Fundamental Duties: Restoring equilibrium of republic

The Constitution of India will be celebrating its 75th year in January 2025. In these 75 years, a lot of discussions and deliberations have been done on the different areas of the Constitution except Fundamental Duties.

Since its introduction in the Indian Constitution, Fundamental Duties have been hardly discussed on any platform. This neglect towards duties has its own consequences in the form of conflicts and environmental degradation. Bharat has always been a duty-based society. One can easily find it in our scriptures and philosophical texts. For example, in Bhagavad Gita, Bhagwan Shree Krishna ordered Arjuna to perform his Kshatriya duty even in the face of uncertainty and dilemma.

Sense of duty was so deeply ingrained in the minds of Bharatiya people that the founding fathers of the Indian Constitution didn’t even think of including it as a Constitution as they assumed that the people will follow their duty on their own. But, due to the impact of colonial rule and other Western influences, the people started to focus more on the rights and started neglecting their duties towards community and country.

Duty-Based Society

The Dharmik duty-based society improves the cohesion in society. As in duty-based societies, individuals focus on their obligations towards others. This creates a sense of mutual responsibility and reduces the selfish tendencies. This promotes solidarity and brings social harmony as people will consider the impact of their actions on others rather than just blindly pursuing their rights.

This sense of mutual responsibility and solidarity allows a duty-based function without any external force as it encourages individuals to take personal responsibility for maintaining law and order. Whereas a rights-based society needs external force like judiciary, police etc. for the enforcement of rights as actions of the members of society are guided by their personal interest. They generally don’t have any sense of responsibility towards society, therefore it can sometimes result in authoritarian outcomes.

Present State of Fundamental Duties

Adding Fundamental Duties in our Constitution was done on the recommendation of the Swaran Singh Committee. They were added by the 42nd Amendment in 1976. But it was also a half-hearted attempt to strengthen a sense of duty among the members of society, as these duties were made unenforceable.

In the present time, Fundamental Duties are considered only as moral obligations and adherence to them is only on a voluntary basis. People feel very little sense of accountability towards fulfilling them. Many of the people comply with only those Fundamental Duties which align with their personal beliefs and they ignore other duties. For instance, many organisations which actively work for protecting the environment create violence and disharmony in the name of environmental protests.

There is limited awareness of Fundamental Duties among citizens and it is a significant challenge. It’s largely due to the inadequate emphasis placed on them in education and public discourse. While Fundamental Rights are often highlighted in school curricula and public discussions due to their legal enforceability, Fundamental Duties receive relatively less attention. Therefore, Fundamental Duties are not ingrained in the minds of people the way Fundamental rights are.

Oblivious to Fundamental Duties

The ignorance of Fundamental Duties has multiple consequences. Some of the major ones are as follows: One of the main consequences of ignoring Fundamental Duty is weakened national cohesion. A society where citizens are ignorant towards their duty risks becoming fragmented. For example, when Fundamental Duties, such as promoting harmony and safeguarding national unity are ignored and the people engage in acts like hate speech and discriminatory practices, the social divide in society deepens.

Another major consequence of ignorance of Fundamental Duties is environmental degradation. People don’t feel their responsibility towards the environment and nature. This has led to large scale environmental degradation in the form of deforestation and loss of biodiversity. Due to anthropogenic reasons, India has lost more than 90 per cent of its area under its biodiversity hotspots. The problem of environmental degradation has become so huge that in MC Mehta Vs Union of Bharat, the Supreme court had to remind the people about their Fundamental Duty 51A(g). Apart from that, without fulfilling their duties, citizens may fail to hold the Government and other authorities accountable for their actions. This lack of accountability has contributed to corruption, inefficiency and poor governance.

Lastly, when citizens do not understand their role in the civic ecosystem, they may become passive or disengaged. This apathy can lead to low participation in civic duties like voting, paying taxes and upholding the rule of law. In turn, it weakens the democratic process and hampers national development.

Rights and duties always flow together, for every duty there is a corresponding right. Duties are an inseparable part of rights. A democratic polity can never succeed without its citizens assuming their responsibilities and discharging their citizenship duties. The balance between individual liberties and collective welfare is one of the foundational principles of any democratic system, and the Constitution of India reflects this idea through the interplay of Fundamental Rights and Fundamental Duties. Even the Supreme Court has observed in Ranganath Mishra v. Union of India (2006) that rights and duties are correlative, and without fulfilling duties, rights cannot be fully realised.

While Fundamental Rights focus on empowering individuals with freedoms—such as the Right to Equality, Freedom of Speech and the Right to Life and Personal Liberty—Fundamental Duties emphasise the responsibilities of citizens towards their society, nation and fellow citizens. These duties act as a reminder that rights are not absolute and must be exercised with a sense of responsibility. By making Fundamental Duties enforceable, the Constitution would reinforce the balance between individual liberties and collective welfare. Rights and duties must work in tandem for the healthy functioning of society. Enforcing duties ensures that citizens fulfill their responsibilities while enjoying the freedoms granted to them, leading to a more harmonious, just, and prosperous society. When individual freedoms are exercised responsibly, and citizens recognise their role in the well-being of the nation, the collective welfare is guaranteed.

In this way, the enforceability of Fundamental Duties acts as a powerful tool for maintaining the equilibrium that the Constitution envisions a society where individual rights and collective responsibilities complement each other.”