Human Rights Mechanism in South Asia

Shveta Dhaliwal

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781315436876
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Shveta Dhaliwal teaches at the Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab, Patiala, India. Her areas of specialisation are geopolitics, regional human rights systems, comparative political thought and international relations. She has published more than 40 research papers and presented over 150 papers in international and national conferences. She has an authored and three edited books to her credit. She is member of the Indian Political Science Association and the Indian Society of International Law and South Asian Foundation.

1 The journey of human rights

Philosophical, political and legal

The history of human rights is synonymous to the history of human civilisation.¹ The concept of human rights has its reflections in the oldest religious texts, political writings and legal debates. However, these rights could be declared as ‘common standards’² only in the second half of the twentieth century.³ Within a few decades, the centuries-old concept of human rights grew up to four generations. And this worldwide growth and acceptance to these rights gave birth to a global network of human rights regime at different levels. This chapter is an attempt to give an overview of the philosophical, theoretical and historical evolution of human rights. The prime focus of this chapter would be to trace the politico-legal development of human rights concept so as to understand the true essence of human rights. The chapter would also bring out the religion-based approaches to human rights from which I have tried to infer and highlight the human rights values imbibed in the societies of South Asia.

Religious philosophies and human rights

Rights are essentially moral in nature, and human rights are no exception. As Jack Donnelly says, human rights are moral rights of the highest order.⁴ In any society, the first and the foremost source of morality is the religious texts and discourses. Being based on morality and righteousness, religious ideas introduce an individual to the philosophy of human rights. Studying religious approaches related to human rights also provides a yardstick to measure the relevance of the approach towards human rights imbued in the ancient religions. For example, while studying religious approaches to human rights, I could observe that all the religions manifested concern for good governance and rights of the poor and the oppressed. In other words, they stood for the political, economic, social and cultural kind of human rights,⁵which are popularly known as the second-generation human rights by the modern world. An overview of the approaches to human rights imbibed in different religions of the world has been discussed in the following paragraphs.

Hinduism, the ancient of all religions in the world, originated in South Asia, particularly in the ancient India, which included almost whole of South Asia at that time.⁶ Hinduism, as Paul Laurens mentions in his book, is one of the oldest religions in the world, dating almost 3,000 years back.⁷ The meaning of human rights as per Hinduism has been more wide in scope as compared to the present-day meaning of human rights in two ways: first, the word Adhikara in Hinduism includes the ‘duties’ pertaining to individuals prescribed by dharma,⁸ and second, it assigns some inalienable rights to all the living beings including plants, including the environmental rights as well.⁹ Both the aspects are related to the modern-day thought on human rights as well, thus proving the human rights approach of Hinduism relevant and applicable. In addition to this, in Hinduism, the principle of Vasudeva Kutumbkam (whole world is one family) was propounded on the belief that there is universality of human soul and belief that the whole world is one family with common concerns. Such ideas are revisited by modern society under the slogans of globalisation. Further, principles like ahimsa (non-violence) and rajadharma (ethical rule by a king per established principles of moral conduct of society) in Hinduism restricted the governance and promoted political rights along with good governance.¹⁰ Non-injury, charity, concern for the hungry and the homelessness were some of the human rights concerns touched by Hinduism¹¹ which are still the concerns of the modern day.

Another religion Confucianism was founded by a scholar named Kong Fuzi in 551–479 BC in China, who began to be known as Confucius later. He stressed on duties of man towards others¹² and also emphasised the interdependence of the ruler and the ruled.¹³ Mencius and Hsun Tzu further contributed to Confucianism and added the distinction and recognition of individual rights to the Confucian approach of human rights. This religion favoured ethical life¹⁴ and harmony. It also emphasised goodness, benevolence, love and human heartedness.¹⁵

Later, new religions named Buddhism and Jainism emerged and focused on equality of castes and gender which was a kind of criticism offered to some of the practices under Hinduism.¹⁶ Buddhism stressed non-discrimination,¹⁷ equality, freedom of religion, tolerance¹⁸ and learning.¹⁹ The Buddhist writing, Pancasila, could be looked upon as one of the earliest pronounced texts on human rights.²⁰ Till modern times Buddhist spiritual leaders have been emphasising the indivisibility and inevitability of these rights.²¹

