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Abstract

Human rights are those rights which are essential for the survival of humans, humanity, humanism and human rights have been in the society right from the beginning of human civilization. Infact, In India, they have been as old as the “Satyuga” and times of Ramayana (Tretayuga) and Mahabharata (Dvapara Yuga) Particularly, the concept of “Vasudhaiba Kutumbakam” contains the spirit of human civilization. The “Rig Veda, the oldest document of the Indians declared not only all human beings are equal but the each and every creature in the universe is equal with respect to the dignity of human rights. The “Atharva Veda” advocated the same thing. In addition to this, ancient Indian stressed on the principle that one person’s right is another person’s duty. The need to feel the importance of human rights was felt in the pre-independence era where the human beings fought for their rights with the National freedom movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi. Infact, Bhagat Singh, Veer Savarkar and so many other revolutionaries fought for the rights of people in Jail. In the Independent India, efforts have been made to define human rights education in the 1950’s & 1960’s in formal school setting. But as time passes, the human rights perspectives have dominated the formulation of educational policies which is supported and recommended by major commissions and policy documents like University Education commission, (Radha Krishan Commission 1949). Secondary Education commission (Mudaliar Commission 1952) Education Commission ( Kothari Commission, 1964-1966), National Policies on Education (1968,1986), The Rammurthi Committee (1992), The Chavan Committee (1999), Programme of Action (1992) etc.Thus, the history of human rights which has its existence from the power of Rig Veda has developed as time passes to take a shape of human right as right to express, right to vote, right to education in respect of sex, caste or creed, right to information etc. The UNO declared and adopted Human rights in 1948 but the Indians talked about them in their ancient civilization. Here,  in this paper the authors have tried to quote few examples especially from Gorakh Sutras to prove that Indians valued Human rights much earlier than the whole world.

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Ahuja, M., Ahuja, A., & Chaudhary, R. (2018). Learning Human Rights from ancient Indian Mythology with special reference to Gorakhsutras. International Journal for Social Studies, 4(1), 117-125. https://doi.org/10.26643/ijss.v4i1.6258