Governance and Human Rights

The papers presented in this book explain the Indian approach to Governance and Human Rights. Little literature is presently available which can explain the system of governance which enabled the Indian civilisation to survive for 5,000 years. This book makes a pathbreaking contribution in the direction. It shows that there were many methods of checking the excesses of the government. One among such measures was people’s resistance which has been formally established in the form of adult franchise or democracy. It is shown that this is but one small subset of the total system of governance of the Indian civilisation. A plea is made to understand and incorporate of governance into the modern democratic structure. The movement for the protection of Human Rights has come to the fore after the perpetration of great atrocities upon the Jews by the Nazis during the Second World War. But such violations would have occurred throughout history. The second part of the book deals with the Indian approach to Human Rights. It is shown that performance of duties by one secures the rights of others. The focus on rights detracts individuals from performing their duties. A plea is made for greater stress on duties than rights.