The papers included here have been written at different points of time and for different occassions. I was quite hesitant to publish them in the form of a book. I was, however, encouraged by friends like Prof. D. Narasirnha Reddy, Prof. V. S. Prasad, who went through all these papers and made suggestions in the light of which the necessary revisions were carried out. Prof. Manoranjan Mohanty and Prof. R. S. Row were persuasive enough when they suggested and supported publication of these papers. I also felt reassured when Prof. Noam Chomslcy — one of the leading Human Rights activists of the world — wrote that he found these papers “intriguing! and “very interesting”. I cannot think of a better Western scholar at this stage than Chomsky for a critical assecsment of these papers. The publication of this book is also expedited by Mr. Paridey of Himalaya Publishing House, who literally rushed the papers to press without adhering to much of formalities. While all these friends are responsible for publication of this book, I am still not very sure of the reaction of the world of scholars and human rights activists In India.
These papers, in my view, suffer from several limitations, the most critical of which is that the papers lack uniformity of form and unity of theme. Although, the introductory chapter attempts at construction of the underlying theme, it is not totally satisfactory. Notwithstanding this initial hesitancy, I may venture to add that this work attempts to capture the unfolding dimensions of human rights which can in a way, form the frontier areas of enquiry. Most of the books, Particularly published in India, look descriptive and mechanical. There is a need to search for the underlying nuances governing human rights practices. One central concern of these papers is the question of ‘dominance permeating the social relations which is antithetical to all forms of freedom. The second concern of these papers is transformation of the existing unjust, unequal and undemocratic Indian social order. This order is, of course, changing but the pace can be speeded up by the active intervention of a middleclass committed to the democratic concerns. These analysis are also a part of my involvement in civil liberties concerns in India in general and in Andhra Pradesh in particular. It is true that most of the papers are based on Andhra experience which may not hold good to the larger Indian situation. Given
