from them. He made that subtle observation in his foreword to the English edition of The Law, a highly acclaimed French book written in 1850 by Frederic Bastiat, a French Catholic liberal. English translation of that book was reprinted by Liberty Institute of New Delhi in 1998. Regarding the religious and spiritual beliefs of Bastiat, which he felt were shared by many liberals, but probably not by Joshi himself; he wrote, ‘Spiritualism of this genre is quite common amongst Indian liberals. C. Rajagopalachari and K. M. Munshi, founders of the liberal Swatantra Party, were intensely religious. Pursuit of liberty was, for them, a spiritual journey. Man’s search for liberty reflected his desire to leave the shackles of the mundane and attain freedom of the spirit. Minoo Masani had different views on the subject but did not consider the question serious enough to enter into a direct confrontation with his mentor. The world over, even today, socialists are supposed to be atheists and liberals agnostics …. ‘The new liberalism of the post-USSR era ought to draw its inspiration from earlier liberals like Lock and Smith. But, if young liberals of today attach to the pre-USSR liberal writings the kind of sanctity that is attached to the Bhagwadgita, the Bible or the Koran by the followers of the respective religions, they would be in trouble. A liberal, by definition, is skeptical of the authority of any book or any prophet. The liberals today will need to learn some lessons from the socialist era of darkness when Marxists attacked God and Church and tried to replace them by lesser gods and the Communist Party. Liberals, by definition, can have neither a church, nor any prophet nor a holy book. ‘Marx countered the religious spiritualism by providing a materialistic interpretation of human history. But the nineteenth century materialism has turned out to be as pointless as religious spiritualism. The post-Marx liberalism will need to break away Search for New Ways
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