The Problematics of Human Rights in Indian Fiction in English

Abstract

The concept of Human Rights is as old as Literature. Being about life, literature takes its newlinesustenance from life and, as such, it is not only an aesthetic construct but also a bearer of social newlineand human significance. At one level, this literary concern manifests itself through the newlineexploration and postulation of Human Rights. In the process it not only engages itself with newlinehuman-right concepts, their vicarious possibilities but also paves way for interdisciplinary newlinereadings of literature and human rights. These seemingly distinct disciplines inform each other at newlinethe level of theory, praxis and pedagogy. Literary works can, therefore, be seen as potent and newlinerich resources to correlate and study the concepts of human rights and vice-versa, as both newlineliterature and human rights become complementary to each other. newlineWith the world wide acceptability of human rights, as laid down by the UNO, in the Universal newlineDeclaration of Human Rights (1948), a consciousness for and awareness of human rights have newlinebecome central to human existence. Consequently a tradition/ culture of human rights and their newlinesanctity have acquired literary-imaginative center stage. While human rights shape the creative newlinecredos of creative writers, literature, in turn, critically/actively intervenes into this aspect of newlinehuman existence in its various dimensions. The proposed research project, by purporting human newlinerights as evaluative framework and selected Indian fiction in English as case studies, seeks to newlineexplore and analyse the interface between the two. newlineUnderstanding Indian Literature in English through Human Rights perspectives involves a newlinecritical dissection of the chosen literary texts which would highlight and problematise certain newlineHuman Rights concepts embedded in them. The study proposes to evolve as a sociological and newlinedeconstructive reading of the literary texts chosen for the purpose. In its problematisation of newlinehuman rights issues the study specifically focuses on the literary representation of children, newlinewomen, Dalits and the marginal/tribal people...