S. V. Raju

Raju’s lifetime contributions to Indian liberalism

SV Raju (1933-19 May 2015) was hired by C. Rajagopalachari, the former Governor General of India and retired Chief Minister of Madras, on 16 December 1959 as the Office Secretary of Swatantra Party, which was launched on 1 August 1959. It took Raju one year to shed his socialism and become a member of the party – of which he remained a member till the end of his life.

When Swatantra Party faded away, he decided to focus his energy on the Freedom First magazine which had been started in 1953 by the Indian Committee for Cultural Freedom, which was established by Minoo Masani in Mumbai.

In 1996 the Maharashtra unit of the Swatantra Party, led by Raju and its general secretary, LR Sampat, decide to revive the Swatantra Party. To register it again and reclaim the party symbol, the star, they approached the Election Commission. But Indian law demands that all parties swears allegiance to socialism, in accordance with a 1989 amendment of India’s Representation of People’s Act. They refused and, instead, filed a writ petition in the High Court challenging this provision. Unfortunately, the High Court is yet to have even a single hearing on their petition. Both Sampat and Raju have since passed away.

Raju took Freedom First through thick and thin, including raising funds for its continuation in print, and funds for digitization of the magazine since its inception. He was also the President of the Indian Liberal Group and, upon its dissolution, became co-Director or LiberalsIndia for Good Governance.

He wrote numerous books, in addition to editing and publishing Freedom First. He had a no-nonsense approach to work. As close colleague Naozer Aga, who worked with him for thirty years, wrote: “He lived respected and died regretted”.

Works of SV Raju

• "Freedom First".
• "Minoo Masani"
• "Liberalism – A Contemporary View "

Documents about SV Raju

• Madhavankutty Pillai. "Last Man Standing". 5 April 2014.
• Niranjan Rajadhyaksha. "S.V. Raju: the last Swatantrite". 19 May 2015.
• Sanjeev Sabhlok. "Reminiscences of my interactions with SV Raju over the past 15 years". 19 May 2015.
• "R.I.P S.V. Raju, The Man Who Wanted To Revive Swatantra". 19 May 2015, Outlook magazine.