Discovery of India Building Dr. Annie Besant Road, Worli, Mumbai - 400 018. Phone : 2496 4676-80 Fax : 2497 3827 E-Mail: [email protected] Newsletter Website: www.nehru-centre.org Vol. 18 Issue 12 DECEMBER 2017 Price Rs. 10/- Per Copy Annual Subscription Rs. 100 Events At a Glance... The Universal Declaration Art Gallery of Human Rights Indian Master’s Retrospective Celebrating Glorious 25th Year Human rights may be said to be could be completely wiped out. Mrs. those fundamental rights to Roosevelt's reflection was most An exhibition showcasing the works of an which every man or woman perceptive, “I think that if the atomic Indian Art Icon - Raja Ravi Varma inhabiting any part of the world bomb did nothing more, it scared should be deemed equally people to the point where they Friday, 15th December 2017 to entitled merely by virtue of realized that either they must do Saturday, 6th January 2018 Nehru Centre Art Gallery having been born a human being. something about preventing war or On December 10, it will be 69 there is a chance that there might be a Library: Workshops years since the adoption of the morning when we would not wake Universal Declaration of Human up.” The need for a charter of human A Capella Boy Rights by the United Nations. rights, that would obligate ‘every state Written by Katie Bagli to recognize the equal right of every The end of the Second World individual on its territory to life, Saturday, 16th December 2017 War, the deadliest conflict in liberty and property, religious 10.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. human history, brought to light freedom and the use of his own Hall of Harmony the profound misery that Age Group: 7-10 year olds affected many countries as a result of the Nazi rule in Pastel Painting Germany. The genocidal murder Written by Bhavna Panchamia of millions of Jews and gypsies and the persecution of other Monday, 18th December 2017 10.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. m i n o r i t i e s s h o c k e d t h e “Who Are We” Hall conscience of the world leaders Age Group: 10 years and above and people at large. Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt who was the first lady of the United States of America Eleanor Roosevelt holding up the poster of the Universal Cultural Wing during the duration of World Declaration of Human Rights War II, observed, “You can language’, was never before more MUSHAIRA measure the extent of physical (Recitation of Poetry in Urdu) acutely felt. damage done to the cities but An evening of recitation of ghazals and h o w t o g a u g e w h a t h a s Mrs. Roosevelt led the U.S. Delegation nazms by local and outstation poets. happened to human beings – that to the United Nations in 1945 and took is incalculable.” upon herself the responsibility of the Saturday, 16th December 2017 drafting of a Universal Declaration of 8.00 pm The dropping of atomic bombs Human Rights. It was not an easy task. Nehru Centre Auditorium on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Different nations argued about demonstrated how the world contd. on page 2 Nehru Centre Newsletter - December 2017 1 various issues. The Cold War which was in the form of the Constitution of which prepared the blueprint for started between the U.S. and the India Bill 1895 also known as the India's Constitution. The Motilal erstwhile U.S.S.R. soon after the Home Rule Bill. It envisaged for Nehru Committee declared that the Second World War made matters India a Constitution guaranteeing; first concern of the Indian people was more difficult. In her persuasive best to secure to themselves fundamental she exhorted the delegates at the 1. Freedom of Expression, human rights that had been denied. United Nations thus, “Time has 2. Inviolability of one's house, The rights recommended by the come…. when we must recognize 3. Right to property, and Committee were, incidentally, a close that our mutual devotion to our own 4. Equality before law precursor of the fundamental rights in land must never blind us to the good the 1950 Constitution of independent of all lands and of all peoples. In the The bill, however, was never India, with 10 of the 19 rights end--- we are ‘one world’ and that introduced in British Parliament. enumerated in the Nehru Report which injures any one of us, injures appearing in the Constitution all of us. Only by remembering this In 1918 Edwin Montagu, Secretary of substantially unchanged. will we finally have a chance to build State for India and Lord Chelmford, a lasting peace.” After three years of Viceroy of India, after lengthy The famous Karachi Resolution of the n e g o t i a t i