Module 05 Contemporary Political Theories and View Points

Human Rights
Rights are those things that one is morally or legally entitled to do or have.
Human Rights are those rights to which an individual is entitled by the virtue of his
status as a human being.
Characteristics of Human Rights
1. Universality - They belong to every human being regardless of nationality,
ethnic or racial origin or social background.
2. Fundamental or Inherent - Human beings as they are humans that's why they
have it.
3. Absolute - Human beings' entitlement to human rights can’t be violated.
4. Enforceable - The state has the responsibility to enforce or protect human
rights.
5. Inalienable - No one can take them away from individuals.
6. Indivisible - No one human right is more important than other human rights.
No hierarchical arrangement of human rights is there.

The problem of human rights emerged as a matter of serious concern for the whole
world after the second world war. During Nuremberg Trials, some German Nazis
tried for ‘crime against humanity’, apart from war crimes.
The inhuman atrocities faced by jews termed as ‘crime against humanity’.
It is considered that human rights are above the law of any nation. Violation of human
rights would be treated as ‘crime against humanity’.

On December 10th, 1948, the United Nations Organization issued the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). It embodies an excellent scheme of Human
Rights.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)

The UDHR contains 30 articles, apart from its preamble.
● Preamble - In the preamble of UDHR, dignity and equality of human beings is
considered as inherent and inalienable. It has disregarded the contempt of
human rights. It has also expected that human rights would be protected by rule
of law. The world having freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear
is considered the highest aspiration of people.

Article 1 to 21 - Civil Political and Legal Rights

● Articles 1 and 2 - human nature is rational, affirms the faith in dignity,
freedom, equality and fraternity of human beings and rules out any
 discrimination based on various grounds like, race, color, sex, language,
nationality, and so on.
● Articles 3 and 4 - Provide, right to life, liberty and security of a person.
Prohibition of slavery.
● Article 5 - rules out torture, cruel and inhuman treatment and punishment.
● Article 6 to 11 - equality before law, equal protection against any
discrimination, legal remedy, freedom from arbitrary arrest, detention or exile,
fair legal procedure.
● Article 12 - right to privacy, honour and reputation.
● Article 13 and 14 - Right to freedom of movement and residence, right to seek
asylum in another country.
● Article 15 - Right to Nationality.
● Article 16 - Right to marry and found a family
● Article 17 - Right of own Property.
● Article 18,19 and 20 - Right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion,
Right to freedom of opinion and expression, Right to freedom of peaceful
assembly and association.
● Article 21 - Right to take part in the government of one’s country (through
voting, election, by electing representatives), This article regards democratic
government as an essential feature of human rights.

● Article 22 to 26 - Social and Economic Rights

Right to social security, Right to work, free choice of employment, just and
favorable work conditions, equal pay for equal work, just and favorable
remuneration.
Right to form a trade union, Right to rest and leisure, adequate standard of
living, special care and assistance during motherhood and childhood.
Right to education.

● Article 27 - Cultural Rights

Right to participate in the cultural life, to enjoy art, share the scientific
advancement and its benefits, author’s rights.

● Article 28 - is concerned with everyone’s entitlement to a social and

international order where these rights would be protected.

● Articles 29 and 30 - focuses on everyone’s duty towards the community.

- An individual is entitled to human rights and freedoms on the condition
that he/she would recognize the similar rights of others.
 - No state, group or person should be engaged in any activity which
harms the human rights of individuals.
Apart from UDHR, some other conventions regarding the protection of human
rights-
1. European Convention of Human Rights (1950)
2. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966)
3. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966)
4. American Convention on Human Rights (1969)
5. Helsinki Accord (1975)
6. African Charter on Peoples’ Human Rights (1981)

