In the 34th episode, I speak to Aditya Balasubramanian, Lecturer in Economic History, at Australian National University on his first book Toward a Free Economy: Swatantra and Opposition Politics published by Princeton University Press. The conversation begins by enquiring about the origins of the project and why focus on Swatantra as an opposition party in post-independence India. Then we cover why this book appears to be the first ever written on economic conservatism in India. The conversation then moves to understand India’s political economy in 1950s that facilitated Swatantra’s rise. Then we move to the core of the book by exploring what Balasubramanian means by ‘free economy’ and how the concept differs from free market and why Swatantra Party leaders did not seriously think about the intersection of economics and law and the political conditions and motivations of the Indian middle class. The book also highlights the efforts of certain individuals/families like the Lotvalas’ who spread the gospel of economic conservatism through their organisation. The conversation ends by covering a big contribution of the book to the study of India’s political economy of development through the political ideas and work of associations and cultural figures; by asking why Indian films have not focused on or featured free-market ideas; and finally by asking what the book offers to the global history of neoliberalism. 

https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/balasubramanian-a

https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691205243/toward-a-free-economy