Indians are the ardent and passionate champions of freedom. Freedom as a socio-political idea has an indelible link with the beginning of British colonialism and renaissance in India. A lot of literature on freedom has been the product of this phase. Despite a plethora of Indian advocates, freedom as a coherent idea does not find expression or consolidation in the Indian philosophic tradition. Everyone has his own idea, conception and polemic. Starting from Raja Ramamohan Roy to Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo to Subhas Chandra Bose, there have been great votaries of freedom. Grouping them into different categories is altogether a difficult task. But for academic convenience Indian ideas on freedom can be put under several phases or categories. These are broadly pre-independence and post-independence phase. There are different versions and interpretations of freedom of the early-liberals, moderates, extremists, socialists, humanists and spiritualists. Among the different conceptions of freedom, the freedom of the country from the colonial yoke had remained the predominating ideal and contemplation for most of the Indian scholars and thinkers. “Political freedom was the pre-condition for other aspects of freedom and development”- was realized by most of the Indian scholars.
Indians stood for Purna swaraj and self-determination. Many lives were sacrificed towards that end which succeeded in bringing independence to India in 1947.After India got independence, the makers of Indian constitution wished to secure all the ideas of freedom expressed by her great sons and daughters for each and every Indians. This had resulted in the inclusion of a long list of Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles of State Policy in the Constitution of India. India is a secular state and it strongly opposed to any type of human slavery- physical, moral, psychological, intellectual, cultural, economic or political. India is committed to provide to her citizens “Four Freedoms” (as expressed in the Atlantic Charter during the Second World War) viz. freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from fear and freedom from want.