Responsibility grows from services, and there are many ways to serve. Wherever men expand and establish themselves, they have been serviceable to their environment. Where they give peace and happiness, they are most serviceable and become as gods.

Service can be physical, mental, and verbal. Small animals get physical service from their parents. The cub of the lion and the kitten of the cat live with their mothers. This service does not continue very long in the animal world. When the young bird can take its food alone, the mother bird no longer bothers about it.

Human beings need services for a longer period. Indeed there is no time when they don’t need them, and they need them in all the three ways: physical, verbal, and mental. The mother’s service to the child begins before its birth; from that time forward her services to it are endless; and there is mutual giving and taking between them till death and beyond. From the mutual giving and taking in the family we gain pleasure and sense of responsibility that spreads out to the larger environment. Charity begins at home because the family is our closest environment. The father is the head of the family. He takes advice and solace from his old mother perhaps, and thinks that, though old, she is the most precious thing in the world. His wife is his so-called better half. She gives him much physical and verbal service. If her mind is pure and sweet, his mind will be very happy, and if she becomes easily irritated, his life is greatly disturbed. He is practically helpless without her, and she is rightly called his better half. For his sake, if for no other, she must remain cheerful and controlled. Other members of the human family give the head honor and elation.

The duties of the head of the family are very heavy. He must look after his old mother as long as she lives, and even after she dies he has plenty to do for her according to the social system. His simple and honest love for his wife will make her a full woman, and he will make her a partner in all that he thinks and does. His duty toward his children is greatest of all perhaps. He is to teach his son and make him skillful in worldly living. He is to train his daughter so that someday she will be a good wife and mother. He has to earn for everybody. He must be charitable and sweet to servants and subordinates. He is to see that something is laid aside for a rainy day, give everyone his best company so that they may be happy, dutiful; sometimes discuss history, religion, science, music, and art with them according to their tastes and tendencies, and be everything to everyone-sometimes open, sometimes reserved, sometimes merciful, sometimes severe- so that everyone is mended and moulded to his good and so that anyone coming from the outside will say, ‘Yes, this is an ideal family!’ There must not be any sneaking habits in the family or wild topics in the house. To his environment he must be hospitable and charitable always. From this the other members of the house will learn to do likewise. In short, he is to be ideal to his family – a bedrock of mental peace, inspiration, and sustenance. It is not only by bread that we live, and it is not only as a bread-winner that he is head of the family. A sweet word in time can make the home hum, and everyone can recognize that he is part of a big co-operative.

Many families make up a society. First of all there is the village society; then subdivision, district, province, nation, and world. As our main duties are to our families because they are our closest environment, so our second duty is to our village because it is next closest. Then come duties to district, province, state, and so forth.

What are the social duties of the people of Dacca district toward their environment? Their first duties are within the district; then to the neighboring districts of Faridpur, Mymensingh, Comilla, Barisal, From there on, Bengalis will feel for Bengalis, then for other provinces, and so on. What are these duties and how will we serve others? The duties and services will be the duties and services that we give to each other in our families. We supply money, ideas, goods, love, to our families. In the same way district and province will supply these things to sister district and province.

For example, there is the matter of disease. We need to supply not only doctors and medical supplies at times; we also should give out ways of keeping doctors and medicines away from our doors. A lot of hospitals does not mean a healthy country. Perhaps where the hospitals are less, the health of the people is better. It is a first essential to know hygiene. This will help us to be free of disease. Why do diseases come? Some bacteria are present in the field, and our bodies are getting infected. Thus we get diseased. To train the people in hygiene is the first of social duties.

Then there is the matter of education. Not a single person should remain uneducated. Education does not mean reading and writing; still it seems as though everyone in the country should be up to matriculation standard at least. To pass the matriculation should not require more than seven years. The highest 10% of matriculation-passing students may go on to higher studies. Courses in commerce, industry, medical science, and engineering should be included as well as those in arts, philosophy, history, etc. Every family needs a mechanic and a farmer. One engineer can train a hundred mechanics just as one physician can take care of a hundred patients. There is also need of military training in our society; for the nation must be well-equipped in every department.

If we like to develop economically, many industries should be started. Only in case of necessity should we depend on outside production. When a society is self-sufficient in her production, she can give help to her neighbors in time of their need and earn the name of an all-round qualified society. Fancy goods may be produced. The manufacture of such requires special skills which we want to preserve and develop. Fancy goods are those that are handy, educative, sweet, and in good taste. It goes without saying that a society should be as self-sufficient as possible in agriculture, commerce, and industry.

Not all families are able all the time to bring harmony, health, education, and prosperity among their members. Sometimes they are in a frenzy to solve these problems and need the help of outside agents. It is the same with any larger unit than the family, and we should always stand ready to succor and rescue sister districts and provinces in distress.

