[Reader-list] Fwd: reader-list Digest, Vol 68, Issue 62Freedom and right to express at what cost to society.?

[Venugopalan K M]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Venugopalan K M <kmvenuannur at gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 6:02 PM
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] reader-list Digest, Vol 68, Issue 62Freedom and
right to express at what cost to society.?
To: Rakesh Iyer <rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com>


Dear friends,
To me, it seems rather like human  rights are inherent to individuals,
irrespective of how far your nation state is willing to acknowledge
them,allow their exercise , or put restrictions on then by force.
Rights come to be articulated and defined differently by different contexts
in time and space , even perpetually redefined to suit the interests of
people in command.
Until the Universal Declaration of Human Rights did take place half a
century back, there existed total  lack of understanding  about what makes
Human Rights "Universal" despite existence of different regions,
nationalities , religions ,legal systems , governments and cultures.
Alas, posts here by Rajendra Upinangadi with his supporters virtually take
the entire discourse back to the days prior to the acceptance of an agenda
of  Universal Human Rights by practically all nation states and governments
under the umbrella of the UN. One hopes it could at least be had with the
Constitution of India as a reference point!
Sree Ram Sene attacks on the so-called 'loose, pub visiting  women' were
indeed, preceeded and succeeded by many such attacks on youth,women and
minorities on the basis of arbitrary moral judgement backed by the BJP and
the Sangh Parivar. Please don't compare those with the figures based on
crime records in Delhi or elsewhere, for that matter!
These attacks were actually promoted by Hindutva politics , prompted by a
particular view of women , youth and the minorities as "non-citizens" or
"lesser citizens".There are press reports galore proving this, and thus let
the discussions be focused on the Constitution of India Vs Hinutwa, rather
than  on Society Vs Individual's rights!


On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 3:42 PM, Rakesh Iyer <rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear all
>
> I can understand the point that freedom of expression is more important
> than
> peace, for after all any peace without any freedom of expression is only
> the
> lull before the storm waiting to happen. Plus of course, it hampers one of
> the basic human rights of citizens.
>
> However, the other question which is confusing my mind, as pointed out in
> the article, is regarding nation-states providing rights to citizens. I
> don't know much on this, so it would be good if we can discuss on whether
> it's nation-states which act as the agencies to provide rights (and hence
> without them people can't ask for rights), or is it that rights are
> inherent
> irrespective of whether nation-states exist or not.
>
> Regards
>
> Rakesh
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