Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-wq2xx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T20:32:00.948Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A New Hope: India, the United Nations and the Making of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2008

MANU BHAGAVAN
MANU BHAGAVAN*
Affiliation:
Department of History, Hunter College – The City University of New York, 695 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA E-mail: manu.bhagavan@hunter.cuny.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper explores India's role in the development and design of the United Nations (UN), refracted through the Commission that drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Through an analysis of sovereignty, citizenship, nationality and human rights from the 1940s to 1956, the paper discusses what India hoped the UN to be, and more generally what they intended for the new world order and for themselves. The paper challenges existing interpretations of international affairs in this period. It seeks to reform our understanding of Jawaharlal Nehru's intellectual vision, and in the process attempts to recast the very concept of post-coloniality.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , March 2010 , pp. 311 - 347
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Asian Relations: Being Report of the Proceedings and Documentation of the First Asian Relations Conference. New Delhi: Asian Relations Organizations, 1948.Google Scholar
Briggs, Herbert W. ‘Implementation of the Proposed International Covenant on Human Rights’. The American Journal of International Law 42 (2), 1948, 389–397.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cordier, Andrew and Foote, Wilder, eds. Public Papers of the Secretaries-General of the United Nations, Volume I: Trygve Lie, 1946–1953. New York: Columbia University Press, 1969.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cordier, Andrew and Foote, Wilder, eds. Public Papers of the Secretaries-General of the United Nations, Volume II: Dag Hammarskjöld, 1953–1956. New York: Columbia University Press, 1972.Google Scholar
Gandhi, Mohandas K. The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (CWMG). Online at http://www.gandhiserve.org/cwmg/cwmg.html. Last accessed 29 April 2008.Google Scholar
India and the United Nations: Report of a Study Group set up by the Indian Council of World Affairs. New York: Manhattan Publishing Company, 1957.Google Scholar
Institute of Pacific Relations. Security in the Pacific. New York, 1945.Google Scholar
Madhavan, S.K., ed. India at the United Nations, Volume I. New Delhi: APH Publishing Corp., 1999.Google Scholar
Mehta, Hansa, Kaur, Rajkumari Amrit, and Menon, Lakshmi. The Indian Woman's Charter of Rights and Duties, July 1946.Google Scholar
Munshi, K.M.Our Greatest Need and Other Addresses. Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1958.Google Scholar
Nehru, Jawaharlal. The Discovery of India. New York: The John Day Company, 1946.Google Scholar
Nehru, Jawaharlal. The Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru (SWJN), Second Series, Gopal, S., ed. New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund, distributed by Oxford University Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Official United Nations Documents, Dag Hammarskjöld Library (DHL), United Nations Headquarters, New York.Google Scholar
Pandit, Vijaya Lakshmi. The Scope of Happiness. New York: Crown Publishers, 1979.Google Scholar
Papers of Isador Lubin, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (ILFDRL). Hyde Park, NY.Google Scholar
Papers of the United Nations. UN Archives, New York (UNA).Google Scholar
Private Papers of Hansa Mehta, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML), New Delhi.Google Scholar
Private Papers of Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit. NMML.Google Scholar
Abraham, Itty. ‘Migration and Citizenship in Asian International Relations and State Formation’. In Tan, See Seng and Acharya, Amitav, eds. Bandung Revisited: A Conference's Legacy and Relevance for International Order. Singapore: NUS Press, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Austin, Granville. The Indian Constitution. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000. 1st pub. 1966.Google Scholar
Berkes, Ross and Bedi, Mohinder. The Diplomacy of India: Indian Foreign Policy and the United Nations. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1958.Google Scholar
Bhagavan, Manu. Sovereign Spheres: Princes, Education and Empire in Colonial India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Bhagavan, Manu. ‘Princely States and the Hindu Imaginary: Exploring the Cartography of Hindu Nationalism in Colonial India’. The Journal of Asian Studies, August 2008, forthcoming a.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhagavan, Manu. ‘The Hindutva Underground: Hindu Nationalism and the Indian National Congress in Late Colonial and Early Postcolonial India’. In Lindquist, Steven, ed. Religion and Identity in South Asia: Essays in Honor of Patrick Olivelle. Firenze, Italy: Firenze University Press, forthcoming b.Google Scholar
