Citation:
Date Presented:
February 8, 2013Abstract:
This thesis will consider the time period between 1943 and 1970. I will examine the evolution of the ideas of the group that became the Swatantra Party. The thesis is organized as follows. The first chapter considers the original, socialist economic views of the individuals who became India’s foremost market liberals. In the second chapter, I will first provide an extremely brief overview of what happened to India’s economy post-independence as the plans developed and proceed to examine post-independence dissent on socialism. Dissent came from three broad groups; academics, politicians, and industrialists. In the third and final chapter, I will discuss how these dissenters emerged as a semi-united mass and how their ideological departure from the policies of the ruling Indian National Congress party led to the 1959 formation of the Swatantra Party, India’s first truly conservative political party. I will outline mainly the economic ideas of this party, which formed the core of their opposition to Congress and which also influenced strongly other aspects of the party agenda. I will examine the rapid rise and equally rapid fall of Swatantra, over a fifteen year span which saw the party rise to be India’s largest opposition party by 1967 and disintegrate by 1974. Finally, I will draw conclusions.