About the Book
Human Rights and the debates on the legitimacy of Human Rights are among the most controversial and crucial issues related to contemporary social and political coexistence. This is so because the ethical and socio-political negotiations of sharing power in the most intimate contexts of life are expected to be informed by some of the very significant and critical interventions of the concepts of human dignity, intercultural social dialogues, and Human Rights. Human Rights: Perspectives, aims to carve a space of multiple negotiations with distinct theoretical enactments as it combines various contemporary perspectives on Human Rights. The volume also significantly contributes to the informative needs of both the scholars and the learners of human rights theories and contexts.
Preface
The Volume, Human Rights: Perspectives, comes alive on an insightful ground of reality that human rights is/are not simply addressing some universally established paradigms and perspectives. Instead, it's an effort to highlight different perspectives on human rights and how they articulate multiple contexts. As Danilo Türk observes, "There was a time when the narrative of international action for human rights had to be simple and straightforward. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was drafted during such a time. While preparing the Universal Declaration, its authors were aware of the far-reaching nature of the project and its complexity, as well as of the need to proceed without undue hesitation. They were warned by philosophers, anthropologists, and sceptical political thinkers that no global philosophical base existed for the Universal Declaration and that, paradoxically, what did exist was a variety of cultures with vastly different codes of social organization, while at the same time, the ideological split between the East and the West allowed for very little agreement on the essence and priorities of human rights. Nevertheless, the authors chose the path of optimism and activism and pushed ahead with the Declaration" (Danilo Türk 2008). Both the theories and philosophies and the contexts and lifeworld's related to human rights are enormously complex.
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I express my sincere gratitude to Prasenjit Biswas, Professor, Dept. of Philosophy, NEHU, Shillong, for writing a very involving and subtly engaging Foreword to the Volume, who is an established thinker and philosopher and has done notable studies on the North East, it's lifeworld and also human rights issues peculiar to the region. I thank-fully place on record the help extended to me in proofreading some papers by Sanchari Bhattacharya, Research Scholar, Dept. of HSS, NIT Silchar. I am grateful to Mr. Anil P John, creative visualizer, Live Design Hub, Thrissur, Kerala, for making the cover design. I also thank profusely Dev Publishers, New Delhi, for appreciably taking up the responsibility of bringing out the Volume.
Primarily, I dedicate the Volume to the loving Memory of Professor (Late) Goutam Biswas, a loving senior academic, philosopher, and mentor, who was Dean of the School of Philosophical Studies and later the Pro-Vice Chancellor, of Assam University, Silchar. Prof. Biswas will be remembered for his efforts and works to associate Phenomenology, Existentialism, and Philosophy of Art with the Philosophy of Human Rights and Philosophical Anthropology.
My final and concluding dedication goes to the moral geniuses of the Axial Period, which include Jesus of Nazareth, the Buddha, Prophets and Sages and Seers from both the Abrahamic, the Buddhist, and the Upanishadic traditions, and also to the Enlightenment Heroes like Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Marx, the later Existentialists, Contemporary Critical Thinkers and Theorists, Rabindranath Tagore, MK Gandhi, and Ambedkar.
