C. Rajagopalachari founded the Swatantra Party, which supported free enterprise and opposed the 'licence-permit raj', in:

• Rajagopalachari (Rajaji) founded the Swatantra Party (Freedom Party) in June 1959.

Background:

• In the 1950s, the Congress government under Jawaharlal Nehru followed a policy of planning, a large public sector and controls on private industry.
• At the Nagpur session of the Congress (January 1959), a resolution was passed in favour of cooperative farming, which many people feared would lead to collectivisation of land.
• Rajaji, who had become a critic of the Congress's economic policies, decided to form a new party.

About the Swatantra Party:

It was founded in June 1959 in Madras, at a meeting attended by Rajaji and other leaders.

Its founders included N. G. Ranga, Minoo Masani and K. M. Munshi, and it was supported by some former princes and industrialists.

It stood for free enterprise, a market economy, limited government, and the protection of individual liberty and property rights.

It opposed the "licence-permit raj" (Rajaji's phrase for the system of controls and licences).

In foreign policy, it favoured closer relations with the West.

Its performance:

• In the 1962 general elections, it won 18 seats in the Lok Sabha.
• In the 1967 general elections, it won 44 seats, and became the largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha.
• It formed or shared governments in some states, such as Orissa.
• Maharani Gayatri Devi of Jaipur was a well-known member of the party.

Decline:

After Rajaji's death in 1972, the party declined, and in 1974 it merged with other parties to form the Bharatiya Lok Dal.

About Rajaji:

He was a freedom fighter, the last Governor-General of India, the Chief Minister of Madras, and the first recipient of the Bharat Ratna (1954, along with two others).

Why not the other options?

• ✗1947, 1952 and 1967 were the years of other events.