Headline, December13, 2013

'''HUMAN RIGHTS : 

DIFFICULT TO SPEAK - 

IMPOSSIBLE TO BE SILENT!!!

!WOW! : The World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless is honoured to propose naming its Human Rights Module in the Loving and Respectful memory of,

'''President Nelson Mandela'''

And now to history, tale and perspective: 

There is something very appealing in the idea that every person anywhere in the world ,  irrespective of citizenship, residence, race, class, caste, or community, has some basic rights which others should respect. The big moral appeal of human rights has been used for a variety of purposes:

From resisting torture, arbitrary incarceration, and racial discrimination to demanding an end to  hunger  and  starvation, and to medical neglect across the globe.

At the same time, the basic idea of  human rights, which people are supposed to have simply because they are humans,  is seen by many critics as entirely without any kind or reasoned foundation.

The questions that are recurrently asked are: do these rights exist? Where do they come from?

But first the tale:

The French Revolution swirled into fury:

Some few months before the storming of the Bastille in Paris, the political philosopher and one of the greatest orator of all times, Edmund Burke, addressed the Parliament in London:

''An event has happened, upon which it is difficult to speak, and impossible to be silent.'' This was on 5 May 1789-  and Burke's speech had nothing much to do with the developing STORM in France.

The occasion, rather, was was the impeachment of Warren Hastings, who was then commanding the British East India Company, which was setting up British rule in India, beginning with the Company's victory in the Battle of Plassey, on June 23,   1757.

In IMPEACHING Warren Hastings, Burke invoked the  ''eternal laws of justice''  which Burke claimed,  Hastings had   'violated'. The impossibility of remaining silent on a subject is an observation that can be made about many cases of patent injustice that move us to rage in a way that is hard for our language to capture.

And yet any analysis of injustice would also demand clear articulation and reasoned scrutiny.

Burke, did not, in fact, give much evidence of being lost for words; he spoke eloquently not on one misdeed of Hastings but on a great many, and proceeded from there to present simultaneously a number of separate and quiet distinct reasons for the need to indict Warren Hastings and the nature of emerging British rule in India :

I impeach Warren Hastings, Esquire, of high crimes and misdemeanours.

I impeach him in the name of the Commons of Great Britain in Parliament assembled, whose Parliamentary trust he has betrayed.

I impeach him in the name of all the Commons of Great Britain, whose national character he has dishonoured.

I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose laws, rights, and liberties he has subverted, whose properties he has destroyed, whose country he has laid waste and desolate.

I impeach him in the name of and by virtue of those eternal laws of justice which he has violated.

I impeach him in the name of human nature itself, which he has cruelly outraged, injured, and oppressed, in both sexes, in every age, rank, situation and condition of life.

 But in all and every fairness, the author adds, ''I am not commenting on the factual veracity of Burke's claims, but only on his general approach of presenting plural grounds for indictment. Sir Edmund Burke's thesis about Hasting's personal perfidy was actually rather unfair to Hastings. 

Oddly enough, Burke had earlier defended the wily Robert Clive. who was a great deal more responsible for lawless plunder of India under the Company's dominance.  -

Something that Hastings did try to stem through a greater emphasis on law and order  -as well as through bringing in a measure of humanity in the company's administration which was badly and horribly missing earlier 

This Post will continue  for ever and ever in the future. Ever so often, at least once a month,  I will be writing about Human Rights for the Nelson Mandela Module on !WOW!

With most respectful dedication to all the Leaders of the Free World; 

With most respectful dedication to all the Students of the free World. See Ya ll on !WOW!

''' be cool. just be '''

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless