The Indian Experience with Preventive Detention

O NE OF THE MOST puzzling questions confronting the statesmen of the newly developing nations is: to what extent may a government arrogate to itself in the name of democratic tutelage the power to regulate the rules of political interaction without, by this very action, jeopardizing the long-run development of democracy? If rules and guidelines are left inchoate, it will be difficult to mold the behavior of individuals and political groups to the requirements of democratic procedures. Left uninstructed, so the argument runs, political behavior will cleave to the habitual patterns of traditional society. On the other hand, the leaders of government may in their zeal to teach and shape restrict too tightly the manner of political interaction, producing a stability based not on trust but on repression and fear. The builders of the emerging nations must thus try to balance requisite tutelage in the ways of democracy with the permissiveness in action which is the hallmark of democracy. They face the dangers of social anarchy on the one hand and rigid authoritarianism on the other. Independent India has from the very moment of its creation self-consciously struggled with these problems. In February i950, one month after the promulgation of India's first self-governing constitution, Parliament passed a Preventive Detention Act which provided for the arrest and detention of persons who, in the opinion of the government, represented a threat to the social stability and economic development of the country. The courts were expressly forbidden to question the necessity for any order issued by government; the subjective satisfaction of the authorities was to be determining in every case. Here, clearly and unambigously, was an exception to the canons of legitimacy commonly accepted in the West. Since the life of the Act has been extended on at least six occasions in the past eleven years, the Indians have had ample opportunity to re-assess the wisdom of maintaining this instrument of social regulation. The decision has always been to continue the Act. The Preventive Detention Act can no longer be called a temporary expedient, but must be acknowledged a permanent part of India's democratic experiment. In an effort to explore the general issue of the often opposing requirements of tutelage and liberty, as well as to illuminate some of the formative forces in Indian politics, this article ex

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