APRIL 11

One’s Own Responsibility

An elderly British citizen once told me that during the Second World War, Sir Winston Churchill, Britain’s Prime Minister and popularly acclaimed military leader, gave to the people of Britain the motto: IT ALL DEPENDS ON ME.

This is an excellent motto and one that is just as relevant in time of peace as it is in war.

My brother, Abdul Muheet Khan, who is an engineer, once told me of an incident at a training camp he had attended in Chandigarh, which is a good illustration of this motto. This camp, which was to be inaugurated by an Indian minister, had been arranged for the principals of various polytechnics, and a British Professor had been invited to address them. When the minister was about to start his inaugural address, the power suddenly went off and the loudspeakers went dead. There was no battery on hand as an alternative arrangement. However, there was a battery available in the polytechnic’s workshop.

The trainee principals started looking around for a peon or an attendant who could be sent to the workshop to fetch the battery. But as soon as the British Professor realized what had happened, he himself dashed to the workshop, picked up the heavy battery and came running back to connect it to the loudspeaker system. The microphone immediately started functioning again.

Such an attitude on the part of an individual, whatever his community, is the underlying cause of the collective progress of the society to which he belongs. Similarly, at the national level, progress and development are directly correlated with the prevalence of this spirit among the people.

It is normal practice, when some wrong is observed in society, for proposals to be made that new laws be enacted, or changes made in the administration, so that the malady may be set right. But the legal system and the administration have their limits and, as such, are only partially effective. Genuine reform will come about only if the spirit of reform is generated among the people concerned. (2.SS/9.95)