Swatantra Party
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Swatantra Party | |
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Abbreviation | SWA |
Founder | C. Rajagopalachari |
Founded | 4 June 1959 |
Dissolved | 1974 |
Split from | Indian National Congress |
Merged into | Bharatiya Lok Dal |
Ideology | Conservatism (Indian)[1] Classical liberalism[2] Liberal conservatism[3] Secularism[4] Agrarianism[5] |
Political position | Centre-right[6][7][note 1] |
Colours | Blue |
Election symbol | |
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The Swatantra Party was an
The party had a number of distinguished leaders, most of them old Congressmen, like
Swatantra stood for a
History
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C. Rajagopalachari founded the Swatantra Party. He had been the last Governor-General of India and one of the first recipients of India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna.
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N. G. Ranga was the founder member of the Swatantra Party and its president for several years.
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Gayatri Devi, the Maharani of Jaipur and princess of Cooch Behar, was a successful politician in the Swatantra Party.
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Bezawada Ramachandra Reddy was the founder member of the Swatantra Party.
Electoral history
In the
Year | Election | Popular- vote |
Seats |
---|---|---|---|
1962 | 1962 Indian general election | 7.9 % | 18 / 494 [18]
|
1967 | 1967 Indian general election | 8.7 % | 44 / 520
|
1971 | 1971 Indian general election | 3.1 % | 8 / 518
|
Ideology
Fundamental principles
First and foremost, the Swatantra Party committed to social justice and equality of opportunity of all people "without distinction of religion, caste, occupation, or political affiliation".[19]
The party felt that progress, welfare and happiness of the people could be achieved by giving maximum freedom to individuals with the state minimising intervention. The state should replace its intervention with fostering the Indian tradition of helping other people directly.[19]
In particular, the party believed that the state should adhere to the Fundamental Rights guaranteed by the Constitution of India and, in particular, should compensate individuals if their property had to be acquired for public purposes. It also believed in giving citizens full freedom to educate their children as they wanted.[19] It recognised the need for increasing food production and sought to do so by giving peasants full land rights and incentives for increasing production in agriculture.[19] In industry, it sought to reduce state presence only to the minimum necessary to supplement private enterprise and in national services like the Indian Railways. It sought to do away with controls on trade and commerce. However, it committed against unreasonable profits, prices and dividends. It believed in placing equal emphasis on the development of capital goods industries, consumer goods industries and rural and small industries.[19] In the fields of taxation and state expenditure, it believed in thrift and called for taxation to suffice for carrying on of administration and social and economic activities taken upon by the state but should not depress capital formation and private investment. The government should also desist from running abnormally large deficits or taking foreign loans that are beyond the capacity of the country to repay. In particular, it resisted unnecessary expansion of the bureaucracy.[19]
While standing for minimising state intervention in the economy, the Swatantra Party committed to securing a fair deal for labour, correlating wages to increased productivity and workers' right to collective bargaining.[19] It also gave their members full freedom to question and criticise any point not included in the fundamental principles of that party.[19]
Others
Party's fundamental principles had not covered several issues like foreign policy, national language, state reorganisation and religious and social reform.[20]
The party was generally opposed to communism and in 1969, urged the Indian government to ban the three major communist parties in India at that time, the
In foreign affairs, it opposed non-alignment and a close relationship with the Soviet Union and advocated an intimate connection with the United States and Western Europe.[21][20]
See also
- Liberalism in India
- Piloo Mody
- S. V. Raju
- V. P. Menon
- H. Ajmal Khan
- Venkatesh Geriti
- Indian National Congress breakaway parties
- R. C. Cooper
Notes
References
- ^ a b
Erdman, H.L. (2007). The Swatantra Party and Indian Conservatism. Cambridge South Asian Studies. Cambridge University Press. pp. 2, 62–63, 75. ISBN 978-0521049801. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
- ^ Das, Gurcharan (2002). The Elephant Paradigm. Penguin. p. 244.
- ^ Pratapchandra Rasam, Vasanti (1997). Swatantra Party: a political biography. Dattsons. p. 199.
- ^ Smith, Donald E. (1966). South Asian Politics and Religion. Princeton University Press. p. 110.
- ^ Rajadhyaksha, Niranjan (2019-05-28). "The contemporary relevance of Swatantra Party's liberal view". Mint. Retrieved 2024-01-13.
- ^ Raghbendra Jha, ed. (2014). Facets of India's Economy and Her Society Volume I. Springer. p. 263.
- ^ Rudra Chaudhuri, ed. (2014). Forged in Crisis: India and the United States Since 1947. Oxford University Press, Incorporated. p. 100.
- ^ Snippet view, ed. (1978). Triveni: Journal of Indian Renaissance - Volume 47. Triveni Publishers. p. 24.
- ^ Chaudhuri, Rudra (2014). Forged in Crisis: India and the United States Since 1947. Oxford University Press. p. 100.
- ^ Jha, Raghbendra (2018). Facets of India's Economy and Her Society. Vol. 1. Springer. p. 263.
- ^ Rajagopalachari, C. (2016-07-16). "C. Rajagopalachari | Why Swatantra?". Mint. Retrieved 2019-03-24.
- ISBN 978-8170103653.
- ^ "Darshan Signh Pheruman (1885–1969)". Archived from the original on 5 January 2015. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
- ^ "Fifty Years of Punjab Politics (1920-70)". Panjab Digital Library. Retrieved 2019-07-21.
- ^ Ramakrishnan, Venkitesh (2012-09-22). "Long way from Avadi". frontline.thehindu.com. Retrieved 2019-08-12.
- ^ The 21 Principles of the Swatantra Party. 1959.
- ^ Erdman, 1963–64.
- ^ "Statistical Report On General Elections, 1962 To The Third Lok Sabha" (PDF). Election Commission of India. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 July 2014. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Statement of Principles of the Swatantra Party, Principle 1" (PDF). Indian Liberals. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
- ^ JSTOR 2754685.
- ^ ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2019-08-12.
Sources
- Penguin India. 2008 [2011 digital edition].
- Mariadas Ruthnaswamy. "Swatantra Party and its leaders". Swarajya. 30 July 1960.
- Mariadas Ruthnaswamy. "Is Swatantra inspiring enough?". Swarajya. 22 October 1960.
- H. R. Pasricha. The Swatantra Party – Victory in Defeat. Rajaji Foundation. 2002.
- Howard L. Erdman. "India's Swatantra Party". Public Affairs, vol. 36, iss. 4, pp. 394–410. Winter 1963–64.
- Howard L. Erdman. The Swatantra Party and Indian Conservatism. Cambridge University Press. 1967. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013.
- Madhavankutty Pillai. "Last Man Standing". Open. 5 April 2014.
- Penguin India. 1997.
- India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy. HarperCollins. 2008.
- Rasam Vasanti. Swatantra Party: a political biography. Dattson Publishers, Nagpur. 1997.
- Rasam Vasanti. "Role of Swantantra Party as an Opposition Party (National Level)". Readings on Parliamentary Opposition.
External links
- C. Rajagopalachari : Save freedom. Why Swatantra, 1960
- Minoo Masani: To provide A Democratic Alternative. Why Swatantra, 1960
- K. M. Munshi: To Restore Fundamental Rights. Why Swatantra, 1960
- N. G. Ranga: To Preserve Family Economy. Why Swatantra, 1960
- Rediff On The NeT: Rajmohan Gandhi on C Rajagopalachari and the birth of the Swatantra Party
- Revive the Swatantra Party
- Minoo Masani and the Swatantra Party