Overview · Why a Whole Chapter on Freedom?

Human history overflows with stories of people and communities crushed by more powerful groups — but it also gives us inspiring stories of resistance against such domination. What is this freedom for which generations have been willing to sacrifice and even die? At its heart, the struggle for freedom expresses the desire to control our own lives and destinies and to express ourselves through our own choices and activities. And it is not only individuals who value freedom — entire societies fight to protect their independence, their culture and their future.

Yet life in society is impossible without rules. Some constraints can free us from insecurity and create the very conditions in which we can develop ourselves. So political theory has had to evolve principles that distinguish socially necessary constraints from those that simply oppress us. There has also been long debate about how social and economic structures themselves can limit freedom. This chapter walks through these debates.

2.1 The Ideal of Freedom

Before we philosophise, let us pause and meet two people whose lives turn the abstract word "freedom" into something living and personal.

2.1.1 Nelson Mandela — The Long Walk to Freedom

The autobiography of one of the twentieth century's greatest figures, Nelson Mandela, is titled Long Walk to Freedom. In it, he describes his struggle against the apartheid^? regime in South Africa — a regime whose segregationist policies shoved black South Africans into townships^?, denied them easy movement, and even denied them a free choice of whom to marry. These measures, taken together, made up a body of constraints that discriminated against citizens on the basis of race. For Mandela and his colleagues, the long walk meant the struggle to remove these unjust constraints — for the freedom of all the people of South Africa, black, coloured and white alike.

2.1.2 Aung San Suu Kyi — Freedom from Fear

Now consider another life. Mahatma Gandhi's thoughts on non-violence inspired Aung San Suu Kyi as she lived under house arrest in Myanmar. She was separated from her children. She could not visit her husband when he was dying of cancer in England, because she feared that if she left Myanmar she would not be allowed to return. Suu Kyi saw her own freedom as bound up with the freedom of her people. Her book of essays bears the title Freedom from Fear.

Her words ask us to refuse fear — fear of others' opinions, of authority's frown, of community ridicule, of speaking our mind. Yet most of us, she suggests, exhibit such fear daily. Living a dignified human life, for Suu Kyi, demands that we overcome it.

From Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom and Suu Kyi's Freedom from Fear we glimpse the power of an ideal that stood at the centre of India's national struggle and the struggles of peoples across Asia and Africa against British, French and Portuguese colonialism.

2.2 What is Freedom?

A simple answer to "what is freedom?" is: the absence of constraints. Freedom is said to exist when external constraints on the individual are absent. By this definition, an individual is free when she is not subject to external controls or coercion and can make independent decisions and act in an autonomous^? way.

However, the absence of constraints is only one dimension of freedom. Freedom is also about expanding the ability of people to express themselves freely and develop their potential. In this richer sense, freedom is the condition in which people can develop their creativity and capabilities. Both dimensions matter — the absence of external constraints, and the existence of conditions in which talents can flower. A free society, then, enables all its members to develop their potential with the minimum of social constraints.

2.2.1 Swaraj — The Indian Lens on Freedom

A concept analogous to freedom in Indian political thought is Swaraj^?. The term combines two words — Swa (Self) and Raj (Rule). It means both rule of the self and rule over the self.

During India's freedom struggle, Swaraj was a constitutional and political demand and a value at the social-collective level. That is why it became such a powerful rallying cry, captured in Bal Gangadhar Tilak's famous statement.

2.2.2 Why Total Absence of Constraints is Impossible

No individual living in society can hope to enjoy a total absence of constraints. Living together requires some rules. The question therefore shifts: which social constraints are justified, which are not? Which are acceptable, which should be removed?

To answer that, we have to examine the core relationship between the individual and the society (or group, community, or state). Which features of society allow a person freedom to choose, decide and act — and which do not? Which features are desirable, which are not? And do the same principles that distinguish necessary from unnecessary constraints between individuals also apply between individuals and groups, and between nations?

2.2.3 Freedom Has a Positive Dimension Too

So far we have defined freedom as the absence of constraint — the freedom to reduce or minimise social constraints that limit our ability to make choices. But this is only one aspect. Freedom also has a positive dimension. To be free, a society must widen the area in which individuals, groups, communities and nations can chart their own destiny and become what they wish to be.

In this sense, freedom permits the full development of an individual's creativity, sensibilities and capabilities — be it in sports, science, art, music or exploration. A free society enables each person to pursue their interests with the minimum of constraints. Freedom is valuable because it allows us to make choices and exercise our judgement; it permits the exercise of an individual's powers of reason and judgement.