Forum of Free Enterprise

Summary

This short institutional pamphlet is the founding manifesto of the Forum of Free Enterprise, the Bombay-based classical-liberal organisation set up in 1956 at 235 Dr. Dadabhai Naoroji Road. Built as a sequence of declarative ‘WE BELIEVE’ paragraphs, the text frames democracy and free enterprise as inseparable strands of ‘the Indian way of life’ and argues that the case for free enterprise is ‘going by default’ under sustained and unjustified attack — hence the Forum’s reason for existing as a vehicle to ‘educate public opinion on the fundamentals of Free Enterprise.’

The manifesto’s positive argument is that enterprise is not a recent or alien construct but ‘as old as man,’ encompassing ‘the shopkeeper and the merchant, the farmer and the artisan, the worker and the manager, the doctor and the lawyer.’ Profit-seeking, the text insists, is a legitimate expectation of reward for ‘honest, productive effort’ that must be distinguished sharply from antisocial profiteering. The Forum credits private enterprise — operating despite ‘handicaps’ — with building Indian steel, textile, sugar, cement, shipping, banking and insurance, and notes that during the first Five-Year Plan a number of free-enterprise industries ‘exceeded the targets allotted to them.’

The negative argument is calibrated rather than absolutist: the Forum concedes ‘ample room for State enterprise to function alongside of Free Enterprise in the service of the people,’ but warns that monopoly ‘of any kind, whether State or private, is undesirable,’ and singles out the ‘displacement of normal trade channels by the intrusion of State trading’ as a dangerous trend that risks depriving individual traders of livelihood and concentrating power and patronage in a few hands. Free enterprise, the manifesto closes, must keep ‘clean hands’ and accept regulation by a democratic government, but is ultimately ‘economic democracy in action’ and ‘the lifebreath of a free society.’ The pamphlet ends with an invitation to all who believe in voluntary enterprise — in service, profession, agriculture, trade or industry — to join the Forum, and with the slogan ‘Free Enterprise is your Enterprise: Safeguard it.‘

Key points

• Declares democracy and free enterprise inseparable parts of ‘the Indian way of life,’ framing the Forum’s mission as defending the latter to preserve the former.

• Argues the case for free enterprise is ‘going by default’ under sustained, unjustified attack, justifying the Forum as a public-education body.

• Defines free enterprise broadly as ‘as old as man’ and inclusive of traders, farmers, workers, professionals and managers — not only large industrialists.

• Distinguishes legitimate profit and fair wages as ‘necessary and healthy’ from antisocial profiteering, anchoring a moral defence of enterprise.

• Concedes a role for state enterprise alongside private enterprise but condemns monopoly ‘of any kind, whether State or private’ as a threat to democratic order.

• Singles out the ‘intrusion of State trading’ into normal trade channels as the most dangerous contemporary trend, warning of concentrated patronage in a few hands.

• Credits private enterprise with building India’s steel, textile, sugar, cement, shipping, banking and insurance sectors, and cites Five-Year Plan target overshoots as evidence.

• Accepts democratic regulation and self-policing of ‘black sheep’ within the system, positioning the Forum as non-political, non-partisan and reform-minded rather than libertarian-absolutist.