There were days when newspapers and TV news studios provided food for thought for those inclined to remain aware of issues and form opinions based on impartial news and astute balanced analysis of current issues affecting us socially, politically, and economically, and form views that would lead to our overall safety and wellbeing. But now a day’s popular mainstream media has taken sides and they try to sell their opinion using various innovative techniques. Sensationalism is used to sell pre-established agendas. The same trend is shared by social media and influences and trollers replace the popular anchors to create a cacophony. Amidst this there exist few social media forums which resort to a healthy discussion of points of view. Some Whatsapp Groups have provoked thoughts in the recent past. In one such group, there was a discussion that required people to enlist leaders in history who have been real champions of Human Rights.
In general Human Rights relatively are a modern concept. Last 100 years or so we have seen important landmarks that have created a narrative. Widespread women's suffrage, the end of segregation in the United States, and regulations on working conditions are a few milestones that today's society can credit to the last 100 years. In the early 1900s, change was brewing amidst the violence and devastation of World War I and World War II. In the wake of the Holocaust, the creation of the United Nations in 1945, cast a new lens on the idea of universal human rights for every individual. According to the UN, these rights were inherent to all human beings, including "the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and many more," and they are still a cornerstone of foreign policy and human rights law. Gay Rights, End of segregation, end of apartheid, Same-sex marriage, Roe vs Wade, and many such events happened in the last 100 years or so. It's worth noting that there is still a long way to go in ensuring human rights for everyone. A major region in this world still leaves in medieval times based on oppressive human rights ruling system based on religion. A major continent is struggling due to economic deprivation and local fights based on religion and corrupt dictators. Another continent fights against the crime. Two large countries have adopted communism and have their own dubious human rights records. Refugee problems and religious extremism plague prosperous countries. Democracies remain polarized based on left-right narratives. We need a lot of champions in the current era to really help all human beings across the planet to have equal rights in the real sense apart from just being a theoretical principle.
Human Rights have a subjective interpretation. There is a popular liberal version of it and there are relative nuances as well. Based on those politically correct liberal standards the list of Human Rights champions will have predictable names filled mostly with the modern names. Maybe there will be mention of some ancient philosophers and medieval political leaders convenient to the liberal narrative. Ancient civilizations were thriving and flourishing. Yet some people in those civilizations were persecuted. Some civilizations ended while some changed their rulers and dynasties. Since the start of the last millennium, plunderers, explorers, and the colonists invaded new worlds. They have decimated the local population. The renaissance and industrial revolution equipped expansionists with capabilities that were crucial in these invasions and plunder. But the emphasis on knowledge and awakening rightfully also created a byproduct: Modern Human Rights Movement. But there is stark hypocrisy in recent times. On one hand, past colonists and invaders remained unapologetic about past atrocities while on the other hand, they do lip service to this modern concept of Human Rights. The Current liberal narrative hypocritically takes a moral high ground against those who have been wronged in past and are now being assertive of their own Human Rights they champion.
But apart from this popular narrative, few real champions of Human Rights are the ones who fought against the tyranny of invaders and colonists. These champions were fighting against these horrific criminals blinded by Religion, Political expansionism, or economic greed. These champions may have taken a few steps that might have not been acceptable to the conventional liberal narrative. But the very fact that they stood up against the tyranny of persecutors and the way they liberated those oppressed will solicit their name in the hall of fame. A prime example is Chattrapati Shivaji. He liberated the masses against the persecution of foreign invaders and religious extremists. The entire continent's History was changed which impacted the modern course of events in the History of the subcontinent. These days politicians with narrow caste-based agendas have tried to hijack the monumental impact of Chattrapati Shivaji’s Legacy. These Politicians really have divided society as they have intended. This is deplorable. In that line, many revolutionaries and reactionaries who sacrificed everything they had for a cause to free their countries against past colonists will not find names in the Human Rights hall of fame just because of hard-lined assertions they might have made against the contrary liberal narrative. So we may have an incomplete list.
Someone in this debate mentioned with a resigned outlook: “Human right is an unrealizable ideal. Humans will always be tribal and always have suspicion, dislike, and hatred of the other, the degree depending on the extent of insecurity felt and tapped by manipulative leaders. This has given birth to ungrounded idealism. It is better to embrace the human reality and prepare to live in an unfair world than to hope there is such a thing as universal law or rights or brotherhood”. Thus any attempt to have an all-inclusive and acceptable Human Rights Hall of Fame is unrealistic. Even though, one needs to be realistic and not utopian, a very small step towards utopia is to accept contrary viewpoints and be inclusive in the thought process.
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