Various NGOs or Non-Political Humanitarian Organizations are working for

protection of ordinary people’s human rights.
- In India - People’s Union for Civil Liberties, People’s Union for Democratic
Rights.
- Internationally - Amnesty International (HQ - London) - inquires into the
cases of injustice due to political, religious and racial persecution all over the
world and submits the report to the United Nations and Council of Europe. The
reports get worldwide publicity in mass media and generate awareness of
human rights everywhere.
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Cultural Relativism
● Human Rights are considered as universal in nature. But do we have an all
encompassing scheme of Human Rights that are capable of universal
application or do different societies need different sets of human rights?
● A major challenge to Universal character of Human Rights is from Cultural
Relativism.
● The theory of cultural relativism evolved in the sphere of social anthropology
in the context of studying various primitive societies.
● Core Argument of Theory - We cannot understand, interpret or evaluate
social and social-psychological phenomena meaningfully unless we realize the
phenomena in the context of the social and cultural sphere where it is
happening.
● The customs prevailing in a particular culture carries certain values, moral
codes, expectations or obligations, etc.
● When a Western Scholar is studying the developing society they should judge
the events based on the culture, customs, beliefs or values of that society. He
should try to learn the language and symbol of the society in order to
understand and interpret the behavior and events.
● Such cultural awareness generated by Cultural Relativism makes us broad/open
- minded towards our own as well as other’s culture. We become less arrogant,
less rigid and less dogmatic in evaluating the attitudes and events of other
cultures. We would be in a position to appreciate the life of others and we will
be less blind and less biased. The attempt of westernization of the new and
developing societies is hegemonic. It disturbs the equilibrium in other cultures.
● In terms of Human Rights as they are regarded as universal in nature.
Sometimes they are alien to a particular society. But just because they are alien
to our culture we can't refuse their importance. They are important against
illogical and inhuman practices prevailing in the culture.
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Realism
Realism is the Power Approach to International Politics.
It is one of the oldest approaches to study international politics, was presented in the
18th and 19th centuries and revived after the second world war.
Realist Schools
1. Classical Realism - Thucydides, Thomas Hobbes and Machiavelli
2. 20th Century Realism - Hans J Morgenthau (Book - Politics Among Nations),
E.H. Carr (Book - Twenty Years Crisis)
 3. Neorealism - Structural School - Kenneth Waltz

Tenets or Assumptions of Realism -

1. Human Nature is essentially sinful and wicked. Human beings are selfish by
nature.
2. Out of all sins, no sin is more prevalent or more dangerous than his instinctive
lust for power.
3. There is a rare chance of progress through cooperation. Politics is a struggle for
power and war of all against all. (Conflict is inevitable)
4. It believes in statism, survival and security in the International Anarchic World
Order.
4(a). States are the only appropriate unit to understand International Politics.
4(b). Only objective the Nation States have is to protect and promote national
interests defined in terms of power.
4(c). Primary National interests are survival and Security.
5. States should not trust others (other nation states) especially international
organizations for self preservation.
6. Self help is the only option. State should strengthen itself by acquiring military
abilities.
7. Self defense can also be achieved by forming alliances by creating allies but
allies should not be dependent on you. Allies should be strong enough to
defend themselves and help you if required.
8. Realists want equilibrium in the unequally power distributed international
system. They don't want any one state to dominate hence they aspire for
Balance of Power.
9. Realists also believe in the autonomy of Political Sphere. As, legal and
economic fields are concerned with law and utility respectively, the political
field is concerned with power.
10. Realists differentiate between universal morality and political morality of the
state. Political actions should be judged on the basis of political morality.
Lying, spying, cheating and other deceptive behavior or going on war will be
considered as immoral acts according to universal morality. But they can not be
considered immoral politically. Political Morality should be judged on political
logics or parameters.
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Feminism
Feminism can be understood-
1. As an ideology
2. As a movement
3. As an academic discipline

Feminism can be studied by using following models:

1. Founding Mother Paradigm
2. Key Text Approach
3. Hyphenated Wave Model

Core Values of Feminism

1. Redefining ‘the Political’-
- Public-Private Divide
- Generally politics, government, political institutions, political parties, pressure
groups, public debates are considered being part of the public sphere of life.
- On the other hand family sphere or personal relations are considered to belong
to the private sphere of life.
- Usually it is seen that the public sphere is dominated by men and the private
sphere is considered as the sphere of women. There is an image of ‘Public
man’ and ‘private woman’.
- Political sphere is where we observe power structure relationships, where one
group of persons is controlled by another group.
- Liberal Feminists demand access to the public sphere and to politics. They
want women to get access to all the freedoms and rights that individuals are
getting. That is why they demand suffrage and representation as equal to men.
- On the other hand Radical feminists are redefining the political and locating
politics in the personal sphere also. Radical feminists gave a call of ‘the
personal is political’. For them the personal sphere is highly political as we can
witness domestic violence or honor killing in the personal sphere.

