- Historically speaking, the term liberty was initially defined as absence of all restraints on an individual. This is known as the negative concept of liberty. Early liberalism championed negative liberty. John Stuart Mill, the nineteenth century English political philosopher, described, "Restraint as an evil". - However, DD Basu's Constitution book, Page 25: Liberty should be coupled with social restrain and subordinated to liberty of the greatest number of common happiness.So, accordingly, 'B' is wrong, and 'D' seems most appropriate.