26 January - Republic Day

Rajaji’s address on the occasion of the Republic Day

17^th January 1950

Every form of government and every kind of economic ordering can produce happiness for the people. But only if people feel joy in doing right and instinctively abhor wrong. Otherwise, no social order, no polity can lead to social well-being.

Let not independence mean that every one has a chance to work for one’s own personal advantage. No doubt in a free republic new rights accrue to the people, but rights are merely the shadows of corresponding duties. Only if every one performs his duties efficiently can society prosper. To pine for rights without giving thought to the proper performance of duties would be like cutting down the trees and longing for the shade. From political freedom and republican government flow rights, but they demand the performance of many duties. We may not, as wise men and women, ignore the duties of republican citizenship and concentrate on getting privileges and advantages. If we do so, we invite national disaster.

Let us then revere Dharma and conduct ourselves well. This alone is the shield of liberty. Else we shall be chained again in slavery amidst a growing multiplicity of governmental regulations. Foreign rule is not the only form of slavery. A life of helotry can prevail even though we are not subject to any foreigners’ will and we are politically independent. We can have a society in which the individual can have joy in his soul fulfilling the duties that fall to be performed by him. That is one way. Another way is to invite a growing body of restrictive controls and orders of an inquisitorial government and to pass the days in fear. Either this or the other, there is no other way. If the first way does not obtain, the second will inevitably follow. Recent Chinese history teaches this.

Which is preferable, doing our duties in accordance with Dharma and with individual liberty or so to conduct ourselves as to invite despotic rule? If we prize personal freedom and national liberty, let us follow Dharma and eschew Adharma

As to what is Dharma and what is Adharma, all scriptures teach the same thing. Let each one do his duty honestly, not worrying himself about how other men behave. Let him say to himself: “What is my duty? Let me do it with joy and care. That is enough for me. If I go on fulfilling my duty, my example will influence others.” If one does this, one’s life will not have been in vain.

-----x-----

Source : C. Rajagopalachari Papers (Vth Inst.), MSS, NMML