Review of Profiles in Courage : Dissent on Indian Socialism by Dr. (Mrs.) Louella Lobo Prabhu in Freedom First (A Liberal Quarterly), No:456, January-March  2003

PROFILES IN COURAGE – DISSENT ON INDIAN SOCIALISM
Edited By Parth J Shah

Published By Parth J. Shah on behalf of Centre for Civil Society
Year of Publication: 2001. No. of Pages; 184. Price: Rs 350

Dr. (Mrs.) Louella Lobo Prabhu, a leading member of the erstwhile
Swatantra Party; Editor, Insight. She Contributes the column,
"Reflection- Serious and Facetious" in Freedom First.

This is not an easy book to review, and is not for anyone, who wants lights reading. The whole structure of the book is ideological and needs to be taken chapter by chapter. It details the history of planning, and legislation in post- Independence India. This view is afforded by the lives, times and thoughts of the characters, selected for portrayal.

One thing between the is common: they all perceived that enlarging the framework of the socialist state, would destroy the Indian economy and the Indian Polity as Well. They arrived at this conclusion for different backgrounds urban and rural. In some of them, the history of the freedom struggle. Rajaji fulfilled the prediction made at his birth, the he would hold the highest office in the land. He went on to the top: the office of the Governor General, and India’s highest honour, the " Bharat Ratna". The one factor, in and between these inspiring lives, is, that while the persons in question saw some success, they also gave up great material reward by opposing India’s first Prime Minister and his love affair with socialism. This perception from a person with a rural background, is understandable. But coming from urban sophisticates, like Minoo Masani and A.D.Shroff, represent an uncanny foresight about the shape of things to come, in which both the economy and would be shattered: and a clamp down on personal freedom, would follow.

Masani and Rajaji were the most articulate defenders of individual freedom and private enterprise or free competition. Among the lives selected for out reading pleasure, Rajaji’s is not the most impressive. He managed to attain the highest office, while still retaining dissenting views.

While some of the people profiled entertained dissenting views, they did suffer too much, for their fall from grace: " grace" being the favour of India’s first Prime Minister. Had he wanted to, Masani could have held the highest offices, but chose to oppose Nehru, in every issue, which involved government takeover of land and private enterprise, ending by forming the Swatantra Party. The Party proceeded to stop Nehru inhis traces, and became the first recognised opposition in Parliament (1967-71). Though recognised, it was, it was not " official", because the Swatantra Party in the Lok Sabha fell short of the 50 by 6. The Party had 44 seats. It also formed the government in Orissa, and the main opposition in various states. It collapsed prematurely, after it joined the Opposition- combine of 1971, when Indira Gandhi won the election under the slogan " Garibi Hatao".

In the profiles, two make really deary reading, but those, which try to give a picture of theman behine the ideology come off much better. I particularly liked S.V.Raju on the like of Minoo Masani and G. Narayanswamy on the life of Rajaji, R.K.Amin, writing on the Piloo Mody, gives us some hilarious anecdotes the only ones in the book. Rajaji’s biographer also manages to do a biography at the same time, that the he traces Rajaji’s ideological reaction to momentous matters. He was often misunderstood, but seems to be the only southerner, who had a secure place on the Indian national scene. One thing rather disorienting about the books is, that the chapters are not put together in any logical sequence. Perhaps they should have been done chronologically. I also thing, that I would have put some other biographies into the book. That is beside the point. One gets a wonderful re-creation of the Nehru era, its great ideological conflicts and the people who came forward to stop his mad social philosophy, inspired by Russia, without adaptation to Indian to Indian conditions. Each person profiled, can receive the accolade, " I stood up and was counted. I made a difference".