The illiberal liberals

Feminism is an offshoot of liberal values. Sadly, in the new climate of hyper wokeness, it is beginning to seem as rigid and intolerant as the illiberal social instincts it rose up against

Liberalism is all very well, but what if I don’t want a boyfriend, or I don’t want to live in? What if I want an arranged marriage? My friends mock me if I say this. There’s a lot of peer pressure against these choices.”

This is what a bright, young college girl said during the question and answer session that followed a panel discussion at a literature festival in Bengaluru recently. The discussion had focussed on the ways in which urban Indian society had become much more permissive about individual relationship choices. The girl in the audience, though, drew our attention