HUMAN RIGHTS IN EVERYDAY LIFE IN INDIA

The rhetoric of human rights is contested and debated at various levels. However, this work considers several field-based examples in the Indian context to illustrate how the frameworks of oppression and resistance operate simultaneously. The oppressors manipulate the rights paradigm to justify their actions, whereas the oppressed leverage the same discourse to contest marginalization and assert their dignity in everyday life. Despite challenges, the wretched of the Earth are articulating the language of rights to "educate, organize, and agitate." They aim to challenge oppression and formulate positive rights to demand what is due to them. In the process, these struggles harness lok shakti (people’s power) to consolidate the idea of swaraj (self-rule) while shattering the monolithic discourse of rights to imagine a diverse worldview. This work suggests reimagining a just world by strengthening the struggles of ordinary people to reinforce the rights framework.