Title :-The Liberalism That Almost Was Revisiting the Swatantra Party on the 35th Anniversary of India’s Economic Reforms Download

Author :-Prateek Mundeja/Kumar Samiksha

Date of Publication (ONLINE) :-23-12-2025
DOI: 10.71037/Shodhaamrit.v2i2.64
Online Publication Certificate No. :- SMT/344

cite this article:
Mundeja Prateek/Samiksha Kumar, ”The Liberalism That Almost Was Revisiting the Swatantra Party on the 35th Anniversary of India’s Economic Reforms”, Published in SHODHAAMRIT(शोधामृत), ISSN-3048-9296(O) & 3049-2890(P), Volume-2 | Issue-2, July-Dec., 2025, Page No. :-392-414. URL: https://shodhaamrit.gyanvividha.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Prateek-Mundeja-Kumar-Samiksha-Shodhaamrit-Vol-2Issue-2-ISSN-3048-9296O-3049-2890P-July-Dec.-2025pp-392-414.pdf

Abstract : This paper explores a pivotal counterfactual: What if India had adopted liberalisation in the early 1970s under the Swatantra Party’s ideological vision? On the 35th anniversary of the 1991 economic reforms, it revisits Swatantra—the first and only major pro-market political party in post-Independence India—to evaluate the economic and ideological costs of its marginalisation. Drawing from party documents, planning archives, and macroeconomic datasets, the study combines doctrinal analysis with counterfactual modelling to estimate the opportunity cost of India’s delayed liberalisation.

Swatantra’s principles—limited government, decentralised governance, and free enterprise—are contrasted with the Nehruvian state-led model. Using ICOR and TFP-based simulations, the paper reconstructs an alternative economic trajectory for 1971–1991 and argues that while 1991 marked a policy shift, it lacked ideological conviction—a gap that persists in contemporary governance.

As India today reverts to welfare-heavy populism and statist tendencies, Swatantra emerges not as a historical footnote but as a prescient voice against India’s unresolved discomfort with capitalism. The central thesis: India may not have failed because of liberalism—it may have failed because it never truly tried it.

Keywords : Swatantra Party, Indian Liberalism, Economic Reforms, Counterfactual Analysis, 1991 LPG, Political Economy, Rajaji.

Publication Details:

Journal : SHODHAAMRIT(शोधामृत)

ISSN : 3048-9296 (Online) & 3049-2890 (Print)

Published In : Volume-2 | Issue-2, July-Dec., 2025

Page Number(s) : 392-414

Publisher Name :

 Mrs Anubha Chaudhary | https://shodhaamrit.gyanvividha.com | ISSN-3048-9296(O) & 3049-2890(P)