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Swatantra Party

Swatantra Party
AbbreviationSWA
FounderC. Rajagopalachari
Founded4 June 1959
Dissolved4 August 1974[1]
Split fromIndian National Congress
Merged intoBharatiya Lok Dal
IdeologyConservatism (Indian)[2]
Classical liberalism[3]
Liberal conservatism[4]
Secularism[5]
Agrarianism[6]
Political positionCentre-right[7][8][note 1]
ColoursBlue
Election symbol

The Swatantra Party was an Indian classical liberal political party that existed from 1959 to 1974. It was founded by C. Rajagopalachari[12] in reaction to what he felt was the Jawaharlal Nehru-dominated Indian National Congress's increasingly socialist and statist outlook.[2]

The party had a number of distinguished leaders, most of them old Congressmen, like C. Rajagopalachari, Minoo Masani, N.G. Ranga, Darshan Singh Pheruman,[13][14] Udham Singh Nagoke[15] and K.M. Munshi. The provocation for the formation of the party was the left turn that the Congress took at Avadi[16] and the Nagpur Resolutions.

Swatantra stood for a market-based economy and the dismantling of the "Licence Raj" although it opposed laissez-faire policies. Swatantra was not a religion-based party, unlike the Hindu nationalism of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. In 1960, Rajagopalachari and his colleagues drafted a 21-point manifesto detailing why Swatantra had to be formed even though they had been Congressmen and associates of Nehru during the struggle for independence.[17][better source needed] Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was highly critical of Swatantra and dubbed it as belonging to "the middle ages of lords, castles and zamindars".[18]

  1. ^ "45 years after its dissolution, here's what opposition parties must learn from Swatantra Party". dailyO. 18 July 2019. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ Das, Gurcharan (2002). The Elephant Paradigm. Penguin. p. 244.
  4. ^ Pratapchandra Rasam, Vasanti (1997). Swatantra Party: a political biography. Dattsons. p. 199.
  5. ^ Smith, Donald E. (1966). South Asian Politics and Religion. Princeton University Press. p. 110.
  6. ^ Rajadhyaksha, Niranjan (2019-05-28). "The contemporary relevance of Swatantra Party's liberal view". Mint. Retrieved 2024-01-13.
  7. ^ Raghbendra Jha, ed. (2014). Facets of India's Economy and Her Society Volume I. Springer. p. 263.
  8. ^ Rudra Chaudhuri, ed. (2014). Forged in Crisis: India and the United States Since 1947. Oxford University Press, Incorporated. p. 100.
  9. ^ Snippet view, ed. (1978). Triveni: Journal of Indian Renaissance - Volume 47. Triveni Publishers. p. 24.
  10. ^ Chaudhuri, Rudra (2014). Forged in Crisis: India and the United States Since 1947. Oxford University Press. p. 100.
  11. ^ Jha, Raghbendra (2018). Facets of India's Economy and Her Society. Vol. 1. Springer. p. 263.
  12. ^ Rajagopalachari, C. (2016-07-16). "C. Rajagopalachari | Why Swatantra?". Mint. Retrieved 2019-03-24.
  13. ^ Singh, Ranjit (2008). Sikh Achievers. New Delhi, India: Hemkunt Publishers. pp. 36–37. ISBN 978-8170103653.
  14. ^ "Darshan Signh Pheruman (1885–1969)". Archived from the original on 5 January 2015. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
  15. ^ "Fifty Years of Punjab Politics (1920-70)". Panjab Digital Library. Retrieved 2019-07-21.
  16. ^ Ramakrishnan, Venkitesh (2012-09-22). "Long way from Avadi". frontline.thehindu.com. Retrieved 2019-08-12.
  17. ^ The 21 Principles of the Swatantra Party. 1959.
  18. ^ Erdman, 1963–64.


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