Lal Bahadur Shastri was a well-known freedom fighter. After Jawaharlal Nehru's death, he became the second Prime Minister of India. He believed in high thinking and simple living.
In 1965, when Pakistan attacked India, Shastri proved to be a man of steel. The Indian troops were victorious, but being essentially a man of peace, Shastri agreed to a peace treaty (The Tashkent agreement), which was fair to Pakistan.
The following speech (abridged) was given by Lal Bahadur Shastri at the convocation of the Aligarh Muslim University.
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF YOUNG MEN
19 December 1964
Whatever your station in future life, each one of you should first of all think of yourselves as citizens of the country. This confers on you certain rights, which are guaranteed by the Constitution, but it also subjects you to certain responsibilities, which also have to be clearly understood.
Ours is a democracy, which enjoins freedom to the individual, but this freedom has to be subjected to a number of voluntary restraints in the interests of organized society. And these voluntary restraints have to be exercised and demonstrated in every-day life.
A good citizen is one who obeys the law, whether there is a policeman around or not, and who takes delight in performing his civic duties. In the olden days sense of self-restraint and discipline was inculcated by the combined effort of the family and the teacher. The economic stresses of present-day life unfortunately do not leave enough time to the parents to look after the children.
In the educational institutions the numbers have grown so large as to take away the benefits, which used to accrue formerly by personal contact between the teacher and the taught. Inevitably, our young students are often left much to their own resources. Often this creates problems, which we all know about. This is an important aspect, which needs thorough examination. The responsibility of our young citizens is great. In my view every station in life is important in itself. Work has its own dignity and there is great satisfaction in doing one's own job to the best of one's ability. Whatever the duties, we should apply ourselves with sincerity and devotion. Such an approach, apart from being good in itself, also has the added advantage of opening avenues for further advancement. We have to see whether we have done our own job well before thinking of criticizing anybody else. All too often, we succumb to the temptation of decrying others without bothering to look to ourselves.
Never forget that loyalty to the country comes ahead of all other loyalties. And this is an absolute loyalty, since one cannot weigh it in terms of what one receives. It is essential to remember that the entire country is one and that any one who fosters or promotes separatism or fissiparous tendencies is not our true friend. What I have said stems from a desire to see that the youth of our country prepares itself in a disciplined and determined manner for the responsibilities of tomorrow. A democratic country is sustained not by the greatness of a few but by the co-operative effort of the many. The future of the country is in your hands and as the older generations complete their task the new ones come along to take their place. If they are well equipped as individuals and as citizens, the country's future will be bright indeed. At a time when you are at the threshold of a new period in your life I would urge you to play your role with confidence and dignity.
Our position with regard to secularism is known so well that it hardly needs any reiteration. It is embodied in our Constitution, which ensures equal respect for all religions and equal opportunities for all citizens, irrespective of their caste and creed and the faith which they profess. In spite of a seeming diversity, there is a fundamental unity in India, which we all cherish and it has to be our constant endeavor to maintain and strengthen this unity.
The country can progress only if it does away completely with fissiparous tendencies and emerges as an integrated whole. And it is in the field of education that the seed of secularism has to be sown at the earliest stages, so that the plant can be carefully nurtured as it grows.
The world is at the moment passing through very difficult times. In fact, it would not be wrong to say that never before in the recent past had mankind to grapple with problems of as complex a nature as are confronting it today. It is imperative that satisfactory and, as far as possible, lasting solutions should be found to these problems without undue delay, otherwise there is a danger of the situation getting out of hand. Mutual suspicions, hatred and ill-will between nations and groups of persons have to be removed at all costs and sincere and determined efforts have to be made to ensure that differences and outstanding problems are resolved by mutual discussion in a spirit of understanding, and not by the use of force. Wars and conflicts, as we know to our cost, always create more problems than they succeed in solving. The great advances made by science and technology, particularly in the field of nuclear and thermonuclear energy, have placed an almost unlimited power at the disposal of mankind. This power can be used either for constructive or for destructive purposes and it is up to us to try to derive the fullest possible benefit from it.
We, in India, have our own special problems. No one can deny that some of them are of a serious nature and must be tackled with vigour and determination. Our national objective has been defined clearly and unambiguously. We aim that every citizen should be provided with the basic necessities of life and should have complete freedom to lead the life of his or her own choice. We aim at a democratic society, strong and free, in which every citizen, irrespective of his religious belief, will occupy an equal and honoured place, and will be given full and equal opportunities for growth and service. We aim at the removal of untouchability and the doing away of the prevailing serious inequalities in status and wealth. We are opposed to the concentration of wealth in a few hands. Our rich cultural heritage extending over countless centuries is not the culture of this community or that but the synthesis of the cultures of the great peoples who lived here at various times in the past. The objectives I have mentioned are by no means easy of achievement in their entirety. I know that we have met with only a limited degree of success so far, but we have to persevere until the goal is achieved.
It must be remembered that the vast majority of Indians are extremely poor and it is only a small minority that live in relative comfort and have the benefit of university education and other worthwhile things. It is when we look at the Indian scene in such a perspective that Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Parsecs and others, instead of feeling that they are different, will together begin to put forth a tremendous effort to fight poverty, to eradicate disease and banish illiteracy.
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