"… there is nothing peculiarly British or European in these ideas [of liberalism]. Their validity is universal. So far as India is concerned, the ideas are implicit in the Hindu concept of Dharma. […] Dharma is individual self-sustenance or one's being oneself… None can perform the Dharma of another. The eye cannot hear; the leg cannot taste… Liberty is opportunity for … self-fulfilment. Sva-tantra or liberty is a condition indispensable to Sva-dharma. It should be noted that, while the word liberty, denoting absence of restraint, is negative in its import, the word Sva-dharma (one's own duty prescribed by the principle of the general good) is positive. The notion of duty is implied and not explicit in liberty, while the notion of Sva-tantra (liberty) is implied and not explicit in Sva-dharma (duty). The relative emphasis in the two phrases is characteristic of the two scales of value. That liberty is incidental and ancillary to Dharma is the Hindu view…[…]Self-fulfilment is not in solitude, but in and through society… Law or Nyaya is the working of Dharma.[…]Dharma is thus charity or philanthropy, citizenship, or public spirit… The progress of the soul is from self-expression under the law of justice to self-dissolution in life universal--from Dharma to Moksha, from individualism to universalism, from life limited to life limitless."
D. V. Gundappa

January 1, 1970