2. Patriarchy
- The word patriarchy is derived from the Latin word ‘pater’ literally means, rule
by the father.
- Patriarchy is a system in which men have all or most of the power and
importance in a society or group.
- The term patriarchy shows male supremacy and male dominance or rule by
men.
 - Liberal-Feminists’ understanding of the problem is unequal distribution of
entitlements and rights in the society at large. Women are under-represented in
senior positions in politics, businesses and professions. This problem can be
corrected with the help of the state.
- Socialists-Feminists adopted an economic approach to analyze the comparative
position of men and women in society. According to them patriarchy and
capitalism are having a nexus. Gender inequality is actually a consequence of
capitalism. Class system and not patriarchy is the root cause of gender
inequality. They relate overcoming gender inequality with the destruction of
capitalism.
- Radical-Feminists find the root cause of gender inequality in the patriarchy.
Domination of men and exploitation of women is being systematic,
institutionalized and deeply rooted in the structure of patriarchal families.

3. Sex and Gender

- A general argument is that women's physical and anatomical make-up suit their
domestic and subordinate role.
- But this notion is denied by famous feminist thinker Simone de Beauvoir.
According to her, ‘One is not born but made a woman’.
- Radical-feminists believed that, sex is to nature and gender is to culture.
- What a woman is by her body is natural. But how she should be like feminine,
shy, soft spoken, tender, emotional, how she should behave, etc. are all dictated
by society and imbibed into women.
- Woman is a social construct that denotes gender.
- Eg. Childbirth is natural but child rearing (motherhood) is not natural. If
motherhood is natural then why are the experiences of motherhoods different
for each woman? Especially for prostitutes or rape victim.

Evolution of Feminism
1. First-Wave Feminism -
- It refers to women’s suffrage movements of the late 19th and early 20th
century.
- Its proponents argued that intellectual and emotional capacities or needs
of men and women are equal. That is why both men and women should
enjoy the same rights.
- First wave feminism coincides with liberal-feminism.
 2. Second-Wave Feminism -
- It refers to the resurgence of ‘activists feminism’ in the late 20th century,
particularly in the 1960s and 1970s.
- Its exponents attacked on male violence towards women, particularly
sexual violence. They rejected feminine norms such as sexual
submissiveness and participating in beauty practices.
- They advocated the liberation of women from the enforced domesticity
and insisted on establishing female solidarity and sisterhood.

3. Third-Wave Feminism-
- Third-wave feminism is a feminist movement that began in the early
1990s.
- The third-wave saw the emergence of new feminist currents and
theories, such as intersectionality, black feminism, ecofeminism, and
postmodern feminism.
- Treating women as heterogeneous category

Broad Streams of Feminism (Hyphenated Wave Model)

Types of Liberal-Feminism Socialist-Feminism Radical-Feminism

Feminism

Key -Individualism and -Derived from Marxism - Women should not be

Themes individual autonomy treated merely as
-Links capitalism and individual but as
-Treating women as an women subordination ‘Women’
individual
-Women’s exploitation -Why?
-Equal political and through free domestic 1)Sharing extra burden
civil rights mainly work of problems, dangers,
voting rights and disadvantages as a
Representation -Economic significance Women.
of the women in
-White Feminism capitalist society- as 2)Need to be
reserve workforce, represented as women
upbringing children i.e. not just as individual
preparing next - They gone to the roots
generation workers. of the issue found
answer – Patriarchy

3) They separated Sex

from that of Gender
-Investigated family i.e.
Personal Sphere
- Personal is Political.
Core Goals Equal access for Restructure economic Radical transformation
women and men to life for gender equality. of all spheres of life
public and political
realm