We serve others physically, verbally, and mentally. Verbal service is often better than physical, and mental is best of all. Our duties and services correspond in large measure to our temperaments and qualifications. There are three main kinds of people in a society: laboring, intellectual, and spiritual. The laborers serve mostly with their physique; while the other two classes serve with words and mind. Every man can serve the society in which he lives with his own talents and abilities. Noone is left out. To serve the society is the life of the individual.

We have described what our family and social duties are. The question remains: how are we to accomplish them?

In the family everyone more or less understands his duty and does it automatically. In a business concern there are usually some laws and regulations to help people work with unity and discipline. Both family and company are designed for the fulfilment of life, the provisioning of necessities like food, clothing, education, etc. for their members. The limited company has a bigger field of service than the family, and that is why the government sometimes takes interest in it, protects, and even gives it bounties. And what about our district society? Is it not larger than the family and the company? Will not Dacca district have to construct schools, colleges, irrigation cannals, swamp clearing squads, industries, and whatnot? Is she not a bigger family or company? Will she not also have to devise some rules and regulations for the common good? Just as a company needs capital, she also will need capital. And just as a partnership or limited company sometimes needs government help, she may also need government help. But this can come later. When the district starts something with her own money and resources first, the government may encourage and help her. And in all matters of controversy and dispute she should be able to look to one man for decision and counsel, just as in families and companies we do so.

We don’t always need money to start something. That is a wrong idea. We need urge. We need work. Nature provides a storehouse of wealth for us. We need only labor and talent to exploit and enjoy it properly. Suvodya is a neighboring village near Dacca town. If the people of that village like to make a public reading room, they can do it at any moment without any strain to themselves. They can put up a building themselves. They have the laborers and materials at hand. They can bake bricks if they like and village masons can cement them up. They will need very little from outside. This is practical theory. Many laborers and resources in our district are going unutilized. If the brainy people can utilize these laborers and resources, how many things can be created? God alone knows. We need only spirit, will and motion. Money will come of itself later.

If many of us get inspiration from our suggestions, the laborers and resources can be mobilized nationally into one Indo-Pak Development Board, which could guide and instruct us locally. When such mobilization will be successful on a small scale, it will be expanded country-wide. We cannot always wait on the government. We shall have to start some things ourselves, making up our rules and regulations as we go. When our board earns a reputation, the government will probably want to step in and help us. On the other hand, if the society is fulfilled by following the government and its administration, it won’t need any board of development. It is only in case of necessity that the people will organize themselves. Let them think over the constructiveness of our suggestions, and let them jump if they feel the need and urge. The practicability of such voluntary district and national organization will depend to a large extent on the leadership given it. We need selfless people of brimming energy and intelligence. If any locality, district, or province is unable to do social service itself, it will have to depend on a national organization.

What is our duty toward the state?

We will see how she can grow as an ideal state. At present there is no ideal state, but there may be states that are seeing how they can grow into ideal states. At present no state is thinking of all men as entirely with her own people. There are many laborers and intellectual people in all these states, but not very many strong personalities. A strong and developed personality will think for others as well as for himself and his own. All will be his own. England has her neighbors of Ireland, France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, and Norway. She has done something for the preservation and independence of these countries. Germany has neighbors of Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Luxemburg, France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Poland, etc. She has done something for them. Japan too has her immediate neighbors of Korea, Russia, Manchuria, and China. All countries should see their neighbors as their sister countries and do more for them than what they are doing and according to their abilities. If things went on this way, there would be no war, manipulations, and misunderstandings. When the states will be guided by good men, wars will cease. Every of us should endeavor to make our state an ideal state.

If we simply try to get control over others, we will be doing no better than the others. England, Germany, etc. are not what we mean by ideal states. If we want to give a new shape to this world, we shall have to give a new shape to the state. It may take a long time because the present run of things is built on a long past. It is not possible to reshuffle the whole set-up in a day. We want slow, steady progress toward the ideal. We want fast progress, but what says the proverb? In some cases it is wisest ‘to make haste slowly’. If the present administrators take it into their hearts to effect an ideal state, our efforts will of course be greatly shortened. We shall have to demonstrate first what we mean. Then our leaders may become interested. We shall require perseverance and tolerance here too.

Before we can construct an ideal state, we will have to make an ideal society by means of an Indo-Pak Development Board. Most likely this will have to be done. And most likely it will have to be demonstrated on a small scale first before it is put on a national one. As these things begin to materialize successfully, people will feel admiration and want to follow along. Work alone is necessary. Talk is quite useless. We must promise not to waste our ideas and energy. We can start a good work right now, and let it grow. Let an institution form and let the people get inspiration from it. Let our Board and the administration of the country merge into one at the last, allowing the Ideal men to make an ideal state beloved of all the world.

Every state should try to be an ideal state. Trying will make it so. It will produce the Ideal man required- if He be wanting. Now all the world is in dire need of Him. Let us do, and let Him come!