Rights and duties together

Rights are the freedoms and benefits every citizen enjoys. Duties are the responsibilities we carry as members of a community.

They are not opposites. Rights let us live with dignity. Duties remind us to use our freedom wisely and with respect.

But there is one real difference in how they work:

• Rights are protected by law. If your rights are broken, even by the government, you can go to court.
• Duties are moral and social responsibilities. We are expected to follow them, but not doing so may not always lead to legal action.

Think of home: nobody will take you to court for not helping to set the table, but it is still your duty.

So why follow duties at all? Because, as the chapter says, doing our duties helps protect everyone's rights and keeps society fair and peaceful.

Every right has a matching duty:

• I have the right to be respected → I have the duty to respect others.
• I have the right to express my opinions freely → I have the duty to listen to and respect other people's views, even when I disagree, and to do it without causing harm.

That is what Gandhi meant: when everyone does their duty, everyone's rights are protected.

The chapter asks: can we demand rights without doing our duties?

Ravi's classmates threatened to leave him out unless he joined their march. They were claiming freedom for themselves while taking away Ravi's freedom to disagree. That is not respecting his rights.