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Relevance of Duties in the Contemporary World pp 3–19Cite as

Relevance of Duty Through the Lens of Gandhi and East–West Jurisprudence

Abstract

The jurisprudence on duty varies from a set of countries to another, influenced by their socio-political and cultural setup. However, a common thread flows with more pervasive waves of globalisation, liberalisation and growing consumerism, where it dilutes the relativism traits. Nevertheless, a right-centric approach is prevalent worldwide. Rights are placed against rights, and the issues arising from the conflict of rights are tried to be resolved through a right-based regime, which has been more chaotic and has significant causality to duties. Duties have been recognised as correlative to rights in both Western and Eastern jurisprudence. Yet, the aggressive assertion and constant focus on rights devalue the importance of duties even in countries such as India, which have been traditionally a duty-based (dharm-based) society. Duties of the State and citizens demand distinct approaches as an extra push for duties by the State without realising its duty towards its citizens may absolve its obligation as a State. Likewise, the duties of citizens demand a more responsible role from them to commit themselves to the unity, integrity and security of the nation. Gandhian thought on duty has a worldwide appeal, and it offers well-tested and pragmatic solutions to some of the most pressing problems of the present time. Many problems of the present times are due to the ill selection of means rather than ends, and in this context, Gandhian thought becomes so essential. Against this backdrop, the present chapter explores the relevance of duties and Gandhian thought on the same in the contemporary world.

Keywords

  • Rights
  • Duties
  • Gandhian thought
  • East–West jurisprudence
  • State
  • Citizens

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Samuel Moyen, “Rights vs, Duties” Boston Review, May 16, 2016 available at https://bostonreview.net/articles/samuel-moyn-rights-duties/ (last visited 10 December, 2021).

  2. 2.

    Ibid.

  3. 3.

    Ibid.

  4. 4.

    Ibid.

  5. 5.

    Ibid. (e.g., responding to the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen 1789, the conservatives’ “Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and citizen” 1795 stated: “The maintenance of society requires that those who compose it should both know and fulfill their duties.”).

  6. 6.

    Ibid.

  7. 7.

    Ibid.

  8. 8.

    Ibid.

  9. 9.

    Ibid.

  10. 10.

    Ibid.

  11. 11.

    Ibid.

  12. 12.

    Article 29 (1) of Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

  13. 13.

    G. N. Sarma, ‘Gandhi’s Concept of Duty’, 41 The Indian Journal of Political Science 2 (June 1980), 214–231.

  14. 14.

    David Lyons, ‘The Correlativity of Rights and Duties’, 4 Noûs 1 (February 1970), 45–55.

  15. 15.

    R. B. Brandt, ‘The Concepts of Obligation and Duty’, 73 Mind 291 (July 1964), Oxford University Press, 374–393.

  16. 16.

    David Lyons, ‘Rights, Claimants and Beneficiaries’, Rights, 1979, at 58.

  17. 17.

    Ibid.

  18. 18.

    Jack Donnelly, ‘How are Rights and Duties Correlative’, 16 Journal of Value Inquiry (1982), 287–294 at 292.

  19. 19.

    Annemarie Devereux, ‘Should ‘Duties’ Play A Larger Role In Human Rights? A Critique of Western Liberal and African Human Rights Jurisprudence’, 18 University of New South Wales Law Journal 2 (1995) at 464.

  20. 20.

    Alan R. White, Rights (1984), Oxford: Clarendon Press.

  21. 21.

    Austin B. Creel, ‘Dharma as an Ethical Category Relating to Freedom and Responsibility’, 22 Philosophy East and West 2 (April 1972), 155–168.

  22. 22.

    Dennis Dalton’s article on ‘Gandhi on freedom, rights and responsibility’.

  23. 23.

    Sarma, supra note 13.

  24. 24.

    Raghavan N. Iyer, The Moral and Political Thought of Mahatma Gandhi, Oxford University Press, 1973, 115.

  25. 25.

    Satya Sundar Sethy, ‘Reinterpreting Gandhi’s Notion of “Dharma”: An Entanglement of Duty, Religion, and Ethics’, 37 Gandhi Marg 2, 293–312.

  26. 26.

    Ibid.

  27. 27.

    Mahabharat, Adiparvan, ch. xi, 13.

  28. 28.

    Shantiparvan, ch. CLXII, 24.

  29. 29.

    Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, “Balancing Rights, Duties, and Underlying Values” in Human Rights Dialogue 1.7 (Winter 1996): “New Issues in East Asian Human Rights” December 5, 1996 available at https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/publications/archive/dialogue/1_07/articles/542 (last visited 12 December 2021).

  30. 30.

    Ibid.

  31. 31.

    Ibid.

  32. 32.

    Ibid.

  33. 33.

    Ibid.

  34. 34.

    Ibid.

  35. 35.

    Moyen, supra note 1.

  36. 36.

    Ibid.

  37. 37.

    Article 29 of the UDHR 1948.

  38. 38.

    Preamble of the DHDR, available at https://globalization.icaap.org/content/v2.2/declare.html (last visited on 10 December 2021).

  39. 39.

    Article 1 of the DHDR: “For the purposes of this Declaration, unless the context indicates otherwise:

    1. (a)

      “duty” means an ethical or moral obligation;

    1. (b)

      “responsibility” means an obligation that is legally “binding under existing international law.”

    Article 41 (1) of the UDHR provides: “Nothing in this Declaration shall be interpreted as impairing or restricting the rights contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international and regional human rights instruments, nor shall any derogation from or restriction of any human right or fundamental freedom existing in any international human rights instrument or domestic law be admitted on the pretext that the present Declaration does not recognise such rights or that it recognises them to a lesser extent.”

  40. 40.

    Ramlila Maidan Incident vs. Home Secretary, Union of India (UOI) and Ors. (2012) 5 SCC 1 (para 21).

  41. 41.

    National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution: A Consultation Paper on Effectuation of Fundamental Duties of Citizens (July 6, 2001), available at https://legalaffairs.gov.in/sites/default/files/(V)Effectuation%20of%20Fundamental%20Duties%20of%20Citizens.pdf (last visited on 12 December 2021).

  42. 42.

    Ibid.

  43. 43.

    Ibid.

  44. 44.

    Ibid.

  45. 45.

    Ibid.

  46. 46.

    Ibid.

  47. 47.

    Harold J. Laski, “Authority in the Modern State”, Batoche Books, Kitchener, 2000.

  48. 48.

    Article 29 (1) of the UDHR.

  49. 49.

    Supra note 41.

  50. 50.

    Ibid.; (For example: Fundamental Duties contained in clauses (b), (e), (f), (h) and (j) of Article 51 (A) of the Indian Constitution; clause (e), “to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture vide clause (f), to develop scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry vide clause (h), to strive towards excellence vide clause (j) are also the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle for freedom”).

  51. 51.

    Ibid.

  52. 52.

    Sachidananda Pandey v. State of west Bengal & Ors, 1987 AIR 1109, 1987 SCR (2) 223.

  53. 53.

    Mahatma Gandhi, Young India, 8-1-'25.

  54. 54.

    Mame Omar Diop, Satya Bhushan and Varada Mohan Nikalje Ahmisa (Non-Violence), Gandhi and Global Citizenship Education (GCED).

  55. 55.

    Harijan, February 20, 1937; CW, Vol 64, 317.

  56. 56.

    Skaria, 2011 at 206.

  57. 57.

    Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (CWMG), Vol 90, No. 81, Page 91.

  58. 58.

    Nirmal Kumar Bose, Selections from Gandhi, 1950, Ahmedabad: Navajivan Trust.

  59. 59.

    Sarma, supra note 13.

  60. 60.

    Bindu Puri, ‘The Rights of Man: A Gandhian Intervention’, Human Rights: Indian and the West, 2015, Oxford Scholarship Online (A. Peetush & J. Drydyk, eds.).

  61. 61.

    Mahatma Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments With Truth, first published in 1927, Navjivan Trust, Ahmedabad.

  62. 62.

    Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (CWMG), Volume 90, No. 45, Page 49.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Assistant Professor, Campus Law Centre, Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, Delhi, India

    Kshitij Kumar Singh

  2. Advocate, High Court of Delhi, Delhi, India

    Subham Kumar Jain

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  1. Campus Law Centre, Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, Delhi, India

    Raman Mittal

  2. Campus Law Centre, Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, Delhi, India

    Kshitij Kumar Singh

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Singh, K.K., Jain, S.K. (2022). Relevance of Duty Through the Lens of Gandhi and East–West Jurisprudence. In: Mittal, R., Singh, K.K. (eds) Relevance of Duties in the Contemporary World. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1836-0_1

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