Why India Needs to Reclaim its Liberal Soul

Russia’s Putin announced the demise of liberalism, America’s Trump wrote its obituary, and India’s Modi wielded the death as a political forge that transmuted him into a demigod.

We are, unfortunately, passing through an era of so-called “strong leaders” like Putin, Trump, and Modi. A 2024 report based on a 2023 Pew survey found that 67% Indians endorsed a governing system with a “strong leader” who can make decisions without interference from courts or parliament. This support for autocracy was the highest among all surveyed nations and has increased consistently after Modi became the PM. Shockingly, the same 2023 survey found that 72% of Indian respondents expressed a favourable view of military rule.

Indians don’t want individual freedom, it seems. We are used to the many gods who incarnated at appropriate times and destroyed evil (Sambhavami yuge yuge). Modi is our present divine incarnation. It is the duty of these avatars to conquer evil; hence individual freedom doesn’t matter.

This new Sambhavami has turned universities into propaganda labs. The press and other media have become state-scripted parrots. Citizens are polarised into echo chambers. Religion and patriotism are weapons dipped deep in hatred.

The new divine avatar told us that liberalism is a western notion and hence anti-Indian. Never mind that the same ‘strong leader’ who is so anti-west has visited the western countries countless times. Tradition and history have become nubile nostalgia. Whatever little ideology still left is the fortress of a nation enfeebled by a ‘strong leader’ rather than a bridge extended by a healthy collective psyche.

s liberalism a western notion? Right from the Upanishads and the Mahabharata to thinkers like Rabindranath Tagore, India has a rich history that is rooted in liberalism. As Amartya Sen argued in his book The Argumentative Indian (2005), India’s liberalism went far beyond Western Enlightenment by millennia. Dissent was never seen in the country as rebellion, let alone treason, according to Sen, but as a means of seeking truth. Sen also warned in that book (written a decade before Modi came to power and fulfilled Sen’s prophecy) that forgetting the “argumentative heritage” of the country would lead to narrow nationalism and intolerance.

Narrow nationalism and intolerance reign supreme in India today. As a result, freedom has become permission granted by the powerful. Patriotism is blind obedience. Religion is a set of dogmas force-fed by the state. National pride is equal to intolerance.

A truly strong nation doesn’t silence its critics; it listens to them. A ‘strong leader’ does the opposite.

A historical shift like this from liberalism to petty nationalism didn’t happen overnight. It grew out of frustration with corruption, elitism, and slow development. But the cure, alas, has turned out to be worse than the disease. Rahul Gandhi has been showing us for weeks now how even our electoral process is an utter farce. In the pre-Modi era, there were some values in practice in spite of all the corruption and red-tape.

The worst catastrophe is the saffronisation of education. The school must be the place where children should be taught critical and creative thinking. Instead, they are being fed with false history and silly dogmas.

India has to liberate its schools first from the clutches of petty-minded nationalists. It has to revive the dignity of dissent. Journalism must be given independence. The rights of the minorities and the marginalised should be taken care of. Dialogue should replace monologues such as Mann ki Baat.

Ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti” — Truth is one, the wise call it by many names. That is what Indian civilisation has always taught. To reclaim that inheritance is not a political act: it is a moral necessity. For redeeming the nation’s soul.

PS. This post is the last part of Blogchatter Half Marathon 2025