Important 1. Mary 1. Friedrich Engels - 1. Virginia Woolf -

Feminists Wollstonecraft - ‘A ‘The Origin of the ‘A Room of One’s
and their Vindication of the Family, Private Property Own’
Texts Rights of Woman’ and the State’
2. Simone de Beauvoir
2. John Stuart Mill - 2. Sheila Rowbatham - - ‘The Second Sex’
‘The Subjection of
Women’ ‘Women, Resistance
and Revolution’ 3. Shulamith Firestone
3. Betty Friedan - - ‘The Dialectic of Sex’
‘The Feminine ‘Hidden From History’
Mystique’ 4. Kate Millette -
‘The Past is before us’ ‘Sexual Politics”
4. Carole Pateman -
‘The Sexual Contract’

Indian Feminists and their books-

1. Savitribai Phule - Kavya Phule, Bavan Kashi Subodh Ratnakar
2. Tarabai Shinde - Stri-Purush Tulana
3. Pandita Ramabai - 'The High-Caste Hindu woman'
4. Vandana Shiva - 'Ecofeminism'
5. Sharmila Rege - Against the Madness of Manu (Introduction and
Commentaries of Sharmila Rege on Dr. B. R. Ambedkar's original essays)
6. Nivedita Menon - Seeing Like a Feminist

Black Feminist -
Angela Davis - 1) Women, Race and Class, 2) Joan Little: The Dialectics of Rape,
3) Women, Culture & Politics, 4) If They Come in the Morning, etc.
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Environmentalism
● Advent of modern science and technology driven development has devastated
the planet’s environment and has created several ecological crises like ozone
depletion, climate change, acid rain, etc.
● Environmentalism / Ecologism emerged as a protest movement and ideology
against the perilous destruction of the earth.
● There is a debate in philosophy about the relationship between man and
ecology, development and environment.
● Shallow Ecology and Deep Ecology are the central points of the debate.
● Shallow Ecology - Anthropocentric and Utilitarian in outlook
- American Philosopher – Anthony Weston.
- According to Shallow Ecology, human beings are at the center and
supreme in the world.
- Ecology is helpful and important only as it is useful to human welfare.
- Non-humans, other biological things are serving as natural resources
that should be used by human beings.
- Use of environmental resources is inevitable. The question is how we
will make the best use of those resources by causing minimum harm to
the environment. It searches for technological solutions. Eg. If pollution
imperils the environment then we must search alternatives and clean
energy sources that are renewable and environment friendly.

● Deep Ecology -
- Arne Naess - Norwegian philosopher
- Arne Naess coined the term Deep Ecology in 1973
- He was influenced by Rachel Carson and Mahatma Gandhi.
- The Basic Argument is that, planet earth is consisting of three
interlinked parts i.e. human beings, non human biological forms and the
inanimate objects and forces. Human beings are just one among the
millions of living organisms of the world. Hence, man is not superior or
central to the world.
- Deep ecologists discarded the idea of anthropocentrism.
- According to them anthropocentrism is related to ‘ego’, which is a
wrong perception. The right perception is the concept of biocentric
equality i.e. each and every organism, including human beings is equally
important and contributing to the ecosystem. Hence, ‘eco’ is the right
perception.
- Each human and non human form has intrinsic value, inherent worth and
identity. Preservation of biodiversity is possible only when we recognize
such worth and biocentric equality.
 - For deep ecologists excessive and destructive use of biodiversity is
unacceptable. According to them, human beings should give up
consumerist and materialistic lifestyles. Ecologically sensitive social and
economic order must be created. We should reduce our ecological
footprints.

Andrew Heywood Classified the Ecology in three types:-

Ecology -
1. Socialist Ecology - the term coined by Murry Bookchin.
a. Eco-socialism
b. Eco-anarchism
c. Eco-feminism

2. Modernist Ecology - Shallow ecology

- New harmony between liberalism and ecology
- Intergenerational justice - sustainable development
- Reduce, reuse and recycle.

3. Deep Ecology -
- fundamental shifts attitudes, politics and relationships between man and nature

● Eco-socialism - Rudolf Bahro in his book ‘From Red to Green’ supported

eco-socialism. Capitalism is seen as the enemy of ecology. Materialism and
consumerism of capitalism is resulting in destruction of the environment.
Nature is seen as a commodity to be traded and consumed by a man. Hence,
eco-socialist are aiming at destroying capitalism to save the environment. It is a
new approach combining socialism and the environment.

