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42 Soc. Change 1 (2012)

handle is hein.journals/sclcnge42 and id is 1 raw text is: Article Reconceptualising Rights o°a'2he © CSD 2012 in Creative Society SAGE Publications Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington DC DOI: 10.1177/004908571104200101 Manoranjan Mohanty http://socialchange.sagepub.com Formerly Professor of Political Science, ©SAGE University of Delhi Currently Professor of Social Development, Council for Social Development, New Delhi, Chairperson, Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi e-mail: mmohantydu@gmail.com Abstract Challenging the traditional notion of rights as claims recognised by law, the article argues that the history of social movements suggests a different concept of rights. It shows that rights are political affirmations of a desirable human condi- tion in course of struggle and the constitutional and legal embodiment of a claim is only one stage of the process of political affirmation. Rights should be delinked from duties as the two are important on their own and one should not be seen as a condition for the other. As human consciousness grows about what are desirable human conditions at a new stage of the human civilisation, the realm of rights as human rights continues to expand in a dynamic, contested and inter- dependent process. Keywords Rights, human rights, social movements, creative society The New Context: Creative Society and the Age of Self-determination of People There is a new context of the emerging world which warrants a re-examination of much of the theoretical categories including the notion of rights. The main feature of this environment is the new level of consciousness among individuals, groups and regions everywhere about their worth, their creative potentiality. This con- sciousness is not just in the abstract, but is about people having some understand- ing about their condition, historically and presently including having some idea about possible reasons for their present situation. In many cases this conscious- ness carries a new will to do something to improve this condition so that there is

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