IT IS BETTER TO REIGN IN HELL THAN TO SERVE IN HEAVEN OR THE SPIRIT OF FREEDOM INTRODUCTION: The appeal which the ideal

of freedom makes to human mind is at once universal and eternal. In every age and country, poets have composed fine verses and minstrels have sung moving songs in adoration of the Goddess of freedom. The savages and the civilized alike have felt the necessity of freedom for the full growth of their physical, mental and moral capacities. The history of the world, as Hegal has observed, is none other than the progress of the consciousness of Freedom, In the modern times when human civilization is said to have reached its zenith, the need and importance of freedom is universally recognized. There was never a time in the history of humanity when cry for freedom or liberty was more intense than today. We feel that we cannot live without freedom as much as we cannot live without air, water or sunshine. There is no sphere of life where the need of freedom is not felt and a protest against restraints is not made. We consider academic freedom necessary for higher education. We regard a free press and free radio as the last means of defending the security of country. Freedom of enterprise is needed for the commercial and industrial growth of the nation. Freedom of thought and freedom of speech are equally necessary for the growth of healthy democratic traditions in a country. Freedom from want, hunger and poverty is considered to be the most desirable condition for the progress and prosperity of the people. In short, as Franklin an eminent English politician remarks, Liberty is order liberty ius strength. Look round the world, and admire as you must the instructive spectacle. You will see that liberty not only is power and order, but that it is power and order predominant, and invisible, that it derides all other sources of strength. Freedom is not merely an Absence of Restraint: But despite the great demand for liberty or freedom, few people have been able to understand its real meaning and significance. Goldsmith has rightly observed in his famous poem, The Traveler that freedom has been abused equally by the kings and their subjects. He writes Thou fair Freedom, taught alike to feel, The rabbles rage and tyrants angry, steel Thou transitory flower a like undone, By proud contempt or favours fostering sun General, people think that freedom consists in the absence of all kinds of restraints and restrictions. It is an allowance to do whatever we like. A cynic, commenting on the three principles popularized by the French Revolution, says that liberty means I can do as I like. Equality means you are no better than I am and Fraternity, What is yours is mine if I want. Such a conception of human values has obviously led to anarchy, mediocrity and interference. Freedom must be Positive and Purposive: Freedom to be a source of peace and happiness, virtue and benefit, must be something more than a mere absence of restraint. As Robert hutchins writes, Freedom must be something more than a vacant stare. It must be something better than the

absence of restraint or the absence of things we do not like. For freedom of whatever sort it may be, political, social, e