THE School of International Studies did me the honour of inviting me to deliver the Sarojını Naidu Memorial Lectures for 1961 Poet, national leader, fighter in the cause of India's freedom, champion of women's rights, President of the National Congress and finally Governor of India's largest state, Mrs Sarojını Naidu occupied a place of unique honour in the life of modern India People called her Mother India, and in a way the sobriquet was just as she might be said to have embodied in her person the spirit and genius of India.
Throughout her political life she was associated with the Indian National Congress but in her political faith she was a liberal, not in the sense of belonging to the party which appropriated that name, but of upholding the great doctrines associated with the creed of liberalism-the worth of Individual and the protection of his personality, freedom of speech, thought and association, tolerance, the dissociation of religion from politics, a secular approach to social and political issues, and an abiding faith in man's capacity to progress A humanist in the fullest sense of the word, she approached the political problems of her time with an open mind and contributed much to the spirit of tolerance and understanding which India has been endeavouring to put into practice in her political life The choice of my subject-In Defence of Liberalism-for her memorial lectures I am sure, would have met with her approval.
In the lectures that follow I have dealt with the liberal doctrines their growth eclipse and fulfilment by general acceptance over large areas in Europe, America and Asia, but I have only alluded briefly and enpassant to the position of liberal thought in India Nor have I, in view of the unavoid able limitation of time allowed for the lectures, dealt with the integral relationship of liberal thought with the idea of progress except in a casual way.
So far as Indian liberalism is concerned, as I have pointed out in the fourth lecture, it is made up of two distinct streamseach of which has a fairly long history Ram Mohan Roy, the father of liberalism in India, was a contemporary of Bentham He was in contact with advanced European thought at the time and in a measure it inspired lum in his activities He laid the foundation of the movement for the social transformation of the Hindus, basing himself on the principles of equality and individual judgement Apart from the religious reform which he initiated, which was also a reficction of the liberal spirit, Ram Mohan may well claim that by emphasising the right of women to freedom, the necessity of western education and of the establishment of a casteless society he had started the Hindu people on the road of liberal transformation Though it was a limited movement confined originally to Bengal and there also to the middle classes, its contribution to the growth of liberal thought in India became significant with the spread of English language as the medium of cultural communication throughout India.
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