“This weather is not good for travel. If I go by road, there’ll be landslides and if I take chopper there’ll be clouds.”

The release of Sonam Wangchuk from Jodhpur Central Jail on March 14, marks more than the end of a detention; it is a moment that forces India to confront the uneasy balance between national security and civil liberty. Wangchuk, a 59-year-old climate...