In addition to Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism, another religion which found birth in South Asia is Jainism. The name of this religion originated from Jina which means self-control; hence, samyana or control over one’s senses is one of the principles of this religion, which means conqueror of senses.²² Jainism preaches Maitri (friendliness), Karuna (compassion), Mudita or Pramoda (sympathetic joy), Madhyasthabhava (impartiality) and Brahamcharya (abstaining from sensuality in thought).²³ Jainism has great concern for all living beings as Mahavira, the Jain god, said ‘Kill no creature’,²⁴ and the religion is most popular for following the environmental rights in the strictest sense of the word since the followers of this religion respect souls of all kinds. For Jains, the landscape itself lives and breathes and merits protection.²⁵ For them ploughing, digging, excretions and other similar acts are acts of violence against earth and earth-bodied beings.²⁶ Jains respect the dignity of all life forms.

The religion of Islam also has deep roots in the South Asian region. This religion is 1,500 years old in origin. Islam teaches tolerance and compassion for the poor.²⁷ Prophet Mohammad also advocated human rights through non-discrimination,²⁸ and the holy book of Quran speaks for religious tolerance: ‘All men are brothers and the non Muslims should be treated with no less dignity and respect for their personality than Muslim’.²⁹ Muslim rulers have also created human rights documents, for example, ‘the Cyrus Cylinder’ in which respect for all was mentioned.³⁰ As author Katerina has put very aptly the religion of Islam has religious as well as political aspects to it since Mohammad rose as spiritual as well as a political leader for the people of Arab.³¹ It is important for this study to mention that Islam is based on duty and not rights. An individual is expected to completely surrender to the community.³²

Sikhism, a young religion of Indian origin, also promotes non-discrimination and religious tolerance. The holy book of the Sikhs, Shri Guru Granth Sahib, also speaks for freedom of expression and other political rights.³³ Sikhism was founded by Guru Nanak Dev more than 500 years ago. He preached equality in general and specifically between genders and also spoke for non-discrimination on the basis of caste.³⁴ Sikhism emerged in the background of an oppressive rule by the Muslim rulers; therefore, the religion evoked the consciousness of the common person and included rights as a religious manifestation. The last of the ten gurus of Sikhs, Shri Guru Gobind Singh, waged a war against the oppressive rule and hence was the protector of political rights of his society in the guise of religious guru. Quite like Islam the religion of Sikhism also had a politico-religious appeal to the followers. Sikhism had certain religious practices to promote economic, social and cultural rights, for example, the pangat system of dining together while sitting on floor in gurudwaras (Sikh temples) where people belonging to different castes and status sit together and eat food cooked in the community kitchen. This tradition is still followed in gurudwaras. The religion promoted the right to food, shelter, clothing and income. As the Fifth Guru said:

He (God) first provides succor and thereafter createth the creature.³⁵

Also, there is a practice of Dasvand or giving ten per cent of one’s earnings to charity as a principle of this religion that attempts to promote social welfare. Therefore, the religion preached is a unique combination of different aspects of human rights.

Judaism is a religion that originated between 1304 and 1237 BC. The religion is based on the Ten Commandments of Moses.³⁶ Judaism establishes faith in all religions and people as the religion teaches infinite worth of every person and the sanctity of every individual life.³⁷ It is observed that human dignity, the first crucial notion of human rights, is very well supported by the Judaic–Christian–Islamic tradition.³⁸ The religion of Christianity is known for its principles of equality and freedom, and is based on codifications done by St. Paul of Tarsus, after the crucification of Jesus.³⁹ The secularisation of the universalist claims of the Christianity led to the birth of the free individual.⁴⁰

It is interesting to note that out of all the religions discussed earlier most of the religions either originated in South Asia, for example, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism or are largely followed in this region, for example, Islam and Christianity. Therefore, the inclusion of the religion-based philosophy of human rights views perhaps has strengthened my idea that South Asia has a rich philosophic culture of human rights and the societies of this sub-continent are not devoid of human rights understanding which is generally mistaken to be the reality. There is a need to...