What rights are and where they come from

Detail

1. What a right is

• Right: a justified claim or entitlement that society must accept as legitimate. It is a demand that others are bound to respect. It is more than a wish.
• Not every want is a right. NCERT gives two examples:
• Wanting to wear clothes of your choice instead of the school uniform.
• Wanting to stay out late at night.

• These are personal wants. Society is not bound to treat them as rights.

• What turns a claim into a right: people must see it as reasonable and good for everyone, not just for the person asking.

2. NCERT's two grounds for rights

Ground	What it means	NCERT examples
Dignity and self-respect	Rights are conditions that society together sees as necessary for a life of dignity	Livelihood gives economic independence, so a person is not at another's mercy. Expression lets people be creative and lets citizens take part in democratic debate
Well-being	Rights are conditions people need to develop their abilities	Education builds reason and helps people make informed choices

• Because every human needs these conditions, such rights are universal: they belong to everyone.

3. Limits: what cannot be a right

• Nothing that harms oneself or others can be claimed as a right.
• Taking prohibited drugs harms the user, so it is not a right.

• Smoking in public harms bystanders through second-hand smoke, so "freedom to smoke anywhere" is not a right.

• New right-holders: claims are now made for children, the unborn and animals.

• Rights of nature: in 2017 the Uttarakhand High Court ordered that the Ganga and Yamuna be treated as legal persons (bodies the law treats like a person, with rights and duties). The Supreme Court stayed (put on hold) the order the same year.

4. Where rights come from (1): natural law and natural rights

• Natural law: a set of rules believed to be laid down by nature or God, not by any human ruler. It is higher than the laws a state makes.
• Natural rights (an idea of the 17th and 18th centuries) come from natural law.
• People are born with them. Kings and governments do not grant them.

• So rulers cannot take them away.

• John Locke (Two Treatises of Government, 1689) named three natural rights: life, liberty and property.

• For Locke these rights exist before government. People form a government so that a fair power can settle their disputes [5][6].

• People must obey a government only while it protects these rights. A ruler who violates them can rightly be overthrown [5][6].

• Use against arbitrary power (power used at the ruler's whim, without law):

• US Declaration of Independence (1776): it speaks of "unalienable rights", including "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness".
  • The Second Continental Congress adopted it on 4 July 1776. It accused the British king of seeking "absolute Tyranny over these States" [7][8].
  • Thomas Jefferson, its author, drew on Locke. He changed Locke's "life, liberty and property" to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" [7][8].
• French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789): issued during the French Revolution against royal absolutism (rule by a king with unlimited power).

5. Inalienable rights

• Inalienable rights: rights that cannot be taken away, and that a person cannot give up even by choice.
• The UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights) uses the phrase in its first line.
• The UN General Assembly adopted it in Paris on 10 December 1948, by Resolution 217 A [2].
• Preamble, first line: "recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world" [2].
• Article 1: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights." [2]
• Article 3: "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person." This echoes Locke's three rights, with "security" in place of "property" [2].
• Article 4: bans slavery and servitude in all forms. This fits the rule that no one is born to serve others [2].

6. From natural rights to human rights

• Why the term changed: today many people doubt that natural law (rules fixed by nature or God) exists. So "human rights" has replaced "natural rights".
• Human rights: rights a person has simply because they are human, not because of birth, wealth or citizenship. People now see them as guarantees they arrive at together for a minimally good life, not as gifts from nature.
• Three core beliefs:
• Each person is unique.
• Each person is equally valuable.

• No one is born to serve others.

• Shift in source: natural rights rested on nature or God. Human rights rest on human reasoning and agreement.

7. Kant's idea of human dignity

• Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785).
• Price or dignity: everything has one or the other.
• Price: the thing can be replaced by something of equal value (a pen, a car).

• Dignity: the thing is above all price and cannot be replaced.

• Only human beings have dignity. They are valuable in themselves, not because they are useful to someone.

• What follows: even people who are poor, uneducated, powerless, dishonest or immoral deserve a minimum of dignity and basic respect. Respect does not have to be earned.

8. The moral conception of rights

• Moral conception of rights: the view that rights come from what we owe every person as a moral being. It has two rules:
• Treat others as you would like to be treated.

• Never treat a person merely as a means to your own ends, the way you use a pen, a car or a horse. Every person is an end in themselves.

