Lecture 03

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-06

[00:00:03][music] [music] Welcome to lecture three of our human rights uh course, human rights in India course. In this session, we will study classical approaches, schools of thought that explain the foundations of human rights. While previous lectures examined the evolution of rights uh through history, today we'll look more closely at the theories that attempt to justify why rights exist and how they should be understood. The lecture is divided into two major sections. First, we look at uh four classical approaches. natural law, historical, liberal and idealist. These approaches give different philosophical explanations of rights. Second, we will study uh four schools of thought.

[00:01:06]Naturalist, deliber deliberative, protest and discourse. Each school builds on classical ideas but provide a more uh structural framework for analyzing rights.

[00:01:18]Understanding these approaches is important because they form the intellectual foundation of human rights.

[00:01:24]They influence laws, constitutions and policies around the world including in India including in uh in our own country. For example, natural law shaped the UDHR while protest traditions inspired movements like the struggle against colonialism and cast discrimination. By the end of this lecture, you will see that human rights are not based on a single idea but are the result of many perspectives. Rights are a product of philosophy, history, social struggle and cultural narratives.

[00:01:59]This complexity makes them both powerful and sometimes contested also. But it also shows why they remain essential for human dignity. To keep our discussion structured, let us outline the agenda of this lecture. First we'll study the classical approaches to rights, natural law, historical, liberal and idealist.

[00:02:21]These provide different philosophical foundations and show how thinkers across uh the across time explain the existence of rights. Second, we will reflect on the strength and weaknesses of these approaches. While each has valuable insights, none can explain rights completely on its own. Third, we move to the schools of thought. These include the naturalist, deliberative, protest, and discourse codes. They provide organized ways of analyzing rights and are often used in academic debates.

[00:02:57]Fourth, we'll conduct a comparison of the codes, examining their different and common ground. For example, the natural naturalist school stresses universality while the discourse school emphasizes uh flexibility and narratives. Fifth, we will discuss the contemporary relevance of these theories especially in India.

[00:03:19]Car discrimination, gender uh inequality, digital rights and environmental issues all reflect how different approaches apply today. Finally, we'll conclude with a summary and preview of the uh next lecture which will cover critical and materialistic materialist approaches. This agenda will help us cover both theory and practice showing that human rights are shaped by philosophy, history, activism and social dialogue. The focus of this lecture is on different frameworks for understanding rights. Human rights are not just legal rules written in constitution or treaties. They are also grounded in philosophical and social theories. Different thinkers across history have asked what is the true foundation of rights. Some argued that rights are natural that they exist by birth and they belong to everyone. They are pre-olitical. They are pre-ocial.

[00:04:18]Others believed rights are historical emerging from tradition and culture. The liberal approaches liberal approach emphasizes individual liberty and the accountability of the state while the idealist approach links rights to morality and duties. Together these approaches provide multiple ways of justifying rights. Beyond these approaches, scholars have also identified schools of thought that group ideas into structured categories. These include the naturalist school, the deliberative school, the protest school and the discourse school. Each school highlights different source of rights such as universality, consensus, struggle or social narratives. By exploring these frameworks, we can understand why rights are interpreted differently across cultures and contexts. For example, while western societies emphasize liberty in India, the combination of duties and collectivist struggles has played a larger uh role. This lecture therefore aims to deepen your understanding of human rights theory. Instead of seeing rights as simple or absolute, you will learn to appreciate their philosophical uh richness and the way different traditions shape their meanings.

[00:05:43]The natural law approach is one of the oldest and most influential frameworks for understanding human rights. It argues that rights are inherent and universal. They belong to every person simply because they are human beings.

[00:05:58]They are not created by the state of society but exist independently of them and prior to them. Thinkers like Aristotle and John Loach strongly supported this view. Aristotle saw natural law as a moral order of the universe while Lo argued that humans are born with right to life rights to life, liberty and property. These ideas inspired key documents such as US Declaration of Independence and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights UDHR in 1948 that later on became the Bible of human rights.

[00:06:35]The strength of this approach is its universality. It provides a strong moral foundation for rights making them timeless and valid across cultures. It explains why slavery, cast discrimination or oppression are wrong everywhere regardless of local traditions.

[00:06:54]However, the weakness lies in its lack of enforcement. While natural law declares rights as universal, it does not explain how they can be protected in practice. Without legal or political institutions, these rights may remain only ideals.

[00:07:11]Despite this weakness, the natural law tradition remains powerful. It continues to inspire human rights activists and legal systems, reminding us of human dignity, reminding us of the fact that human dignity is not conditional but universal.

