Duty-Conscious Individuals Form A Better Society

DUTY-CONSCIOUS INDIVIDUALS FORM A BETTER SOCIETY Religion stresses individual responsibilities (vis-à-vis God and vis-à-vis fellow creatures of God), while contemporary secular culture, in which religion plays only a very peripheral role, focuses much more on human rights. This is due to a basic difference between the two worldviews. Religion emphasises the reform of the individual and the purification of one’s inner state and behaviour, while many secular ideologies emphasise changes in the external structures, processes, and environment of society or the social system. Accordingly, religion focuses on human duties, while, in contrast, many secular ideologies focus on human rights. The source of all kinds of good and evil lies in human nature and not in society as such. Society has no nature in itself. It is nothing but a collection of individuals. This means that starting from individual change, we can bring about change in society by changing the individuals who comprise it on positive lines. However, if we try to reform society as a whole, our efforts will not yield any positive results. To usher in positive change in a society, we have to address and seek to reform individuals who comprise the society on duty-conscious lines. Then, a collection of such reformed individuals can emerge who can manifest positive change as a group of transformed individuals in society.