Fundamental Duties: origin and content

Detail

What fundamental duties are

• Fundamental duties are a list of moral and civic duties that every Indian citizen owes to the nation, to society and to nature. They are in Part IVA, which has only one article: Article 51A.
• The original Constitution of 1950 had no list of duties. Its makers expected that the citizens of free India would do their duties willingly.
• Article 51A was not part of the 1950 text. The Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976 inserted it, and the Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 later amended it [2].

Origin: the Swaran Singh Committee (1976)

• The Swaran Singh Committee was set up by the Congress party in 1976, during the Emergency (1975-77). Its job was to suggest changes to the Constitution. It recommended eight duties.
• The 42nd Amendment, 1976 acted on the committee's report:
• It created Part IVA (Art. 51A).

• It added ten duties, two more than the committee had asked for.

• Two proposals were dropped:

• That Parliament could make laws to punish citizens who ignore their duties, and that such laws could not be challenged in court for violating Fundamental Rights.

• That citizens have a duty to pay taxes.

• The 86th Amendment, 2002 added the eleventh duty, clause (k), on children's education.

Sources of the idea

• Foreign model: the Soviet (USSR) constitution, which listed duties of citizens next to their rights.
• International law: Article 29(1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), 1948: "Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible" [4].

• Article 29(2) of the UDHR adds that rights can be limited by law, but only to respect the rights of others and to meet "the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society" [4].

• Indian tradition (Class 7 NCERT): Class 7 does not use the Soviet model. It says Indian civilisation always stressed the duties of both rulers and people:

• Rajadharma: the king's duty to protect the people and rule justly.
• Kautilya's saptanga: the "seven limbs" of the state in the Arthashastra (king, ministers, territory and people, fort, treasury, army, ally). Each limb has its own duties.
• Class 7 notes that Part IVA was "added in 1976" as the Constitution grew and changed over time.

The eleven duties of Article 51A, grouped

It is the duty of every citizen of India:

A. Nation and Constitution

• (a) Duty to abide by the Constitution: obey the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem.
• (b) Cherish and follow the noble ideals that inspired the national struggle for freedom.
• (c) Uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India [2].
• (d) Duty to defend the country: defend the country and do national service when called upon to do so.

B. Society

• (e) Duty to promote harmony: promote harmony and a spirit of common brotherhood among all the people of India, across religious, linguistic, regional and sectional differences. Give up practices that insult the dignity of women.
• (f) Value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture, meaning the culture built by many communities together over centuries.
• (i) Safeguard public property and abjure (give up) violence.

C. Nature and reason

• (g) Duty to protect the environment: "protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wild life", and have compassion for living creatures [2].
• (h) Scientific temper: develop a scientific outlook, humanism (care for human welfare and dignity) and the spirit of inquiry and reform.
• "Scientific temper" means judging things by evidence and reason, not by blind belief.
• Jawaharlal Nehru made the phrase popular in The Discovery of India (1946).

D. Excellence and education

• (j) Strive towards excellence in every field of personal and group work, so that the nation keeps rising to higher levels of achievement.
• (k) A parent or guardian must give their child or ward aged 6-14 the chance to be educated. This duty was added by the 86th Amendment, 2002 [2].

Clause	Theme	Added by
(a)-(j)	Constitution, nation, society, environment, reason, excellence	42nd Amendment, 1976
(k)	Education of children aged 6-14	86th Amendment, 2002

Features

• Citizens only: unlike some Fundamental Rights (for example Arts. 14 and 21), the duties apply only to citizens, not to foreigners.
• Civic and moral: some duties are civic, such as respecting the flag or protecting public property. Others are moral, such as cherishing the ideals of the freedom struggle or striving for excellence.
• Non-justiciable: a court cannot directly enforce them, and the Constitution gives no enforcement mechanism for them.
• Rights are not conditional on duties: a citizen keeps their Fundamental Rights even if they fail to perform a duty. Adding the duties "has not changed the status of our fundamental rights" (Class 11 NCERT).
• They mirror the Directive Principles:
• 51A(g) (citizen protects the environment) matches Art. 48A (the State protects the environment, forests and wildlife).
• 51A(k) (parent sends the child to school) matches Art. 21A (right to free and compulsory education, ages 6-14) and Art. 45 (early childhood care and education). The 86th Amendment, 2002, made all three changes.

