Rights

Written and reviewed by Subhra Gupta, Humanities faculty at UniDrill (M.A. Sociology, University of Delhi · 7 years teaching Humanities). Based on NCERT Political Science Class XI (Political Theory), Chapter 5.

"It's my right!" Is it, though?

You want to wear your own clothes to school instead of the uniform. You want to stay out till midnight. You say, "It's my right!" Your school and your parents disagree. Who is correct? We use the word "right" so easily that we forget it carries a test: not every wish is a right. This chapter gives you that test, shows where rights come from, and explains what they ask of the state and of you.

A right is a justified claim, not a wish

A right is an entitlement or justified claim: something that we are due as citizens, individuals and human beings, and that the rest of society must recognise as legitimate. A want is a personal desire. A right is a claim society regards as justified.

What makes a claim justified? The chapter names two grounds.

Rights such as livelihood, expression and education are called universal because they matter to every human being who lives in society.

An activity that harms one's health or well-being cannot be claimed as a right. Research shows that prohibited drugs and tobacco harm the user. Smoking can also harm others and change behaviour, making the smoker a danger to those around. So smoking or taking banned drugs cannot be claimed as a right.

Pause and predict: a student says, "Skipping school is my right because it's my life." Does it meet the chapter's two grounds?

Check your answer: No. It fails both tests: it does not protect dignity, and it works against the well-being that education supports. A want becomes a right only when it passes the tests of dignity or well-being.

Where do rights come from?

Step 1: natural rights (17th and 18th centuries). Political theorists argued that rights are given by nature or God, derived from natural law and not conferred by any ruler or society. Since we are born with them, no state can take them away. They are inalienable. The classical list contained three natural rights: life, liberty and property, from which other rights were said to derive. The idea was powerful because it limited arbitrary state power and protected individual freedom.

Step 2: human rights (today). The notion of a natural law laid down by nature or God no longer seems acceptable to many, so the term human rights is now preferred. Rights are seen as guarantees that human beings themselves seek or arrive at in order to lead a minimally good life. The assumption is that all persons are entitled to certain rights simply because they are human beings: each is unique and equally valuable, so no one is born to serve others.

Kant and dignity. The eighteenth-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant separated price from dignity. Objects such as a pen or a car have a price and can be replaced by an equivalent. A person has dignity, an intrinsic value that nothing can replace. To treat someone with dignity is to treat them morally, and Kant gave two guides: treat others as you would like to be treated, and never treat another person merely as a means to your own ends.

Step 3: a world declaration. This idea of a free and equal self is reflected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted and proclaimed by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948. Its Preamble recognises the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family as the foundation of freedom, justice and peace.

Beyond the textbook. For the exam: the UDHR is the foundational text of modern human rights, adopted on 10 December 1948. In reality: the UDHR is a declaration, not a treaty, so it was not legally binding in itself. Its principles were later turned into binding treaties, such as the two international covenants of 1966 on civil and political rights and on economic, social and cultural rights. Why it matters: it explains why countries also write rights into their own constitutions.

Two views. For the exam: rights rest on human dignity and are claimed on moral grounds; legal recognition gives them special status but is not the basis on which they are claimed. Another reading: some theorists, in the legal positivist tradition, define rights as claims recognised by the state, so that without legal recognition a right is only a moral aspiration. The chapter acknowledges this view and keeps the moral grounding.

Rights and the state

Human rights appeal to our moral sense, but their realisation depends on law and government. That is why legal recognition matters. Many countries have a Bill of Rights in their constitution, which is the highest law of the land. In India these are the Fundamental Rights, which can be supplemented by claims drawn from the country's own history, for example the ban on untouchability.

Most rights are claims made against the state. When you assert a right to education, you call upon the state to make provisions for basic education. Society and groups may help by opening schools and funding scholarships, but the primary responsibility lies with the state. Rights therefore create two kinds of obligation.

Thus rights restrain state authority and remind us that the state is created for the well-being of the individual, not as an end in itself.

Kinds of rights

Political rights and civil liberties together form the basis of a democratic system. But political rights have little value for someone sleeping on a pavement without food or shelter, which is why democracies increasingly recognise economic rights. Life, liberty, equal treatment and political participation remain priority rights, while other conditions for a decent life are gradually accepted as rights too.

Pause and predict: the right to a free and fair trial: political right or civil liberty?

Check your answer: Civil liberty. Political rights concern participation, such as voting and contesting. Fair trial, free expression and the right to protest are the civil liberties that protect citizens.

Rights come with responsibilities

No right is absolute. The chapter names four duties that go with rights.

The chapter's conclusion is that rights can never be absolute, but we must stay alert in protecting our rights and those of others, because they are the basis of a democratic society.

Cause and effect. If rights were unlimited, one person's freedom could destroy another's. Limits on rights therefore protect rights, which is why the idea of equal rights for all is the central limit.

Exam traps

60-second revision

Where this chapter connects

• Previous: Social Justice explains the basic minimum that economic rights try to secure.
• Next: Citizenship shows how rights are tied to full and equal membership of a political community.
• Constitution link: Rights in the Indian Constitution lists the Fundamental Rights, and Freedom covers the limits on liberty.