It is indeed a sad commentary on today’s India that a land historically revered for its tolerance and dharmic way of life, and even after six decades and more of Independence and parliamentary democracy, finds it’s very fabric and society fast eroding due to rampant crime and violence of every conceivable kind. So wouldn’t any conscious citizen ask: What has happened to our value system? “Why has the violence in our behavior reached such dangerous level?” Obviously, the situation calls for self-introspection and soul-searching on the part of every citizen.
The government may be compelled to create a more severe and stringent legal infrastructure, but what is the citizen’s role in all of this? Should we not respond to the situation in our own little ways following the message of the Father of the Nation, Gandhiji, who said: “Be the change you wish to see in the world?” Certainly, if we want to transform society we have to begin with ourselves. We can do this at the individual level by responding positively to negative situations. Acting this way we will be able to halt the vicious cycle of violence from continuing. At the social level, the way to go is with a peaceful approach, by abjuring violence in any form and by avoiding any kind of coercion. How is this possible? Social evils do not erupt all of a sudden; they germinate and grow over a period of time, sometimes assuming monstrous proportions. One practical way to begin the process of humanizing society is to make motivational education accessible to all.
We need to make efforts on a long-term basis to teach value and peace education both at a formal level in schools and colleges, and at an informal level through positive personality development programmes aimed at fostering responsible citizenship. Towards this end, we must firstly, ensure that individuals develop their personalities on positive lines and learn to manage situations. Secondly, ensure that their relations with others in society are developed on positive lines so that they become responsible, peaceful members of society. The objective is to inculcate ethics to create a duty-conscious society, instead of only a rights-conscious one.
Certainly, a rights-based society will lead to social anarchy, whereas a duty-based society will lead to harmony, solidarity, peace and compassion. A rights-based society is based on ‘we-they’ concept, in which we look at other members of society as ‘they’, not part of us. A duty-conscious society, on the other hand, is based on the ‘we-we’ concept in which all members of society are an extension of us. Such a society is built on the principle of reciprocity; if members of society want positive speech and behavior from others, they too have to speak and behave positively with them.
The family being the building block of society, the importance of family values cannot be ignored. Perspectives and attitudes to gender, ethics and morals, cultivating compassion and love and respect for fellow beings are all imbibed by children who learn from family members, and other near and dear ones who teach by example. We know teaching of values begins at home, the child’s first school of life. Hence, we have to ensure that our behavior with others in family and society is on positive lines. Thus how society will most certainly start developing on positive lines, and then only can we say we have been part of the solution.