• So the same goal is given three times: as the State's duty (DPSP), as a citizen's duty (51A), and sometimes as a right (Part III).

• Link to citizenship: Class 11 NCERT treats citizenship as rights plus obligations to fellow citizens and the community. Duties are those obligations in written form.

• Moral basis: Class 7 NCERT recalls Dr Rajendra Prasad's call for "great moral regeneration". He meant that a Constitution works only when citizens and leaders act with character and a sense of duty.

Making duties work: the Justice Verma Committee (1998-99)

• In July 1998 the government set up a committee under Justice J.S. Verma, former Chief Justice of India. Its task was to work out how to teach fundamental duties to citizens [3].
• Members: Dr L.M. Singhvi, Dr Karan Singh, Dr J.S. Rajput, Dr Subhash Kashyap and Dr A.K. Sharma. The committee gave an interim report in January 1999 [3].
• Main recommendations [3]:
• Spread awareness of the duties.
• Reorient the school curriculum and teacher education, and bring the duties into higher and professional education.
• Act on environmental protection and on removing gender bias.
• Involve elected representatives at every level, from the panchayat to Parliament.
• Involve the civil services, the justice system, business and industry, and the media.

NCERT slips to watch

• Class 11 NCERT still says there are ten duties. There are eleven since the 86th Amendment, 2002.
• Class 7 NCERT shows six duties and letters them a-f. In Art. 51A they are actually clauses (a), (d), (f), (g), (j) and (k).

Prelims Hooks

• Fundamental duties: Part IVA, Article 51A. This is a single article, and it was not in the original 1950 Constitution.
• Swaran Singh Committee (1976) recommended 8 duties, and the 42nd Amendment (1976) added 10. "The committee suggested ten" is a trap.
• The 11th duty, 51A(k) (parents educate children aged 6-14), came through the 86th Amendment, 2002. The same amendment inserted Art. 21A and changed Art. 45.
• Proposals dropped from the 42nd Amendment: penalties for not performing duties, and a duty to pay taxes. Paying taxes is not a fundamental duty.
• Source of the idea: the USSR constitution. The DPSPs come from the Irish constitution (1937). Matching these two is a common trap.
• UDHR Art. 29(1): "Everyone has duties to the community" [4].
• Pairs: 51A(g) ↔ Art. 48A (environment); 51A(h) = scientific temper, humanism, spirit of inquiry and reform.
• Duties apply to citizens only and are non-justiciable.
• Justice J.S. Verma Committee (1998) was set up to make the teaching of fundamental duties work [3].

Mains Points

• Origin during the Emergency: the duties were added in 1976 by a Congress committee, while rights were suspended. Critics saw this as stressing citizens' obligations at a time when the State was cutting their freedoms. Supporters say the list itself is uncontroversial: the Janata government's 44th Amendment (1978) kept it, and the 86th Amendment (2002) extended it.
• Rights and duties are linked, but rights do not depend on duties: Indian tradition (rajadharma, saptanga), UDHR Art. 29 and Rajendra Prasad's "moral regeneration" all tie freedom to responsibility. Making rights depend on duties, however, would weaken Part III, which is why the 1976 proposal for penal laws immune from court challenge was dropped.
• Enforcement versus education: the duties have no sanction of their own. The Verma Committee (1998-99) chose awareness through school curricula, teacher training, the civil services, the media and elected representatives over punishment [3]. Duties work best through ordinary laws and civic education, not through policing citizens.
• Clauses that mirror the DPSPs (51A(g) with 48A; 51A(k) with 21A and 45) share the job between the State and citizens. This is useful in answers on environmental governance and the right to education.