Union Home Minister Amit Shah is slated to inaugurate a two-day national conference this week in Delhi during which leading academicians, legal experts, jurists, and others will gather to explore and discuss various subjects, themed on "human rights in Indian culture and philosophy," officials said on Monday.
The event, spread over Jun 30 and July 1, is being hosted by the National Human Rights Commission in collaboration with Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), the NHRC said in a statement. One of the imperatives of this conference on 'Human Rights in Indian Culture and Philosophy' is to "fulfill major lacunae in the study of human rights," it said.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah will inaugurate the conference, as the chief guest, at Vigyan Bhawan. He will also present the NHRC human rights short film competition- 2021 awards, officials said. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is slated to be the chief guest for the valedictory session of the event that will be held at Ph.D. Chamber of Commerce and Industry here, they said.
"The conference is expected to be highly significant in the understanding of human rights, which formed an integral and defining essence of Indian socio-cultural milieu since time immemorial," the statement read. Leading academicians, scholars, legal experts, jurists, practitioners, and researchers have been invited to explore and discuss various subjects, "like the evolution of human rights in Indian philosophic-historical tradition, its social contexts, manifestation in art and literature, the framework of rule and finally living by the Indian Constitution," it said.
"The cultural traits and the philosophical thoughts in the Indian subcontinent have always hailed a wide spectrum of views and insights on human rights through both writings and practice. For ages, the Indian culture has emphasized the innate nature of human well-being rooted in spiritual, political, and dignified social, cultural, and mental freedom," the NHRC said.
As the temperament of the society has always remained knowledge-centric or spiritual-oriented, the human rights and cultural values have been conceptualized or imagined in a holistic framework of concrete, yet universal abstract multi-dimensional human existence, it said.
"'Human Rights' per se, as pronounced in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, although became popular around the 20th CE, the journey of its inherent meaning is an age-old phenomenon, which may be traced out in the rubric of Indian culture and philosophy. The word for 'right' in Indian culture is adhikara. Exploring the early Indian literature we do not come across the word adhikara; but in the overarching framework of kings and their responsibilities ascertained by the Dharma reflect its modern connotations," the statement added.
"India is a country in which 'Dharma' has always been an underlying force and it is interpreted in its original and wider connotation implying an ideal way of life-based on universal principles, social perspectives, and humanistic concern. Dharma although signifies obligations towards society but rights can be deduced from obligations," the statement read.
NHRC chairperson Justice (retd) Arun Kumar Mishra, IGNCA Board of Trustee president Ram Bahadur Rai, NHRC members, justice M M Kumar, D M Mulay, and Rajiv Jain, and Secretary-General D K Singh, senior officers, among others would also attend the event. The filmmaker and director of the film 'Samrat Prthiviraj', Chandraprakash Dwivedi is also slated to attend one of the technical sessions, as per the itinerary of the conference.
Exhibits, including photos, relevant to the theme of the conference, would also be displayed on the occasion, the statement added.
