Q.
Humanism is often linked with human rights specially within the frame of various definitions of this term by the United. Nations Commission on Human Rights and other national or international organisations concerned with it. There are quite a few organisations today which seem to move towards the ideals of Gandhiji's humanism. What is your view on the question of human rights in terms of international relations?
A.
When we are talking about Gandhiji's humanism, we do not identify the problem in the sense in which it is used in the him the independence struggle of India was also a manifestation Gandhiji's humanism was a more comprehensive concept. For him the independence struggle of India was also a manifestation of this humanism in South Africa, where human rights were trampled upon unabashedly. Humanism stands for liberation of mankind in the political, social and economic sense, complete absence of racial discrimination along with assertion of racial equality, abolition of political or economic exploitation of man by man, freedom of thought and organisation for the development of human personality.
Q.
How would you like the voice of dissent to be heard in an organised society?
A.
I think it is a basic right which is a part of humanism that there should be the right of dissent. But this should not imply the right of interfering in other country's affairs under the cover of human rights. Recently we saw a new development when all the European countries met in Helsinki. They came to an agreement which took cognizance of human rights. This would mean that every signatory of the agreement has undertaken the responsibility and obligation to implement the agreement in its own way. If anybody in the name of that pact wants to interfere in some other country's internal affairs, I would say that it is not a proper interpretation of it.
Human rights, like freedom and peace, are indivisible. An abridgement of human rights anywhere is a matter of concern everywhere. Yet it is one thing to recognise the universality of human rights and quite another to invoke this universality in furtherance of global power politics. While all the nations must co-operate in enlarging the sphere of human rights, we must remember that no nation or society is perfect and that those who live in glass houses should not throw stones at others.
Q.
Gandhiji had evolved the principle of "conscientious objection" to war in his struggle in South Africa. In the modern context, do you think this form of "conscientious objection" has relevance?
A.
It has. It will always have. At the beginning of the second world war, Bertrand Russell and other eminent men had issued a statement against wars on the basis of conscientious objection. I think we would always have this kind of objection.