is short, Have an affair’’. In India, where marriage is considered as sacrament and pristine
relationship, and divorce as a sin, one will definitely think for atleast hundred times to venture with such
kind of idea in start-up boomed economy of India. Thus, talking of what does it mean to be liberal in India,
definitely does not mean to let profession of prostitution or pornography prevail in society or even getting
oneself registered at any affair making website as more than the law, the mentality and conformist
perceptions of people restrict it. Besides this, what’s more perturbing is the societal spurn towards live-in
relationships or the phenomenon of ‘friends with benefits’ or public demonstration of love by hugging or
kissing and many more in the queue, which, contrarily, are extremely normal in the western countries.
Furthermore,on 23rd May, 2015, Ireland made headlines by becoming the first country in the world to
legalize same-sex marriage by an overwhelming national vote delivering abundance of joy to the LGBT
community of country and thereby establishing that a person has a right to live upto his aspirations and
expectations, contrary to what situation prevails in India. Referring to the landmark judgement of Hon’ble
Supreme Court of India dated 11th December, 2013 in case of Suresh Kumar Kaushal v. NAZ Foundation,
the Hon’ble Supreme Court ruled homosexuality to be a criminal offence setting aside the 2009 judgment
given by the Delhi High Court, prohibiting the liberty that was awarded to the LGBT community, in terms
of section 377 of Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860 which states that whoever voluntarily has carnal
intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with
imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for term which may extend to ten years,
and shall also be liable to fine. Despite being argued that the IPC, when enacted in 1860, was justified; but
with the passage of time it had become arbitrary and unreasonable, and judgement being contrary to the
fundamental rights under Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the constitution, the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India

4. endorsed the constitutional validity of Section 377 of IPC as unquestionable. As it has been stated earlier,
that we can only compare the degree of liberalism in respect of various aspects prevalent in different
regions, states or countries. If India restricts the homosexuality by life imprisonment, then countries like
Saudi Arabia or Iraq punish it with death penalty.
Additionally, on the optimistic front, what it came to be good news for the people was another judgement
of Supreme Court in case of Shreya Singhal v. Union of India, declaring section 66A of Information
Technology Act as unconstitutional and striking it down as it had been widely misused by police in various
states to arrest innocent persons for posting critical comments about social and political issues and
political leaders on social networking sites.The court said such a law hit at the root of liberty and freedom
of expression, two cardinal pillars of democracy. Certainly, this is to be counted amongst the biggest
achievements in respect of being liberal in India. Time and again, the world has witnessed many revolts
against oppression. India too revolted against the physical captivity of its sovereignty by Britishers and
after its victory, the battle begun to fight against the mental captivity of Indians.
Now, at the end, it would be appropriate to conclude that law is the mirror image of a society and all the
liberties of people must be guaranteed by law. If any society, be it in India or beyond India, by the passage
of time, feels the need to become more liberal, then law automatically recognizes it. But it should be kept
in mind that such transition is a slow and steady process in which one’s demand for the liberty may not be
in larger public interest, in case of which, he or she does not have the liberty to resort to illegal means or
misusing the other liberties or curtailing the liberties of other fellow citizens. So, if today, someone asks
me, “Don’t you Indians feel the need of organizing topless marches like we do at Time Square, or enjoying
gambling at casinos or strip-teasing at burlesque clubs or legalizing the trade of cannabis (Marijuana) like
Uruguay did?” The answer would be a fervent no as India has its own pace of liberalization and currently,
the Indian society is in no need to accommodate such things. Therefore, we may be less liberal than the
U.S., Russia, Europe or Australia but we are far more liberal than numerous countries of the globe.
Bibliography
1. Google
2. The Times of India
3. Wikipedia
4. Indian Penal Code, 1860
5. Constitution of India

5. Summary of the Essay
The essay speaks about the history of India, preamble of constitution of India and the current status and
quantum of liberalismin various aspects such as, in respect of Economic and political scenario, cultural
environment, individual rights and liberties of citizens compared with the liberalismin the developed
countries.
It talks of meaning of liberalism, historical as well as current economic and political environment, parental
disregard towards their children’s aspirations, a strict no-no towards pornography and prostitution,
cultural restrictions, LGBT community’s rights, etc.
It also states that all the rights, freedom and liberties must be guaranteed by the law of the country and
has commented that each society has its own needs of liberalismand a pace to achieve those.
Through the essay above, i.e., What Does it Mean To Be Liberal in India, it has been tried to accumulate
the areas in which Indian society would be considered as less liberal than the societies of other developed
countries. The readers may find it to be a representative of a negative image of India but it is certainly not
advisable to interpret it in such sense as a very important fact must be kept in mind that India is a huge
country and despite its urbanization, majority of it resides in rural areas. Therefore, even if some
measures for liberalization are taken place, its benefits are rarely reaped by people at such grass root
levels.