Human Rights in Everyday Life in India

The rhetoric of human rights is being contested and debated theoretically at various levels. However, this work takes into account several field-based examples in the Indian context to illustrate how the frameworks of oppression and resistance operate simultaneously. The oppressors are manipulating the rights paradigm to justify oppression, whereas the oppressed leverage the same discourse to contest marginalization and assert their dignity in everyday lives. Despite challenges, the wretched of the Earth are articulating the language of rights to ‘educate, organize, and agitate’. The aim is to challenge oppression and formulate positive rights to demand their dues. In the process, these struggles are harnessing lok shakti (people’s power) to consolidate the idea of swaraj (self-rule) while shattering the monolithic discourse of rights to imagine a diverse world view. This work suggests reimagining a just world by strengthening the struggles of ordinary people to consolidate the rights framework.