Definition

Human Right should be viewed as an ongoing attempt to define human dignity worth and form human rights’ culture in future for society. The core principles of a human rights culture is going to survive only if people abide to sea a point in doing it so. It needs to be constantly shielded.

The denial of human rights and fundamental freedoms not only is an individual and personal tragedy but also causes conditions of social and political unrest sowing the seeds of violence and conflict within and between Societies and Nations. In order to elude these problems various international agencies comprising League of Nations, UNO., put stress for the protection of human rights permanently; it is a different matter that the idea of human rights predates the United Nations.

Human rights and fundamental freedoms allows us to evolve fully and used our human qualities, our intelligence, our talents and our conscience and to satisfy our spiritual and other needs. They are based on mankind’s growing demand for a life in which the inherent dignity and worth of each human being will get respect and protection. It would be apt to quote here United nations Center for Human Rights – “”Human Rights could be generally defined as those rights which are inherent in our nature and without which we cannot live as human beings”.

Protection of Human Rights Acts, 1993 has defined the term “human rights” under section 2 (D): “Human Rights means the rights relating to life, liberty, equality and dignity of the individual guaranteed by the Constitution or embodied in International covenants and enforced by courts in India”.

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Concept of Human Rights

The genesis of the concept of human rights can be traced into the emanation of classical liberalism. Classical liberalism created a passionate defense of the principles such as competitive individualism, private property and market ethics, etc. it cherished the realization of Individual’s liberty, his growth and human progress through the functioning of the above principles. The ideas of the rule of law, limited government and individualism characterized the seventeenth and eighteen century anti-nationalist school of political liberalism.

Justice D.V. Madan, describing an idea of human rights in an article, said, “The concept of Human Rights is the result of man’s inhumanity to man”. The story of Human Right is thus the story of human wrongs.

Historical Background

Human Rights have existed, in however incipient a form, ever since man as a gregarious animal has lived in communities; family; clan; tribe, village; town and nation; and now in an independent world community. The superstitious approval by the ignorant masses of their ignoble poverty, of human sufferings, of hunger and diseases, of callous discrimination and exploitation of man by man and of the age old apathy of the elite in power in large parts of this globe, has further complicated the problem of human rights. In this context we all have to accept that a man is a human being first and foremost irrespective of where he is born to live.

One can, while dealing with the history of “Human Rights”, easily say that the human rights concept has been predominantly western liberal concept which has come to be widely accepted by rest of the world. However, as far as the theoretical part of the concept of human rights is concerned history of human being tells another thing also. No one is denying that ancient Indian history is a mixture of greatness and base exploitation; however we should also take some views of Hindu religious texts that echo the essence of so called western idea of human rights.

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Atharva Veda says:

“As the cow protects her own new born even at the risk of her own life, so one should enlarge one’s heart infinitely with compassion for all Sentient beings”.

The most ancient literature that humanity possesses today – the Rig Veda– reveals the enlightened and refined treatment of key issues of importance to human being- even in advanced stages of development of human society.

Such an outlook of humanism, as well as of vigilance, regarding protection of human rights also accounted for the clarity with which Indian thicker developed the concept of “Sarva Dharma Sambhav.”

In fact the history of all the religions, of human beings, is the history of development of human rights. Let us have a view of Christian religion over human rights.

Holy Bible preaches:

“Don’t do unto others what is hateful to you. The God will know. Do unto others as you would have them unto you.”

Holy Quran illustrates the concept of human rights as follows:

“Al men are brothers and that non-Muslims should be treated with no less dignity and respect for their personality than Muslims. O discrimination against all persons whether black or white or whatsoever.”

It is very important here to mention our former Chief justice V.R. Krishan Iyer in whose opinion, “Religion of Man is located in Vedas, Buddhist texts, Bible, the Quran. Every human being is a divine being and has title to dignity, liberty, equality and other basic rights. We cannot understand or evaluate human rights divorced from the historical and social context. Idle ideals and empty assertions cut no ice. The status of human rights takes us to the life-style of a society. That is why the Indian Constitutional approach is soaked in the social milieu and human conditions. India is a plural society and the concept of the human rights in such society has a different and unique position.”

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There is a thin line of separation, in the context of the meaning, between the term ‘nation’ and ‘nationality’. This distinction is so thin that some even consider them interchangeable; this has become so much pronounced because both these terms have their origin in the same word. The term Nationality, derived from the Latin word natus (to be born), means belonging to the same racial stock or being related by birth or having blood relationship. However, in modern times, this understanding of nationality is confusing of rather misleading because there is today hardly a single nation in the world whose people belong to the same racial stock. Every nation has people of mixed racial background.