• Categorical imperative: Kant's formal version of this idea. "Act only on a rule (maxim) that you could will to become a universal law for everyone." It is "categorical" because it binds you whatever your goals or wishes.

• Historical role: the idea became a rallying point against hierarchies of race, caste, religion and gender. These systems treat some people as tools for others.
• Global echo: the UDHR rests on "inherent dignity" (Preamble) and "equal in dignity and rights" (Art. 1) [2].

9. Indian echo: dignity in the Constitution

• Preamble: the goal of Fraternity is "assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation".
• Article 21 (no person shall be deprived of life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law). The Supreme Court reads "life" as life with dignity:
• Francis Coralie Mullin v. Administrator, UT of Delhi (1981): the right to life means the right to live with human dignity, not mere animal existence.
• Common Cause v. Union of India (2018), a five-judge Constitution Bench:
  • The "right to live with dignity" under Art. 21 includes the "right to die with dignity" [3][4].
  • Passive euthanasia (withdrawing or withholding medical treatment so that natural death follows) is legal under Art. 21. Its basis is liberty, dignity and privacy [4].
  • Advance Medical Directives (living wills: written instructions, made in advance, about refusing future treatment if you lose the capacity to decide) are valid [4].
  • The Court set out detailed guidelines for carrying out living wills and for deciding when to withdraw treatment from a patient who cannot decide [4].
  • It separated extinguishing life, which is not allowed (active euthanasia), from letting the natural process of death conclude, which is allowed (passive euthanasia) [4].

10. GS-IV link: deontology versus utilitarianism

	Deontology (Kant)	Utilitarianism (Bentham, J.S. Mill)
Test of right action	Duty: follow a rule that could be a universal law	Results: the greatest happiness of the greatest number
Status of the person	An end in themselves, never merely a means	One unit in the total sum of welfare
Rights	Strong limits that cannot be traded away	Can give way if overall welfare rises
Risk	Rigid even when the results are bad	The majority may sacrifice a minority

Prelims Hooks

• Locke's three natural rights: life, liberty and property. The US Declaration (1776) replaced property with "the pursuit of happiness".
• US Declaration of Independence: adopted 4 July 1776 by the Second Continental Congress. The French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen: 1789.
• UDHR: adopted 10 December 1948, Paris, by UNGA Resolution 217 A. Its Preamble opens with "inherent dignity" and "equal and inalienable rights".
• UDHR Art. 1: "born free and equal in dignity and rights". Art. 3: life, liberty and security of person. Art. 4: no slavery.
• Kant, Groundwork (1785): everything has a price (replaceable) or a dignity (above all price). Only humans have dignity.
• Categorical imperative: act only on a maxim you can will as a universal law. Also: never treat a person merely as a means.
• "Human rights" replaced "natural rights" because belief in natural law (laid down by nature or God) has faded.
• Trap: the Uttarakhand HC's 2017 order making the Ganga and Yamuna legal persons was stayed by the Supreme Court. It is not the law in force.
• Case–principle pairs: Francis Coralie Mullin (1981) → Art. 21 includes the right to live with human dignity. Common Cause (2018) → right to die with dignity, passive euthanasia and living wills are valid.
• Trap: a harmful want (drugs, smoking that harms others) cannot be a right, even if it is a personal choice.

Mains Points

• Where rights come from shapes how strong they are.
• Natural-rights theory puts rights above the state. This justified the 1776 and 1789 revolutions.
• Human-rights theory grounds rights in shared human agreement. That makes them universal, but critics argue they then depend on consensus that can shift.

• India's Part III mixes both: rights are written into law, and Art. 21 is read in the light of inherent dignity.

• Kantian dignity as a constitutional value.

• The Preamble's "dignity of the individual", Francis Coralie Mullin (1981) and Common Cause (2018) turn a moral idea into rights that courts enforce.

• They give a moral base for fighting caste, gender and racial hierarchies, which treat people as means to others' ends.

• Expanding right-holders (children, the unborn, animals, rivers).

• Such claims extend moral concern to those who cannot speak for themselves.

• But the stay on the Ganga–Yamuna order shows the practical limits: who sues on a river's behalf, and who answers for harm it causes?

• Deontology versus utilitarianism in policy (GS-II/GS-IV).

• Rights act as limits that no welfare calculation can override, for example a ban on forced labour even if it would raise output.
• The challenge is balancing them against public-interest goals such as public health limits on smoking.