Rights – Class 11 Political Science Chapter 5 Notes & NCERT PDF

Introduction

We often talk about our rights — the right to vote, to form political parties, to contest elections. But today people also claim new rights: the right to information, to clean air, to safe drinking water. Rights are claimed not only in public and political life but also in social and personal relationships, and not only for adults but also for children, unborn foetuses and even animals. This chapter asks three questions:

Key Concepts

5.1 What Are Rights?

A right is essentially an entitlement or a justified claim. It denotes what we are entitled to as citizens, as individuals and as human beings.

A right is something the rest of society must recognise as a legitimate claim that must be upheld. Not everything I want is a right. Wanting to wear clothes of my choice instead of the school uniform, or to stay out late, does not make these rights. There is a difference between what I want and what can be called a right.

The book gives two grounds on which rights are claimed:

An activity injurious to health and well-being cannot be a right. Since prohibited drugs and smoking harm us (and, with smoking, people around us), we cannot claim a right to them.

5.2 Where Do Rights Come From?

Kant on human dignity. The eighteenth-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant said that everything has either a price (it can be replaced by an equivalent) or a dignity (it is above all price). Human beings possess dignity and are valuable in themselves — even if poor, powerless, uneducated or even dishonest. This is the moral conception of rights, resting on two arguments:

The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights builds on this idea of a free and equal self. Oppressed people have used universal human rights to challenge segregation and unequal laws; slavery has been abolished, though other struggles have had limited success. The list of rights keeps expanding with new threats — e.g. rights to clean air, water and sustainable development, the right to livelihood and rights of children. The book mentions pop star Bob Geldof's appeal to western governments to end poverty in Africa and the wide public support it received.

The UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December 1948.

5.3 Legal Rights and the State

The success of rights claims depends largely on the support of governments and the law. Many constitutions contain a Bill of Rights; in India these are the Fundamental Rights. Constitutional recognition gives rights primary importance, and some rights reflect a country's history — India bans untouchability.

Some theorists define rights as claims recognised by the state. The book's view: legal endorsement gives rights special status, but it is not the basis on which rights are claimed — rights keep being expanded and reinterpreted.

Rights place two kinds of obligations on the state:

The sovereign state exists not for its own sake but for the sake of the individual.

5.4 Kinds of Rights

Rights to life, liberty, equal treatment and political participation are seen as basic rights needing priority; other conditions for a decent life are increasingly recognised as justified claims.

5.5 Rights and Responsibilities

Rights also place obligations on each of us:

Debates & Perspectives

Exam Focus

Key Terms

Common Mistakes