It is because of immigrations, inter-caste and inter-racial marriages, the increased racial combinations have made it difficult to find racial purity. So it can be ascertained that the development of nationality is neither political nor social but definitely a psychological phenomenon. Discussing the term J.W. Garner has stated that nationality is a culturally homogenous group that is at once conscious of its unity.

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A nation, in the words of Ramsay Muir, may be defined as a body of people who feel themselves to be naturally linked together by certain affinities, which are so strong for them to live that they become unsatisfied when disunited and cannot tolerate subjection to people who do not share the same ties; while, the growth of nationality is undoubtedly a psychological phenomenon; according to Hayes it is primarily cultural, conscious of unity.

Elements of Nationality

As the term nationality, a psychological concept, is a subjective idea, it is very difficult to find out any precise common quality which can everywhere be linked to nationality. However, some common factors constituting the term nationality can be illustrated:

·        Common Geography

One of the major elements of nationality is people living in a common territory because they are most likely to develop a common culture and, in addition, this is the reason why the countries are called motherland or fatherland. The identity of the people are also seen with their country; thus people of India are called Indian and the people of America as American and so on. However, this point cannot be stretched too far because common territory cannot be taken as an absolutely element of nationality. For instance, the Jews, before the creation of Israel, were scattered all over the world; they had no common territory, yet they constituted a strong nationality.

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·        Common Race

The idea of common race denotes that people belonging to a particular nationality have a social unity or belong to one group. The idea of nationality is strengthened by the belief that one belongs to the same race, it hardly matters whether it is real of factious; the idea becomes more important in the sense that it strengthens common language, common traditions and common culture.

·        Common religion

As an element of nationality, religion is important because a common religion is an incentive to national feeling. For instance, England fought against Spanish Armada primarily due to her determination to safeguard and defend Protestanism. However, in today’s world, nationalities incline to become multi-religious and there is a trend, increasing with great pace, that regards religion as a private affair of an individual and due to which secularism prevails in the collective life. Thus, religion as a factor is not a necessary one. It can be fairly concluded that religion cannot always play a role of cementing factor; for instance, Pakistan got separated into two countries despite the common religious affinity among its people. Religion, in the context of the Indian sub-continent, worked negatively as Pakistan came into existence on the basis religion by partitioning India.

·        Common Language

A common language, a medium of communication, is h basis of all the other elements of nationality as it enables the people to express their idea. A common language does not mean only a common literature but also common heritage of historical traditions as a common language creaters a cohesive society. Many nations, such as England, have been formed on the basis of a common language: England as a nation developed from the English language. However, in today’s world where one can find many bi-lingual or multi-lingual nationalities, this factor seems unnecessary; for instance the English Language, this modern world, has now got the status of a global language that is Spoken in all parts of the world and it can now not be associated only with England.

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·        Economic Factor

It has been argued that nationality, historically, emerged as a result of amalgamation of various tribes and clans. In a primitive society the existence of nationality cannot be thought of. According to Marxists, nationality had no place in a slave owing or a feudal society, and it emerged and developed due to the emergence of capitalist mode of production. Although the importance of economic factor as an element of nationality cannot be denied, it on its own cannot create a nationality.

·        Common Subjugation

In the rise and development of national movements in the Afro-Asian countries common subjugation has been a dominant factor. For instance, in India a common Indian nationality arose and acquired firm roots due to the common colonial exploitation.

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·        Common political framework

The existence of a common political framework, that is also termed a State, be it in past or present, is another element of nationality. People living under one common State imparts a sense of unity because people are knit together through the laws. Perhaps Gilchrist has aptly observed that “a nationality lives either because it has been a nation, with its own territory and State or, because it wishes to become a nation with its own territory and State.”

Although in the development of nationality all the factors mentioned above assist, none of them can be claimed as absolutely essential. Nationality, ipso facto, indicates to a subjective sentiment that cannot be put in words in the form of a precise definition in terms of any objective factor.

Distinction between Nation and Nationality

• Nationality, a cultural term, a psychological concept, is generated in a group of people having geographic unity and who belong to a common race, common history, religion, customs and traditions, economic interest and common hope and aspirations.

However, nation is a people organized; a people united. It is the feelings of oneness that unites people in a nation that gives an idea of an organization; nationality gives an idea of sentiment.

• Nationality is basically a cultural term; it is ‘political’ only incidentally as Hayes informs us. ‘Nation’ is basically a political term and cultural only incidentally. This, however, does not mean that nationality is not political and nation is not cultural.
• Nation and nationality are different terms in yet another sense. Some people use the term ‘nationality’ to manifest the characteristic that creates a nation indicating that nationality preceds nation. Therefore, in terms of origin they are not at par. The Jewish nation was created by the Jewish nationality.

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