Brown, Judith. Nehru: A Political Life. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Chatterjee, Partha. ‘The Moment of Arrival: Nehru and the Passive Revolution’. In Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004, 1st pub. 1986, pp. 131–166.Google Scholar
Chatterjee, Partha. ‘The Nehru Era’. In A Possible India: Essays in Political Criticism. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Glendon, Mary Ann. A World Made New. New York: Random House, 2002, 1st pub. 2001.Google Scholar
Gopal, Sarvepalli. Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography (3 volumes). Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976.Google Scholar
Guha, Ramachandra. India After Gandhi. New York: Ecco/HarperCollins, 2007.Google Scholar
Hess, Gary. America Encounters India. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1971.Google Scholar
Kennedy, Paul. The Parliament of Man. New York: Random House, 2006.Google Scholar
Khilnani, Sunil. “Nehru's Faith.” In Needham, Anuradha Dingwaney and Rajan, Rajeswari Sunder, eds. The Crisis of Secularism in India. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Manela, Erez. ‘The “Wilsonian Moment” in India and the Crisis of Empire in 1919’. In Louis, Wm. Roger, ed. Yet More Adventures with Britannia. New York: I.B. Tauris, 2005.Google Scholar
Morsink, Johannes. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palit, D.K.Major General A.A. Rudra: His Service in Three Armies and Two World Wars. New Delhi: Reliance, 2006.Google Scholar
Prashad, Vijay. The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World. New York: The New Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Jonathan. How Far the Promised Land? World Affairs and the American Civil Rights Movement from the First World War to Vietnam. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherwood, Marika. “India at the Founding of the United Nations.” International Studies 33 (4), 1996, 407–428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Neil. The Endgame of Globalization. New York: Routledge, 2005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tharoor, Shashi. Nehru: The Invention of India. New York: Arcade Publishing, 2003.Google Scholar
Von Eschen, Penny. Race Against Empire: Black Americans and Anticolonialism, 1937–1957. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
http://parliamentofindia.nic.in/ls/debates/debates.htm. Last accessed 28 November 2007.Google Scholar
http://www.betterworld.net/quotes/law-quotes.htm. Last accessed 5 October 2006.Google Scholar
http://indiacode.nic.in/coiweb/welcome.html. Last accessed 14 July 2006.Google Scholar
http://www.liberation.org.za/collections/sacp/dadoo/dadoo03.php. Last accessed 22 June 2006.Google Scholar
http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/. Last accessed 21 June 2006.Google Scholar
http://www.un.org/aboutun/history.htm. Last accessed 19 June 2006Google Scholar
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/wwii/atlantic.htm. Last accessed 29 April 2008.Google Scholar
Asian Relations: Being Report of the Proceedings and Documentation of the First Asian Relations Conference. New Delhi: Asian Relations Organizations, 1948.Google Scholar
Briggs, Herbert W. ‘Implementation of the Proposed International Covenant on Human Rights’. The American Journal of International Law 42 (2), 1948, 389–397.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cordier, Andrew and Foote, Wilder, eds. Public Papers of the Secretaries-General of the United Nations, Volume I: Trygve Lie, 1946–1953. New York: Columbia University Press, 1969.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cordier, Andrew and Foote, Wilder, eds. Public Papers of the Secretaries-General of the United Nations, Volume II: Dag Hammarskjöld, 1953–1956. New York: Columbia University Press, 1972.Google Scholar
Gandhi, Mohandas K. The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (CWMG). Online at http://www.gandhiserve.org/cwmg/cwmg.html. Last accessed 29 April 2008.Google Scholar
India and the United Nations: Report of a Study Group set up by the Indian Council of World Affairs. New York: Manhattan Publishing Company, 1957.Google Scholar
Institute of Pacific Relations. Security in the Pacific. New York, 1945.Google Scholar
Madhavan, S.K., ed. India at the United Nations, Volume I. New Delhi: APH Publishing Corp., 1999.Google Scholar
Mehta, Hansa, Kaur, Rajkumari Amrit, and Menon, Lakshmi. The Indian Woman's Charter of Rights and Duties, July 1946.Google Scholar
Munshi, K.M.Our Greatest Need and Other Addresses. Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1958.Google Scholar
Nehru, Jawaharlal. The Discovery of India. New York: The John Day Company, 1946.Google Scholar
