Some people feel that values keep changing with time and situation, while others strongly believe that there are certain universal and eternal human values. Give your perception in this regard with due justification.

Introduction

Whether values are fluid or eternal is a classic debate between ethical relativism and ethical universalism. My view is that both hold partial truth: a stable core of universal values endures, while their expression and priority evolve with context.

Values that change with time and situation

• Social customs and norms — attitudes to caste, gender roles, sati, untouchability — have rightly changed with moral progress.
• Priorities shift with circumstances: individual liberty may yield to collective safety during a pandemic or war.

Universal and eternal values

• Certain values — truth, non-violence, justice, compassion, human dignity and honesty — recur across civilisations and ages.
• They anchor human rights and constitutional morality, and are affirmed by figures from the Buddha and Gandhi to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

My perception

I hold that a core of universal values is permanent, while peripheral social values are context-bound and reformable. What changes is often our understanding and application of enduring principles — e.g., 'equality' expanding to include gender and caste — not the principles themselves.

Conclusion

Eternal values give ethics its stability and direction; their evolving application keeps morality alive and responsive to a changing world.