Is Personal Liberty a hindrance upon the development of a nation?
English Philosopher John Stuart Mill in his widely appreciated work ‘On Liberty’ has said “Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign”[1], thus propounding the most commonly accepted meaning of the term “Liberty”. The very accurate conceptualization of the term can’t be questioned, though at times, it may sound weak on the count that whether it should be legally granted, in its entirety, at the outset of the development of a nation. There is no uniform rule to be followed; it depends upon the kind of society in question. It would not be wrong to say that absolute personal liberty may be granted taking into consideration the two basic factors for its purposeful application i.e. Self-Restraint amongst the people in a society and Strictness of law prevailing in the society. Considering the global perspective regarding grant of absolute personal liberty at the very beginning of development, there have been instances where it came out to be really successful and a
