RELG 370 Chapter Notes - Chapter reading: Caste System In India, Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, Secular Ethics

• School: McGill University
• Department: Religious Studies
• Course: RELG 370
• Professor: Dan Cere

Document Summary

There is no precise parallel in orthodox hindu though to the idea of a human right as it is framed in the undhr. Because the declaration was developed in a western liberal, secular, individualistic and democratic context, its notion of democratic individual rights is not applicable in the hundi sociopolitical order which has traditionally been hierarchical. The hindu caste system at its best maintains reciprocal relationships of mutual benefit in which each group respects the rights and dignity of the others. The reality for women and untouchables has been very different. In western thought, the idea that there are human rights is a contemporary form of the doctrine of natural rights first thought of by john locke. In 1948 the general assembly of the un adopted a. Udhr detailing economic, cultural and political rights to form a standard to which all nations were to aspire.