A STUDY ON THE DICHOTOMY BETWEEN UNIVERSALISM OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND CULTURAL RELATIVISM

WITH REFERENCE TO STATUS OF WOMEN IN INDIA

Abstract

The basic nature of human rights is that all rights are entitled to all human beings, which are universal, indivisible, interdependent and inalienable in nature.

As stated in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948, “Everyone is entitled to all rights and freedoms, without distinction of any kind such race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status”.

But the reality seems to be different. In a country like India, which is one of the most religiously and ethnically diverse nations in the world, with some of the deeply religious societies, culture is the way of living for people. Culture plays a vital role in defining the rights in the country, especially for women.

The burden of preserving the culture falls majorly on women than men in India as the cultural fundamentalists insist their adherence to culture and religion. Thus, their status and rights remain a question. The view is that all cultures are equal in a particular setting and universal values become a secondary matter while examining cultural norms. Relativism of culture is often justified as human rights are construed as western phenomenon and the debate is that human rights promote optimistic individualism and no consideration is given to the non-western cultures and values.

Though India has ratified the international conventions protecting rights of women, as such it does not automatically become applicable without the cultural acceptance of those laws. The study aims to compare the international rights granted to women with that of the cultural relativism to those rights in India that affects the status of women.