[00:07:30]The historical approach to human rights sees them as as product of history and tradition. According to this view, rights are not timeless. They evolve from the customs, institutions and experiences of particular societies. One of the strongest advocate of this approach was Admund Bur the 18th century political thinker. He argued that rights should be rooted in tradition and historical practices rather than abstract ideas. In his view, sudden revolutionary declarations of rights like in France were dangerous because they ignored cultural context. This approach emphasizes that societies develop their own way of recognizing and protecting rights. For example, in India, cast hierarchies were once seen as part of tradition. However, the historical approach also highlights how modern movements for equality challenged and reshaped that tradition. This shows that rights can reflect both continuity and change.

[00:08:36]The strength of this approach is its contextual grounding. It avoids imposing one universal model on all societies and respect and respects cultural diversity.

[00:08:49]It reminds that rights must make sense within particular tradition to be effective. Later on it took the form of you know politics of human rights wherein uh there were charges on the western nations of imposing their own way or their own perspective of rights particularly with particularly with reference to women children on the non-western countries or the developing world or the or the aphroasian countries.

[00:09:20]However, the weakness is that it risks relativism by tying rights not rights too closely to tradition. It can justify inequality or oppression. For instance, defending cast based discrimination as tradition ignores the universality of human dignity. And same as with women rights also. Many times we uh tie up many many exploitative traditions related to women with our culture. But at the same time we do contest the politics of human rights also with women rights and children rights because all the rights and freedoms that are available to women in western society cannot be uh enforced in lock stock barrel in non-western countries there are cultural limitations but in the name of cultural limitation or cultural relativism we cannot justify inequality or oppression. So we have to maintain a balance between the two. The historical approach teaches us that rights must grow out of uh live social realities but they must also be um open to reform when traditions violate justice.

[00:10:37]The liberal approach is one of the most influential frameworks for modern democracies. It emphasizes the liberty of the individual and holds that the main purpose of the state is to protect and expand individual freedoms. Key thinkers such as John Loach, Montescu and John Stewart Mill shaped this approach. Lo argued that government must protect natural rights like life, liberty and property. Montescu stressed separation of power to limit authority or abuse of power. Mel defended freedom of speech and thought it as essential for progress. The liberal approach greatly influenced the creation of modern constitutions particularly American constitution which is often called as partly lockian and partly Montescuan in nature because um American constitution gives great emphasis to individualism or individual liberty and secondly it is one of the most one of the best examples of the uh separation of power of of the practical implementation of the separation of power.

[00:11:48]Even in India, fundamental rights like equality before law, freedom of expression and protection of life and liberty reflect the liberal traditions of safeguarding individuals against state abuse. The strength of this approach is its focus on state accountability. By limiting government power, by limiting government power, it ensures citizens enjoy basic freedoms.

[00:12:14]It creates checks and balances that protect individual from tyranny.

[00:12:19]However, the weakness is that it often ignores inequality. While everyone may have the same legal rights, not all have the same resources to exercise them. For example, freedom of speech means little to someone without education or access to media.

[00:12:36]It is because of this approach that you the the political system of United States of America was too individualistic to reject any social welfare reform package till uh the great depression and finally they introduced new deal package uh that was done by Rous. So liberal approach is essential because it anchors democracy in individual rights but it must be complemented by equality based frameworks to ensure true justice.

[00:13:12]The idealist approach connects human rights to morality duties and self-discipline. It argues that rights cannot exist in isolation from responsibility. A just society is one where individuals not only claim rights but also fulfill duties towards others. Thinkers like George Hegel in the west and Mahatma Gandhi and Rabina Tagore in India contributed to this tradition. Gandhi emphasized that rights flow from duties. In fact, I remember when uh Gandhi G received a letter when human rights was still in the formative stage. John Hexlay wrote a letter to Gandhi G to seek his opinion about human rights and Gandhi G's reply was to quote my illiterate but wise mother told me that there are no rights but only duties and by fulfilling our duties we safeguard the rights of each other.

[00:14:12]Again to explain this, the right to life exists because others have the duty not to harm it. Tagore linked freedom with self-realization and moral discipline.

[00:14:24]The strength of this approach is its moral depth. It reminds us that rights are not only legal claims but also ethical responsibilities. It fosters harmony and social responsibility preventing selfish misuse of freedoms.

[00:14:40]However, the weakness is that it can sometimes weaken the force of rights. If duties are overemphasized, rulers may justify restricting rights by claiming that citizens have failed in their duties. For example, authoritarian government governments might argue that descent undermines social duty. Despite this risk, the idealist approach is important for societies like India where values of community, duty and morality play a major role. It balances individual liberty with collective responsibility showing that human dignity depends on both rights and ethical conduct.

