SWA TAN TRA PRINCIPLES | PEOPLE | POLITICS 9 DEC 2017 | AUDITORIUM, NEHRU MEMORIAL MUSEUM AND LIBRARY CENTRE FOR CIVIL SOCIETY Conference and Launch of Swatantra Party Archive at Nehru Memorial Museum and Library SWA Centre for Civil Society

Swatantra: Principles, People, Politics Through its brief but strong tenure of 15 years, the party exercised wide reach Swatantra Party, founded in 1959 by C. throughout India, and exerted significant Rajagopalachari, was India’s first and only pressures on issues ranging from industry to national political party to advance principles foreign policy. Swatantra Party was a signifi- of social justice, free enterprise, personal cant and unique intervention in the larger liberty, secularism, and individual rights. narrative of modern Indian politics, and merits TAN Advocating a ‘politics of ethics’, the party sustained engagement from scholars and featured the voices of prominent liberals such intellectuals today. as Minoo Masani, N G Ranga, Piloo Mody, and offered the only substantive alternative Upon procurement of over 27,000 pages to Nehruvian socialism and the monolithic from the defunct Swatantra Party’s offices in ‘Congress Party system’ which had emerged Mumbai, Centre for Civil Society aims to store post-Independence. the archive at Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. The launch of the archive is marked After securing substantive electoral victories with a day-long Conference on Saturday, 9 through 1960s—emerging as the single-larg- December, 2017 at the Auditorium, Nehru est opposition party in the fourth Lok Sabha Memorial Museum and Library on the eve of (1967-71)—the Party disintegrated in the C. Rajagopalachari’s birth anniversary. TRA early seventies, following Rajagopalachari’s withdrawal from politics and demise.

Please RSVP at [email protected] or call at +91 9811575503. CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

10:00 am - 10:40 am 10:45 am - 11:00 am 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm SESSION II

Envisioning State: An Alternative Vision Opening Remarks by Welcome Tea and Nehru Memorial Museum and Library This panel is dedicated to exploring the vision of individual rights, Registration and Centre for Civil Society constitutional supremacy, freedom of the press, free enterprise, and market-based economy that Swatantra Party supported and fought 11:00 am - 1:00 pm SESSION I towards achieving. Highlighting the critique of the welfare state by Swatantra Party, the session would grapple with larger debates about The Role of ‘Swatantra’ in Indian Politics the limits to state intervention and the totalitarian impulses inherent From the onset, ‘Swatantra’ signified something different: a politics of in a centralised polity. principles, espousing self-rule and decentralisation. Swatantra Party was distinct in allowing its members freedom to vote on issues as per their conscience, and prescribed an ethics of politics rooted in the ideal of liberty. This session foregrounds the singular contribution of Swatantra Party to Indian Politics by exploring the relationship between the founding principles of the Party, its proponents, such as C. Rajagopalachari, Minoo Masani, N G Ranga, and their relationship with seminal Indian thinkers such as Gandhi and Nehru.

3:30 pm - 4:00 pm

Tea

4:00 pm - 5:30 pm SESSION III

Building a Liberal Political Party: Challenges and Opportunities

This panel aims to further the contribution of Swatantra Party by asking: what are the challenges to building a liberal political party founded on first principles in modern Indian politics? How can we revive a principles-based political praxis in an era of excitable speech, divisive campaigns, and sensationalism?

1:00pm -2:00 pm 6 pm onwards

Lunch Dinner Talk About Centre for Civil Society

Centre for Civil Society advances social change through public policy. Our work in education, livelihood, and policy training promotes choice and accountability across private and public sectors. To translate policy into practice, we engage with policy and opinion leaders through research, pilot projects and advocacy.

We are India’s leading liberal think tank, ranked 54 worldwide by the annual study conducted by the Think Tanks and Civil Society Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

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