Abstract

Unlike much of previous literature on determinants of human rights performance between the countries, we conduct an econometric analysis of socioeconomic, institutional and political factors determining government respect for human rights within India. Using time series cross-sectional data for 28 Indian states for the period 1993-2002, we find that internal threat poised by number of social violence events, presence of civil war and riot hit disturbed areas are strongly associated with human rights abuses. Amongst socioeconomic factors, 'exclusive' economic growth, 'uneven' development, poor social development spending, youth bulges and differential growth rates between minority religious groups explain the likelihood of human rights violations. Capturing power at the state and central level by Hindu national parties' viz., Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena, further help understand the incidence of human rights violations within India. These results brings important recognition to the fact that human rights abuses are not evenly spread within a country rather than viewing each country as homogenous. Moreover, it also has numerous advantages in seeking the determinants of the causes of such abuses as many more variables are held constant within a single country than in previous studies.