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The Wages of Impunity - Power, Justice and Human Rights
This book consists of essays on human rights and civil liberties in India. Reiterating the indispensability of fundamental rights, read in the context of the Indian Constitutions Directive Principles, the essays focus on aspects such as secularism, socialism, and the right to life, liberty, free speech and association. Using the Constitution as the point of departure, the author opens up the complexity of rights through inclusive analyses of case law on each of these aspects. On one track, the book looks at the origin of preventive detention laws in the country in the context of the debates during the colonial period on the issue. On a second track, the essays look at the practices of politics - the undermining of mass struggles and left movements and the rise of right-wing nationalism. On a third track explore possible remedies to a seemingly hopless situation.
- GenresIndiaPoliticsNonfiction
357 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
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June 21, 2020
Written from the frontlines. Arguments shaped and tested by decades of steadfast activism and lawyering.
The essays in this collection force the reader to think deeply about the character of the Indian state. It is without an iota of grandstanding that Kannabiran writes that “the relationship between violence, power and the law is especially evident to those committed to democratic values.” And his essays methodically expose how too often, too many decisions of our constitutional functionaries betray an ignorance of this relationship between violence, power and the law.
Kannabiran excoriates the culture of impunity that has been fostered by decades of state violence—sanctioned by law, and with little judicial oversight, or worse, with judicial acquiescence. He argues how this culture of impunity has been sustained by a huge disconnect between the majestic principles of the Constitution and their working on the ground, especially when it comes to the enforcement of India’s preventive detention and anti-terror laws. Another contributing factor, Kannabiran argues, is the unquestioning acceptance of colonial traditions and jurisprudence with no regard to the Independence movement. The infirmities in the rights-jurisprudence that emerged out of our courts can be attributed to this failure to recognise the Constitution as a political document framed at the end of a long struggle for freedom. His arguments reflect not the pontifical certainty of a cloistered academic, but the sagacity of a seasoned practitioner.
Kannabiran also briefly touches upon the relationship between labour rights and some of our cherished constitutional rights, in particular, how trade unions crucially shaped the right to speech and assembly. His analysis forces us to think if a regression of labour rights is even possible without an accompanying erosion of civil and political rights. This question, it seems, is frighteningly imminent as workers in the organised sector now stand to lose the many protections the law affords them, (and those in the unorganised sector face the deprivation of their rights to life, livelihood and dignity.)
The substance of this book can perhaps be best summarised in Kannabiran’s own words: “Legitimacy goes beyond legal rights and entitlements. It encompasses issues of moral or ethical entitlements, issues of the ends for which power is used, and issues of the means and procedures by which power is used.”
The essays in this collection force the reader to think deeply about the character of the Indian state. It is without an iota of grandstanding that Kannabiran writes that “the relationship between violence, power and the law is especially evident to those committed to democratic values.” And his essays methodically expose how too often, too many decisions of our constitutional functionaries betray an ignorance of this relationship between violence, power and the law.
Kannabiran excoriates the culture of impunity that has been fostered by decades of state violence—sanctioned by law, and with little judicial oversight, or worse, with judicial acquiescence. He argues how this culture of impunity has been sustained by a huge disconnect between the majestic principles of the Constitution and their working on the ground, especially when it comes to the enforcement of India’s preventive detention and anti-terror laws. Another contributing factor, Kannabiran argues, is the unquestioning acceptance of colonial traditions and jurisprudence with no regard to the Independence movement. The infirmities in the rights-jurisprudence that emerged out of our courts can be attributed to this failure to recognise the Constitution as a political document framed at the end of a long struggle for freedom. His arguments reflect not the pontifical certainty of a cloistered academic, but the sagacity of a seasoned practitioner.
Kannabiran also briefly touches upon the relationship between labour rights and some of our cherished constitutional rights, in particular, how trade unions crucially shaped the right to speech and assembly. His analysis forces us to think if a regression of labour rights is even possible without an accompanying erosion of civil and political rights. This question, it seems, is frighteningly imminent as workers in the organised sector now stand to lose the many protections the law affords them, (and those in the unorganised sector face the deprivation of their rights to life, livelihood and dignity.)
The substance of this book can perhaps be best summarised in Kannabiran’s own words: “Legitimacy goes beyond legal rights and entitlements. It encompasses issues of moral or ethical entitlements, issues of the ends for which power is used, and issues of the means and procedures by which power is used.”
Displaying 1 of 1 review