Popular Rights Movement
Also called: Freedom and People's Rights Movement · Topic: Paths to Modernisation: Japan, China, Korea · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 7 "Paths to Modernisation"
Meaning
The Popular Rights Movement was a movement in Meiji Japan in the 1870s and 1880s. It demanded a constitution and an elected assembly. Its leaders spoke of natural rights, meaning rights every person has by birth, and of power belonging to the people. Their pressure pushed the government to grant the Meiji Constitution of 1889. It was the democratic side of the Meiji debate.
Example
Ueki Emori, one of its leaders, admired the French Revolution's ideas of natural rights and popular sovereignty. He declared that "freedom is more precious than order". Tanaka Shozo, who later fought the Ashio mine pollution, also came from this movement.
Don't confuse with
- May Fourth Movement (China, 1919): The Popular Rights Movement wanted a constitution in Meiji Japan. May Fourth was a Chinese movement to save China through science, democracy and nationalism.
Related concepts
- Meiji economic modernisation
- Zaibatsu
- Tanaka Shozo
- Ashio mine pollution
- Meiji Constitution
- Fukuzawa Yukichi