[00:15:23]So this gives us a message that rights and duties are two sides of a coin. And in fact when we are talking about duties it is not only duties on the part of the people or the citizens but duties on the part of the state also. In fact American revolution, French revolution, glorious revolution uh in England they all took place because the state refrained from fulfilling its duties duties towards people. So people's rights are the duties of the state and then each individual's rights are another person's duties and vice versa.

[00:16:05]Now looking at the four classical approaches together, natural law, historical, liberal and idealist, we see that each offer valuable insights but also has limitations. The natural law approach stresses universality.

[00:16:18]It insists that rights belong to everyone regardless of culture or context. Its strength is moral clarity but it struggles with enforcement. The historical approach emphasizes tradition and uh continuity. It helps us see rights in cultural context but risk justifying unjust practices as custom. The liberal approach focuses on liberty and accountability. It underpins modern democratic freedom but sometimes ignores deep inequalities that prevents people from using those freedoms effectively.

[00:16:55]The idealist approach uh ties rights to morality and duties. It adds ethical dimensions and responsibility but may allow rights to be weakened if duties are overemphasized.

[00:17:11]Each approach reflects different priorities. universality, tradition, liberty or morality respectively. None is sufficient on its own. That is why combining them is important. For example, India's constitution shows this balance. It includes liberal fundamental rights, acknowledges historical context, emphasizes duties and draws inspiration from universal principles as well. The reflection raises an important question.

[00:17:41]Which approach suits India best? Perhaps the answer is not one single framework but a synthesis. Human rights in India need universality, sensitivity to traditions, accountability of the state and moral responsibility as well. All working together. So far we have looked at four classical approaches natural, historical, liberal and idealist. While these gave us valuable insights, there are still broad frameworks. To gain a more systematic understanding, scholars develop school of thought, schools of thought. These schools provide more structured and focused explanations of where rights come from and how they function. The move from approaches to school is important. Approaches often often overlap, but schools classify ideas into clearer categories. The four main schools we'll discuss now are natural, naturalist, deliberative, protest, and discourse. The naturalist school builds on the natural law tradition and emphasizes universality.

[00:18:47]The deliberative school focuses on rights as outcomes of democratic agreements and debates. The protest school highlights that rights are often achieved through struggles and resistance. The discourse school sees rights as products of social narratives and ongoing conversations.

[00:19:10]Each school has strength and weaknesses.

[00:19:12]For example, universality is powerful but sometimes abstract. Consensus gives legitimacy but risk majority majority domination. Struggle brings urgency but may lead to conflict of interest.

[00:19:27]Narratives provide flexibility but can lack stability. So by studying these schools we deepen our understanding of human rights. They show us that rights are not just written in uh uh written uh laws or written in laws or rooted in morality but are also negotiated fought for and re uh interpreted over time.

[00:19:49]This helps us approach or appreciate both the strength and fragility of rights in our society. The naturalist school is based on the on the idea or the belief that rights are universal, eternal and inherent. It closely resembles the natural law approach but provides a more structured framework.

[00:20:11]According to this school, human beings are born with rights and therefore rights are pre-social and pre-political.

[00:20:18]They they exist independently of government or societies. This school inspired some of the most influential human rights documents in history like American declaration of independence, French declaration and later on UDHR.

[00:20:32]The strength of this school is its clarity and moral force. By declaring rights universal, it creates a strong standard for evaluating societies. It insists that slavery, discrimination, and oppression are wrong everywhere regardless of culture or tradition.

[00:20:49]However, its weakness lies in the enforcement gaps. Saying rights are universal is not the same as ensuring that they are respected. Many government sign human rights treaties but is still they violate rights in practice. So the naturalistic school provides ideals but not always mechanisms for accountability. Despite this, the school remains the moral foundation of the global human rights movement. It continues to inspire activists, courts and international organizations to defend dignity everywhere. The deliberative school on the other hand argues that rights are created and legitimized through agreement and consensus and they believe that rights come from democratic debate and public reasoning.

[00:21:35]Thinkers like Hops Russo influenced this tradition by discussing the social contract. So in modern time constituent assembly debates or constitutional debates reflect this school. U in India too the constituent assembly engaged in extensive deliberation for more than two years before uh agreeing to you know uh the basics or the main uh text of the constitution that includes rights throughout and protection for the for these rights. The strength of this school is that it makes rights collective and participatory.

