First human rights charter

On November 14 and 15, 2015, newspapers in the country were full of photographs and reports of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to England. His oratorical skills, sartorial style and projection of India as a country of "job creators” not "job takers” were received with much praise and enthusiasm by large numbers from the Indian diaspora that came to hear him.
Anyone can get carried away by success, and Modi is no exception. It would add to his stature, however, if he made sure of his facts instead of pushing the Hindutva agenda at every opportunity. In London, on November 14, while unveiling the statue of Basaveshwara, a 12th century Hindu philosopher, Modi praised him for "giving to the world, ideals of democracy and human rights even before the Magna Carta (1215).”
Now am I just pushing Parsipanu, or am I right in believing, along with the United Nations and the rest of the enlightened world, that Cyrus the Great of Persia gave the world the first charter of human rights, engraved on stone in cuneiform text, way back in 539 BC?
Known as the Cyrus Cylinder, it was discovered in the ruins of Babylon, or what is modern day Iraq, in 1879. This stone cylinder is one of the rare items displayed in the British Museum. The engraved text on the cylinder underlines the king’s credo of respecting all people, religions, traditions and customs, whether his own or those from the lands he had conquered. He never made slaves of the latter or took undue advantage of them or their properties.
As Zoroastrians, we are proud of this.
DILNAVAZ E. BHAGWAGAR
Nagpur
diledul@yahoo.com