Birth of Indian Liberalism

First published in 1891, Letters to an Indian Raja is the earliest work of political theory written and published in modern India. Addressed to the rulers of the Native States, it argued – radically for its time – that constitutional government, individual liberty, and social reform were not foreign impositions but essential to India’s moral and political regeneration. Its author, Narayan Mahadev Parmanand, a reclusive yet influential thinker revered by his contemporaries as a “political rishi”, envisioned enlightened monarchs as agents who could free individuals from the grip of custom, hierarchy, and community – as well as both colonial domination and princely despotism. Long forgotten, Letters to an Indian Raja overturns the assumption that Indian liberalism was merely derivative or conciliatory. It reveals instead a confident, original tradition of liberal thought rooted in Indian conditions and aimed at making the Native States models of reform that could challenge the legitimacy of British rule itself. That this ambition was eclipsed by the rise of mass nationalism explains why the book slipped from view – despite once being widely read by princes, administrators, and reformers. In this landmark volume, political theorist Rahul Sagar restores Letters to an Indian Raja to its rightful place in intellectual history. His incisive introduction reconstructs Parmanand’s life, ideas, and political world, and shows why scholars have long been looking in the wrong place for the origins of Indian liberalism. Together, text and interpretation reframe the history of Indian liberalism, revealing it not as an echo of British ideas, but as an indigenous political project with its own ambitions and horizons.