What India's free speech crackdown means for democracy
The pulping of a controversial book is indicative of a global trend against liberal ideals
News that Penguin Books India has capitulated to demands that it remove from Indian bookshops a controversial history of Hinduism should trouble and sadden liberals around the world. India is the world’s largest (as well as arguably its most diverse and religious) democracy — and it has managed to build and sustain democratic institutions for decades. That’s an extraordinary accomplishment. But with the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party poised to win sweeping victories in upcoming elections, and parent company Penguin Random House buckling to public pressure about an unpopular book, we have reason to worry about the future of liberalism in India.
And not only in India. The details of the situation undoubtedly have their roots in circumstances unique to the subcontinent, but what’s happening in India is part of a much broader trend. A little more than 20 years ago, in the wake of the West’s victory in the Cold War, Americans seriously entertained the idea that liberal ideals and institutions were on the verge of taking over the world. Two decades later, that prediction appears even more naïve than it did at the time.
The world did go through a period in the 1990s when democratic institutions spread into regions that had never known them. But those institutions have been in retreat for several years now. In Russia and some of the other post-Soviet republics, in China, Egypt, Libya, and sub-Saharan Africa, countries are increasingly turning away from democracy — either by refusing to adopt democratic norms in the first place, or by rejecting them once they’ve been tried.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Perhaps even more troubling than the rollback of democratic institutions (free and fair elections, civilian control of the military, etc.) has been the failure of liberal habits of citizenship to take root in other countries and cultures as deeply as they have throughout the West. Americans take it for granted that, with only certain very rare exceptions, people are allowed to write and say anything they please — and that their fellow citizens will not respond to provocation by resorting to violence. We enact John Stuart Mill’s liberal ideal every day, allowing ideas to be aired and do battle with one another in the open, assuming that the bad ideas will die a natural death in the course of discussion and debate.
But other countries struggle to achieve such institutionalized, habitual toleration for differences. Sure, some of the anti-liberal developments are driven by authoritarian leaders out to quell dissent and consolidate their own power. Others, as in India, are encouraged by factions seeking to use jingoistic and sectarian sentiment for electoral gain.
But that’s not all that’s going on. The first function of government — liberal or not — is to secure order. Growing numbers of people across the globe appear to believe that liberalism is incompatible with maintaining that basic level of order — that liberalism will inspire violence within polities with sharp and deep ethnic, religious, and partisan divisions. They fear that instead of provoking a sharply argued response, a criticized group will take up arms or resort to terrorism.
Liberalism is only possible when citizens from every group in society implicitly vow to forgo violence as a way of settling disputes. We take this for granted, but many in other countries increasingly feel they can’t afford to do so.
Are they right to be worried? In some cases, the answer is clearly yes. Until more nations solve the riddle of how to transform liberalism from an ideal into a habit of mind and behavior, its global prospects will remain precarious.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.
-
Why au pairs might become a thing of the past
Under The Radar Brexit and wage ruling are threatening the 'mutually beneficial arrangement'
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
'A direct, protracted war with Israel is not something Iran is equipped to fight'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Today's political cartoons - April 17, 2024
Cartoons Wednesday's cartoons - political anxiety, jury sorting hat, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Arizona court reinstates 1864 abortion ban
Speed Read The law makes all abortions illegal in the state except to save the mother's life
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Trump, billions richer, is selling Bibles
Speed Read The former president is hawking a $60 "God Bless the USA Bible"
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The debate about Biden's age and mental fitness
In Depth Some critics argue Biden is too old to run again. Does the argument have merit?
By Grayson Quay Published
-
How would a second Trump presidency affect Britain?
Today's Big Question Re-election of Republican frontrunner could threaten UK security, warns former head of secret service
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Rwanda plan is less a deterrent and more a bluff'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By The Week UK Published
-
Henry Kissinger dies aged 100: a complicated legacy?
Talking Point Top US diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner remembered as both foreign policy genius and war criminal
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Last updated
-
Trump’s rhetoric: a shift to 'straight-up Nazi talk'
Why everyone's talking about Would-be president's sinister language is backed by an incendiary policy agenda, say commentators
By The Week UK Published
-
More covfefe: is the world ready for a second Donald Trump presidency?
Today's Big Question Republican's re-election would be a 'nightmare' scenario for Europe, Ukraine and the West
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published