THE IMPORTANCE OF
A DUTIES-FIRST APPROACH
Focusing on one’s duties or responsibilities towards the wider society helps resolve conflicts and, in the long run, also leads to securing and preserving one’s rights. This approach provides two benefits. Firstly, it brings an end to social unrest. Moreover, in the long run, it helps enable people to have their rights. The reason for this is that this concept is based on the laws of nature, and in this world, one can achieve anything positive only by following the laws of nature.
In this context, discourses about human rights that ignore human responsibilities towards the wider society cannot truly give us any positive results and prove counter-productive. This is because when one insists on rights and ignores duties, one is promoting a culture based on the idea of ‘we versus them,’ which is premised on the notion of the existence of two supposedly antagonistic groups: a group that ought to possess certain rights and a rival group that is thought to have snatched the rights of the former. However, in contrast, when one speaks of human responsibilities towards the wider society, it promotes a ‘we-we’ culture, informed by the idea that we need to be givers, not demanders or mere takers.
Once, someone asked me, “If, in a certain context, one’s human rights are being grossly violated, what should one do? Should one, even in this context, focus only on one’s duties and not demand or struggle for one’s rights? However, on the other hand, should one remain silent on violating one’s rights?”
My answer to this was that this was an abstract question. In my experience, talk of this kind is flawed because it only looks at one side of the picture and ignores the other. It does not seek to discover the root cause of the phenomenon. It focuses on the victim but does not try to know how the victims became victims of someone in the first place. I believe in this Quranic verse: “Whatever misfortune befalls you is of your own doing” (42:30). This is a Law of Nature, which has also been referred to in the Bible in these words: “A man reaps what he sows.” (Galatians, 6:7) It is a Law of Nature in giving that we receive. It is impossible to receive something from others continuously unilaterally. The concept of demanding while not giving, speaking about your rights but ignoring your duties towards the wider society, is unnatural and, hence, useless.
One person’s duty is another person’s right. This being the case, if we all follow the principle of duty-consciousness, automatically, our rights will be taken care of. A duty-conscious person seeks to fulfil the rights of others. Duty consciousness, in developing a giving character in a person, lays the foundation for a better society. Duty consciousness, promoting a ‘we-we’ culture amongst individuals, is at the root of all good in society. In contrast, a mindset that focuses only on one’s rights promotes a ‘we-them’ culture and produces conflicts and other problems in society.
This discussion is of direct relevance to plural societies where members of different communities might occasionally have complaints against each other. If individual members of communities focus on their duties to the larger society and fulfil them properly, it will automatically earn them and their community the goodwill of people from other communities, and in this way, their rights will also be secured.
