Briefing is a space within each issue of dig.ni.fy, which will be dedicated to exploring various notions of dignity as they come to be expressed through various cultural norms. Information contained within Briefing thus serves to provide context to alternative notions or individual expressions. If you would like to contribute to Briefing, please present your proposal at: https://www.dignityprojects.com/contact-8 or by clicking here.
union of Atma and Paramatama and the role of Chetna, the Consciousness, is considered as same for all creations in this world and is the greatest contribution of the Hindu classical thought in regard to Human dignity and Human rights.”3
Hinduism, Human Dignity, & Human Rights
Human dignity and human rights are not explicitly discussed in Vedic literature; and hence much understanding of such notions in Hinduism is abstract and derivative. Again, Vedic literature finds its origins in an oral tradition, in which Vedas are apauruseya or ‘not of man.’ As such, their origin story lies in their being created by Brahman – the ultimate reality and the head of the triad of great Hindu gods, which include Shiva and Vishnu. Any notion of what it means to be human, what it means to be possessed of dignity and to be accorded specific rights, must be understood in that context.
For example, in much the same manner as the Catholic Church argues humans possess dignity because they were made in the image of God, so too does Hinduism claim that all human beings are “begotten of the immortal.” With regard to the the notion of rights, it need be noted that,
though the Sanskrit word adhikara is aligned with the word “rights,” there is no specific mention of such in the Vedic literature. Rather, the modern notion of rights and obligations stem from and are recognized in “embryonic form” by dharma. For example:
Dharma “verbalizes” obligations, from which rights can be deduced. However, as the notion of dharma is very broad with no contemporary English word for it, it has come to denote “obligations, conventions, customs, guidelines, injunctive authorizations, principles, standards, models among others.” And these primarily guided the king In governing the state, as they guided people in living a virtuous life through everyday actions. Some important types of dharma included raj-dharma (obligation of kings or civil law); apad-dharma (obligations to meet during a crisis); sadharana-dharma(actions that are the responsibility of all people); kula-dharma (family-cognate dharma); varnashrama-dharma (deportment predicated on the fulfillment of obligations in compliance with one’s status, gender, and stage of subsistence); and sva-dharma (an individual’s particular dharma). Similarly, the trader’s body called sreni also observed a code of conduct called sreni- dharma.4
Of more importance may well be the notion of Karma, which articulates the individual responsibility for all their deeds and the consequences of such deeds. “It maintains that ‘actions’ or ‘deeds’ of the individuals rebound sooner or later either in this life or other lifetimes.” Karma thus suggest responsible action towards another human being – in fact, towards all beings and the planet. As scholars have pointed out, this is similar to Kant’s Golden Rule: due unto others as you would have them do undo you. It is also why others point out: “The contemplation of the concept of dharma mentioned in Vedic literature is withal ostensible in Kant’s deontological ethics. Both are commensurable in terms of universality, innate rights, and standard of morality.”5 In this sense, the dharma does align with modern notions of personal responsibility, logic, and moral correlates.
Conclusion
All this is to emphasize that the concept of human rights within Hinduism is more abstract and thus has been reified in the modern era. It must also be noted that "the rights in the sense of an entitlement ensured by the state or any high ascendancy seem to be missing in the Vedic literature."6
It is this tension that reminds us of the work which remains to be done, as we traverse the landscape of defining what human dignity means to various people and cultures around the globe.
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