ABSTRACT

Power to inflict torture and the resistance to the power constitute the core of the dynamic that shapes the human rights situation in any country. The importance of human rights in international political culture at a given point of time also enters into the play in deciding the balance of power between violators and defenders of human rights. The balance of power between the torturers and the tortured determines the severity of the torture the victims suffers and any access to redress of the consequences of torture. Sections of judiciary, media, and academe and religions institutions have been known to have shown complicity in human rights violations. The Naxalite movement spread too many other states of India, including Punjab, where a substantial number of students and youth were attracted to Marxism and eventually to Naxalism/Maoism. The move from the small town of Ferozepore to Punjab's capital city, Chandigarh for the author college and university education was a big cultural change.