Is Adhikära good enough for ‘Rights’?

Abstract

The paper considers the question of whether ‘rights’ as we have it in modern Western thinking has an equivalence within the Indian framework of Dharma. Under Part I we look at purusarthas to see if the desired human goals imply rights by examining the tension between aspired ‘values’ and the ‘ought’ of duty. Next, a potential cognate in the term ‘adhikära’ is investigated via the derivation of a refined signification of ‘entitlements’, especially in the exegetical hermeneutics of the Mĩmämsä. Finally, adhikära’s re-emergence in the Bhagavadgĩtäis considered. We suggest that while the boundary is significantly extended, the Gĩtä too appears to be circumspect in opening up the discourse in the..