Economy, Culture and Human Rights: Turbulence in Punjab, India and Beyond

Why do people get moved to protest against some violations of human rights and not others? How can the culture of human rights be made inclusive? This book offers insights into these questions by tracing the dialectical connection between economic interests and human rights. It offers a unique understanding of the contestation over the application of human rights in the global context. Reflection on personal experience of violation is combined with extensive fieldwork in India and Punjab to offer an enriched theoretical understanding of what is at stake in human rights thinking and practice. Contents: 1. Theoretical perspectives and personal experiences 2. The political economy of centralisation in India: Shaping the macro-environment for human rights 3. Economic interests, political culture and human rights in Indo-British relations 4. Historical conduits of the political culture of Punjab 5. Actions and reactions of 1984: State repression, militancy and human rights 6. Rural capitalism, religious revivalism and fractured resistance 7. Combating sectarianism and instrumentalism in the human rights praxis in Punjab 8. Conclusions. Appendix: Responses to the human rights situation in Punjab.