SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This chapter examines whether Hinduism is compatible with human rights. Using the methodology of legal pluralism and what AbdullahiAn-Na'im calls “civic reason,” it analyzes the claim that Hindu religion and culture is a collection of backward normative systems that violates even the most basic of human rights. It then explores how even well-meaning human rights activism fails to involve Hindus in respectful discussions about negotiating diversities and different perspectives. It also explains how different kinds of Hindus have cultivated their own understanding of human rights, and how in the process they may also fail to portray their respective religious and cultural perspectives adequately to a wider world. Finally, the chapter highlights significant breakdowns of intercultural communication that is quite different from deliberately misleading interjections and outright rejection of “the other”.