Nehru, Jawaharlal. The Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru (SWJN), Second Series, Gopal, S., ed. New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund, distributed by Oxford University Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Official United Nations Documents, Dag Hammarskjöld Library (DHL), United Nations Headquarters, New York.Google Scholar
Pandit, Vijaya Lakshmi. The Scope of Happiness. New York: Crown Publishers, 1979.Google Scholar
Papers of Isador Lubin, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (ILFDRL). Hyde Park, NY.Google Scholar
Papers of the United Nations. UN Archives, New York (UNA).Google Scholar
Private Papers of Hansa Mehta, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML), New Delhi.Google Scholar
Private Papers of Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit. NMML.Google Scholar
Abraham, Itty. ‘Migration and Citizenship in Asian International Relations and State Formation’. In Tan, See Seng and Acharya, Amitav, eds. Bandung Revisited: A Conference's Legacy and Relevance for International Order. Singapore: NUS Press, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Austin, Granville. The Indian Constitution. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000. 1st pub. 1966.Google Scholar
Berkes, Ross and Bedi, Mohinder. The Diplomacy of India: Indian Foreign Policy and the United Nations. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1958.Google Scholar
Bhagavan, Manu. Sovereign Spheres: Princes, Education and Empire in Colonial India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Bhagavan, Manu. ‘Princely States and the Hindu Imaginary: Exploring the Cartography of Hindu Nationalism in Colonial India’. The Journal of Asian Studies, August 2008, forthcoming a.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhagavan, Manu. ‘The Hindutva Underground: Hindu Nationalism and the Indian National Congress in Late Colonial and Early Postcolonial India’. In Lindquist, Steven, ed. Religion and Identity in South Asia: Essays in Honor of Patrick Olivelle. Firenze, Italy: Firenze University Press, forthcoming b.Google Scholar
Brown, Judith. Nehru: A Political Life. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Chatterjee, Partha. ‘The Moment of Arrival: Nehru and the Passive Revolution’. In Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004, 1st pub. 1986, pp. 131–166.Google Scholar
Chatterjee, Partha. ‘The Nehru Era’. In A Possible India: Essays in Political Criticism. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Glendon, Mary Ann. A World Made New. New York: Random House, 2002, 1st pub. 2001.Google Scholar
Gopal, Sarvepalli. Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography (3 volumes). Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976.Google Scholar
Guha, Ramachandra. India After Gandhi. New York: Ecco/HarperCollins, 2007.Google Scholar
Hess, Gary. America Encounters India. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1971.Google Scholar
Kennedy, Paul. The Parliament of Man. New York: Random House, 2006.Google Scholar
Khilnani, Sunil. “Nehru's Faith.” In Needham, Anuradha Dingwaney and Rajan, Rajeswari Sunder, eds. The Crisis of Secularism in India. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Manela, Erez. ‘The “Wilsonian Moment” in India and the Crisis of Empire in 1919’. In Louis, Wm. Roger, ed. Yet More Adventures with Britannia. New York: I.B. Tauris, 2005.Google Scholar
Morsink, Johannes. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palit, D.K.Major General A.A. Rudra: His Service in Three Armies and Two World Wars. New Delhi: Reliance, 2006.Google Scholar
Prashad, Vijay. The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World. New York: The New Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Jonathan. How Far the Promised Land? World Affairs and the American Civil Rights Movement from the First World War to Vietnam. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherwood, Marika. “India at the Founding of the United Nations.” International Studies 33 (4), 1996, 407–428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Neil. The Endgame of Globalization. New York: Routledge, 2005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tharoor, Shashi. Nehru: The Invention of India. New York: Arcade Publishing, 2003.Google Scholar
Von Eschen, Penny. Race Against Empire: Black Americans and Anticolonialism, 1937–1957. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
http://parliamentofindia.nic.in/ls/debates/debates.htm. Last accessed 28 November 2007.Google Scholar
http://www.betterworld.net/quotes/law-quotes.htm. Last accessed 5 October 2006.Google Scholar
http://indiacode.nic.in/coiweb/welcome.html. Last accessed 14 July 2006.Google Scholar
http://www.liberation.org.za/collections/sacp/dadoo/dadoo03.php. Last accessed 22 June 2006.Google Scholar
http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/. Last accessed 21 June 2006.Google Scholar
http://www.un.org/aboutun/history.htm. Last accessed 19 June 2006Google Scholar
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/wwii/atlantic.htm. Last accessed 29 April 2008.Google Scholar