Tag: Political science

International Relations

Introduction

The term ‘international relations’ was first used by Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century, although its Latin equivalent, ‘intergentes‘, was used a century earlier by Rijehare Zouche. Both of them had used the term in the context of what later came to be known as international law. Today, nation states have become highly interdependent, and relations between them, political or economic, have developed into an essential area of knowledge.

The term ‘international relations’ (IR) may be used both for a ‘condition’ and a ‘discipline’ Quincy Wright, for example, makes such a distinction. The official relations between sovereign countries are described as international relations, though according to Wright, ‘… the word “interstate” would have been more accurate because in political science, the state came to be the term applied to such societies’. Viewed thus, international relations, as a condition, refers to the facts of international life, that is to say, the actual conduct of relations among nations through diplomacy based on foreign policy. It also includes actual areas of cooperation, conflict and war. According to Quincy Wright, IR should tell the ‘truth about the subject’, i.e., how such relations are conducted and, as a discipline, IR should treat them in a systematic and scientific manner.

Meaning Of International Relations

International relations as a subject is concerned with the relationships among the governments of various sovereign states. Many people may think that relations among nations are regulated and conducted by presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers, officials of the foreign offices and diplomats. This is partially true. The scope of international relations is not merely political. Today, economic activities such as international trade, role of multinational corporations, terrorist activities and impact of environment are all embraced in the fold of relations among nations.

Most scholars agree that the term ‘international politics’ is used to describe official political relations between governments acting on behalf of their states. The term ‘international relations’ is broader. According to Stanley Hoffman, ‘The discipline of international relations is concerned with the factors and activities which affect the external policies and power of the basic units into which the world is divided.’

International Relations As A Field Of Study

As a field of study, international relations analyses a wide range of political activities. These include war, peace, diplomacy, trade relations, treaties, alliances, cultural, exchanges, participation in international organizations, etc. Each of these activities makes up distinct issue areas on which scholars and foreign policy makers focus attention.

The scope of international relations is often defined by subtitles, like ‘questions of war and peace’ as a subtitle of international security. Joshua S Goldstein wrote, ‘the movements of armies and of diplomats, the crafting of treaties and alliances, the development and deployment of military capabilities – these are the subjects that dominated the study of IR in the past… and they continue to hold central position in the field.’

Besides these, religious groups and movements working in two or more countries also act as non-state actors in the international relations. These may include large followers as the Catholic Church has, or a spread out population as sought to be represented by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

References

International Relations By V N KHANNA and LESLIE K KUMAR

BR Ambedkar: Social Justice


The contribution of Dr B.R. Ambedkar in Indian Democracy is not to be forgotten. As a Chairman of the Constitutional Committee, he gave a shape to our country of a complete Sovereign, Democratic, Republic based on an adult franchise. In the Constitution of free India all the citizens have been guaranteed social, political and economic equalities.

Baba Saheb BR Ambedkar’s name is written in gold letters throughout Indian history as the creator of social justice. Not only was he the creator of the constitution, but also the creator of social justice and the messiah of the oppressed. If Mahatma Gandhi gave us the direction and lesson of morality, then Baba Saheb shaped the social aspect without exploitation. It had, in the truest sense of the word, a democratic and antiquated goal. He spent his whole life promoting the poor, exploited untouchables. and classes with problems.
It has been a gloomy historic fact of Indian society that lower castes have been exploited and subjugated upon by the upper castes and for that reason the lower castes have mostly also been the lower classes economically and vice versa.

During the freedom movement there were many leaders and movements throughout India. The most protruding voice of and for the lower castes bad emerged in the person of B.R. Ambedkar who came from the untouchable Mahar caste in what is today Maharashtra. Even today Ambedkar is a hugely influential symbol who is followed by many political forces throughout the length and breadth of India. Ambedkar’s aim in his own words was to get justice for the ‘last, the lost and the least and he emerged as a sort of revolutionary leader of India’s Hindu untouchable and other castes. His intention was to fight for their equality and seek better-quality living conditions for them and reach education among them and get suitable representation for them in elected bodies and in government services.


During the freedom struggle. Ambedkar’s emphasis on issues related to social justice forced the leaders of the national movement to take these up as part of the agenda associated with the main demand for unshackling the country from the chains of colonialism. Ambedkar was a highly educated person with great academic accomplishments and a lawyer by training. His views on social justice are to be found in his books and speeches.
His most important works are Annihilation of Caste (1936). Who were the Shudras (1946) and The Untouchables (1948). Also, his writings like What Congress and Gandhi have done to the Untouchables. He put forward vivid well researched attacks on the exploitative Hindu caste system chiefly with respect to how untouchables were treated and struggled all his life to secure legal and constitutional safeguards for their rights. It is stimulating in spite of the fact that he had attacked Gandhi’s Congress Party’s views and attitudes on the caste system quite harshly and in a scathing manner in
his writings, despite of that Gandhiji suggested Ambedkar’s name to head the committee to draft the Constitution.


Ambedkar in his work “Who Were the Shudras?” questioned the whole Hindu social order and tried to create a theory that the Shudras were not a separate varna or caste but were originally Kshatriyas who in a struggle with Brahmins were manipulated out of the kshatriya caste by the Brahmins and were deprived of the sacred thread.
He proposed a hypothesis that the untouchables were originally disciples of Buddha and were Buddhists but the Hindus led by the Brahmins to try to undermine Buddhist influence and stop its spread put the untouchables in a corner and started branding them untouchables. He believed the root of all lack of social justice in India was the caste system that created the environment for exploitation of man by man- of the Shudras and untouchables by
the brahmins and other higher castes. He believed that democracy cannot be achieved in India without first establishing social justice through the annihilation of the caste. Hence, he took a position that contradicted both the position of Congress and Gandhiji, who first wanted political reform and independence from the British colonial government, and the socialists and Marxists who wanted economic equality also established themselves first.