Historical Roots of South Asian Liberalism

Abstract

The last two decades have seen in South Asia the resilience of liberal democratic traditions in the face of formidable challenges. In India and Sri Lanka, liberal democracy survived difficulties such as sectarian conflict and human rights violations. In Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, liberal democratic institutions were revived after several years of authoritarianism. This is more remarkable in that for many years it was fashionable to claim that liberal democracy was in fact unsuitable for former colonies, and that they would, instead, do well to follow one or the other of the authoritarian models that had established themselves elsewhere in Asia. Such claims, whether advocating the merits of left or right wing authoritarianism, poured scorn not only on liberalism but even democracy as being relics of colonialism that were unsuitable for nations anxious to develop speedily. The sorry results of the other experiments that were tried in the region bear witness perhaps to the universal applicability and efficacy of the liberal democratic model. The rest of the chapter takes a brief glance at two aspects of the historical background to what is called the tradition of South Asian liberal democracy. It is not necessary for this purpose to spend time on what might be termed the strictly political element in this, since the need for democratic institutions and practices is no longer in question. What is more important, given too the theme of this book, is the distinctive liberal contribution to the debate, since it may be argued that the recognition and acceptance of a coherent socio-political outlook is vital if the problems of recent years are not to be renewed.