The M.A. programme in Politics and Human Rights is spread over two years
(Four Semesters). Candidates have to secure a minimum of 72 credits for
the successful completion of the programme (48 credits for core courses,
16 credits for elective courses, 6 credits for dissertation/projects and
2 credits for viva-voce examination)
Human Rights (HR) has been an established subject and a critical domain
of politics and international relations (IR) for more than half a century.
The concept and concerns of HR have, however, been expanding during the
last three hundred years incorporating a wide range of subjects and rights,
which transcend political, ideological and cultural differences/peculiarities
of the countries as well as the peoples across the world. The post-war
international system has further witnessed the emergence of a world HR
culture with liberty, emancipation, education and universalism as integral
components of that culture.
The field of HR studies with its characteristic inter-related disciplinary
concerns of politics, development, civil society, gender, environment,
law, justice etc., and encompassing a wide spectrum of national, international
and non-governmental/non-state actors, has brought forth a world wide
web of disciplinary concerns such as Political Science, Development studies,
Gender studies, Environmental studies, Ethnic studies, Subaltern studies,
Conflict Resolution and Peace studies, Disarmament studies etc. This is
certainly a vast and expanding domain of social and political research
particularly in the context of the changes currently underway in the global
matrix of trade and political economy. The academic programme attempts
to grapple with this vast corpus of knowledge and ground level realities
of HR while focusing on the global and national concerns of HR, peace,
order, equality, justice, etc. The courses of MA (Politics and Human Rights)
are so designed as to facilitate and encourage both theoretical and empirical
studies, thereby setting a background for students to have greater interest
in HR. The objective here is to generate a deep and critical awareness
among the students about the HR question in its national and international
dimensions. The rationale behind the programme is to enable the students
(1) to appreciate the growing importance of HR both as an academic enterprise
as well as a concern of the contemporary era in all its aspects; (2) to
critically evaluate the contending theories of HR; (3) to analyze the
social concerns such as development, gender, ecology, and civil society
within a HR perspective; and (4) to choose and construct an appropriate
design for an empirical investigation of a HR case from a local level
experience.
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