[00:22:09]people are more likely to respect the rights if they have uh uh that they have helped define. So it connects rights with democracy showing that rights are not imposed from above but are created from within the society. But the weakness is the majoritarianism. If rights are decided only by majority consensus, minority groups may be excluded or oppressed. For instance, we had had very well- definfined constituent assembly and therefore our debates on each and every aspect say the rights of the people per se, rights of the minorities were debated at length.

[00:22:45]But on the other hand, Pakistan missed any such kind of constitution making procedure and therefore their constitution uh lacks in all these mechanisms that we do have in India. So therefore deliberative school promises and uh highlights both the promise and the limits of democracy.

[00:23:05]Then the protest school emphasizes that rights are not handed down peacefully but are one after intense struggle and resistance. Thus rights come alive when oppo o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o oppress groups rise up to the demand for justice. History provides many many example abolition of slavery, civil rights movement etc. our own natural struggle for freedom. So strength of this school is its urgency and realism.

[00:23:31]It reminds that rights are really granted voluntarily but one has to snatch them. One has to fight for them and thus protest to school highlights the role of activism, solidarity and resistance in expending these rights.

[00:23:45]Weakness lies that uh of due to its association with conflict or violence.

[00:23:50]The struggle for rights many times turn violent and therefore it is the question arises about balancing justice with peace. Despite all this the school is very very important because it does not take and we should not take our freedom as granted but something that we have got or won after an intense struggle.

[00:24:13]The discourse school believes that rights are shaped by social narratives and conversations. So they are not fixed or absolute. They are evolving ideas constructed through dialogue, culture and power relations. One of the most influential thinker of this tradition is Michael Focal who studied how power shapes acknowledges shapes knowledge and rights. According to this view, what society recognizes as a right changes over time depending on how people discuss and frame issues. for example, LGBTQ rights and digital rights which were unknown few decades a uh ago and now everybody's focus not only is talking about them but have also accepted them. So strength of this school is the flexibility that it gives to the concept of rights. It uh if rights it it it allows the rights to adapt to new challenges and reality and that rights are it it emphasizes that rights are not frozen in time but they are constantly reshaped and redefined by the society. The weakness is it in in stability. They may lack permanence for example gains in LGBTQ rights could be reserved if public discourse shifts. So uh of course uh the limitation despite all these limitation discourse school is valuable in a rapidly changing world. It highlights how conversations media and cultural movement shape what we consider human rights today. When we compare all the four schools we'll realize that natural school emphasizes universality.

[00:25:49]Deliberative school stresses consensus.

[00:25:52]Protest school highlights struggle.

[00:25:54]Discourse school emphasizes narratives.

[00:25:57]The key tension lies between universality and relativity. Natural naturalist theories insist on timeless rights while discourse theories suggest rights are socially constructed and context specific. Similarly, deliberation seek consensus while protest uh focuses on a struggle against consensus when it is unjust. Together the schools show that human rights are complex and they cannot be explained just by one theory but there are they are shaped by universal ideas, democratic process, socialist struggle blah blah blah. Now reflecting on these school we see that all have uh contemporary relevance especially in Indian context. India's history of cast and colonialism shows the importance of the protest school. The struggles of Dalith women and freedom fighters prove that rights are achieved through activism and resistance. Gandhian ideals reflect the idealist and deliberative traditions wherein he emphasized duties, morality and collective dialogue. In modern era, the discourse school becomes particularly important. Digital rights, privacy rights and LGBTQ issues are all shaped by social conversations. Thus the schools of thoughts remain not only theoretical framework but also practical tools for understanding and shaping rights in the 21st century.

[00:27:23]We can uh summarize the key highlights.

[00:27:26]We studied four schools. Each approach offered valuable insights but also the weaknesses. Then we explored four schools of thought. These schools provide structured ways of understanding rights. Together these frameworks show that rights are not simple. They are complex, evolving and shaped by many forces. They involve timeless principles, cultural traditions, democratic processes and ongoing struggles.

[00:27:55]In the Indian context, all these approaches in schools are relevant. Our constitution reflects liberal and naturalist principles. Our history reflects protest traditions and our culture emphasizes duties and morality.

[00:28:08]Modern debates on digital and environmental rights reflect discourse and adaption. The key lesson is that human rights cannot be explained by one theory alone. They are multi-dimensional and multifaceted and also be defended through law, morality, activism and social dialogue.

[00:28:29]The next lecture will move beyond classical schools to study critical and materialist approaches which question the role of power, economics and ideology in shaping rights. [music]