In Swaraj based on ahimsa, people need
not know their rights, but it is necessary for them to know their
duties. There is no duty but creates a corresponding right, and those
only are true rights which flow from a due performance of one's duties.
Hence rights of true citizenship accrue only to those who serve the
State to which they belong. And they alone can do justice to the rights
that accrue to them.
Everyone possesses the right to tell lies
or resort to goondaism. But the exercise of such right is harmful both
to the exerciser and society. But to him who observes truth and
nonviolence comes prestige, and prestige brings rights. And people who
obtain rights as a result of performance of duty, exercise them only
for the service of society, never for themselves.
Swaraj of a people means the sum total of
the Swaraj (self-rule) of individuals. And such Swaraj comes only from
performance by individuals of their duty as citizens. In it no one
thinks of his rights. They come, when they are needed, for better
performance of duty.
Under Swaraj based on nonviolence nobody
is anybody's enemy, everybody contributes his or her due quota to the
common goal, all can read and write, and their knowledge keeps growing
from day to day. Sickness and disease are reduced to the minimum. No
one is a pauper and labour can always find employment. There is no
place under such a government for gambling, drinking and immorality or
for class hatred.
The rich will use their riches wisely and
usefully, and not squander them in increasing their pomp and worldly
pleasures. It should not happen that a handful of rich people should
live in jeweled palaces and the millions in miserable hovels devoid of
sunlight or ventilation.....
In nonviolent Swaraj there can be no
encroachment upon just rights; contrariwise no one can possess unjust
rights. In a well-organized State, usurpation should be an
impossibility and it should be unnecessary to resort to force for
dispossessing a usurper.
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