● Eco-anarchism - Eco-anarchism is propagated by Murry Bookchin. This

standpoint is seeing the authority of state, religion, and family as being enemies
of ecology. As authority indicates a domination of man over man and
domination of man over nature. Man’s true instinct is not domination but
cooperation. Hence, eco-anarchists believe in having voluntary cooperation to
achieve development. We should create a new society based on the voluntary
instinct of man to protect man and ecology.

● Eco-feminism - Karolyn Merchant in her book ‘The Death of Nature'

propagated ecofeminism. Patriarchy is seen as an enemy of ecology and
feminism is seen as a friend. Ecofeminists believe that patriarchy not only has
created a domination of a man over a woman but also of a man over nature too.
 Women and Nature are just attached to each other for patriarchy both are
having use value and they are considered as being objects. Ecofeminists
demand gender and ecology base politics for justice and sustainability.

● Sustainable Development - Sustainable development means meeting the

needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their needs. In this concept social progress, economic development and
climate and environment these three aspects are balanced.

Various Environmental Conferences -

1. United Nations conference on Environment and Sustainable Development 1972
2. First World Climate Conference 1979
3. Conference on the Protection of the Ozone layer, Vienna 1985
- It was followed by Montreal Protocol and Paris Agreement 1987
4. The Earth Summit (Rio de Janeiro) 1992
5. UN Framework of Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC)
- Kyoto Protocol 1997
6. Millenium Summit, 2000
7. World Summit on Sustainable Development, 2002
8. UN Conference on Sustainable Development, 2012 (Rio+20)
9. UN Summit on Sustainable Development, 2015 (Agenda 30)
10. Climate Action Summit 2019

Various Environmental Movements

1. Bishnoi Movement -
- Bishnoi Khejarli Movement was the first greatest non violent ecological
movement that had happened in the 18th century in Rajasthan, India.
- Bishnoi is a sect in the Thar desert founded by Guru Jambheshwar. He has
given 29 cordial principles hence, the followers are known as ‘Bishnoi’.
- The Maharaja of Jodhpur wanted to construct a palace hence sent the army to
cut the trees in Khejarli village of Bishnoi people. Khejarli village had locally
nurtured forests, hence local population protested.
- Amrita Devi was in the front line of the protesters. Local people hugged the
trees and asked soldiers to cut their heads instead of cutting the trees. Amrita
Devi was beheaded and along with her nearly 363 people sacrificed their lives.
- When the Maharaja got to know about this incident he apologized and
designated the area as protected forest.
2. Chipko Movement -
- Uttarakhand in 1973
- The Contractor of Sports goods company began tree cutting in Alaknanda
Valley of Uttarakhand after getting the government clearance.
- The local population, especially women, protested by embracing the trees.
- The protest was initiated by an NGO, Dasholi Gram Swaraj Mandal and it was
joined by activists Chandi Prasad Bhat, Sundarlal Bahuguna.
- Some of the women activists like Dhoom Singh Negi and Bachani Devi also
participated in this movement.
- This movement was the combination of feminism, environmentalism and
Gandhism.

3. Appiko Movement 1983

- It was the ecological protest that happened in Uttar Kannada region of
Karnataka.
- Appiko means to embrace.
- This was the movement to save the forest and was against deforestation.
- Because of the developmental projects massive deforestation and reduction in
forest cover was observed in the region. The forest cover reduced drastically
from 81% in 1950 to 24% in 1980.
- Conservation, afforestation and rational utilization of forest were the main aims
of the movement.

4. Save Silent Valley Movement -

- Sairandhri valley also known as Silent valley is located at Palakkad district of
Kerala.
- It has tropical evergreen forests.
- Kerala State Electricity Board Started the Silent valley Hydroelectric Project on
the river Kunthipuzha in the 1970s.
- Kerala Shastra Sahitya Parishad launched the Save the Silent Valley Protest
Movement. As a result of this the valley was declared as National Park in 1980
and now it is the core area of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve.

Narmada Bachao Andolan, Aray Carshed Project Potest, Protest Against Ring Road in
Pune, etc. are some other examples.