o n s , t h e U n i v e r s a l discussions brought out a report Indian National Congress of 1931 was Declaration of Human Rights, which which formed the basis of the on Fundamental Rights and Economic Eleanor Roosevelt described as a Government of India Act of 1919. and Social Change. It enumerated 14 'composite' of international beliefs on While the Act was being drafted, a fundamental rights and duties. the rights, freedoms, and dignity of demand was made by the Indian human beings became a reality. The National Congress for writing into Finally the Constitution of India, General Assembly of the United the Act thus: “A declaration of the which the people of India adopted for Nations adopted the Declaration on rights of the people of India as British themselves a year after the Universal December 10, 1948. Forty eight Citizens” which would guarantee; Declaration of Human Rights, nations, including India, were contained everything concerning signatory to this Declaration. 1. Equality before law, Human Rights in its chapter on 2. Protection in respect of life, liberty fundamental rights including the right Almost at the same time, India's and property, to constitutional remedies for the Constituent Assembly, which had 3. Freedom of speech, and enforcement of fundamental rights. been constituted in December 1946, 4. Right of Association. Dr. Ambedkar called this provision was busy drafting a Constitution for ‘the very soul of the Constitution and independent India. Human rights The declaration, though, was the very heart of it.’ were to be an integral part of the nowhere in the Act. It only provided Constitution which the country more participation of Indians in the The Universal Declaration of Human adopted on 26th January 1950. There Government of India and nothing R i g h t s , F u n d a m e n t a l R i g h t s is an impression that the impetus to more. enshrined in the Constitution of India, make the fundamental human rights s e v e r a l o t h e r d e c l a r a t i o n s , a part of the Constitution came from When in December 1927 the Indian conventions, charters and agreements the Universal Declaration of Human National Congress and other parties dealing with human rights are paths Rights. The fact, however, is that like the Muslim League decided to towards peace and justice which need whereas the U.N. declaration was a boycott the Simon Commission, Lord to be translated into reality world over consequence of the Second World Birkenhead, the Secretary of State for from one neighbourhood to another War, the history of human rights in India asked the Indian leadership to and to another till there is freedom and India goes back to1895 when, for the prepare a draft of the Constitution of justice everywhere. first time a formal attempt at drafting India. Consequently the Motilal a Constitution for India was made. It Nehru Committee was appointed What Nehru said... We live in an age of science. We hare and read of revolutions but the greatest revolutionary force in the past 150 years has been science, which has transformed human life and has changed political, social and economic organizations. This process of change goes on at an ever-increasing pace and we have to understand it and adapt ourselves to it. December 31, 1952 Nehru Centre Newsletter - December 2017 2 SKY SHOW : ‘Biography of the Universe’ Timings 12 noon (Hindi) 1:30 pm Marathi) 3:00 pm (English) 4:30 pm Hindi) NEHRU PLANETARIUM (MONDAY CLOSED) “Exploring a Nearby Habitable Model Exoplanet – Venus!” Dr.Sanjay S. Limaye, Distinguished Scientist, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, USA had delivered a special space science lecture on Exploring a Nearby Habitable Model Exoplanet – Venus! On 11th Nov 17 in the sky theatre of Nehru Planetarium,worli Mumbai 19. Dr Limaye said that to date most exoplanets have been discovered by the detection of the dimming of light from the parent star when any planets pass in front of it – the same phenomenon that led the to the first discovery about the properties of any planet when Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov, a Russian scientist proposed that Venus has an atmosphere from the transit observation in 1761. Thus Venus has much to inform us about the terrestrial planets in the Venus zone around other stars. Recent research suggests that Venus may have been the first habitable planet due to the possibility that it may have harbored liquid water on its surface for as long as two billion years. Then, according to the belief, “wherever there is water, there is life”, living organisms could have evolved and possibly thrived in its more temperate past.