Broadly speaking: Community Interests Vs. Individuality

[The author, Shivam Sharma is a fourth-year law student at IME Law College, Delhi]

INDIVIDUALITY

Individual rights refer to the liberties of each individual to pursue his/her life and goals without any interference from the other individuals or the government. Some of the best examples of these individual rights are The right to life, personal liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These all are stated in the United States Declaration of Independence at the International level. Since, each and every individual is part of a larger community somehow or somewhere i.e. Family, neighbours, tribe, village, city, county, state, region, country, etc.

There are the number of philosophers gave their views regarding it but a great philosopher named Salmon gives a perfect definition of Individualism in 2002 as; Individualism is the principle of people having the freedom to act on matters concerning them and in this individualist cultures, most of the people’s social behaviour in the society is largely determined by personal goals, attitudes, and collective values of families, co-workers, fellow countrymen, etc.

The goals of a community are more important than those of individuals while the goal of the individual should be viewed as supreme and are more important than those of the community.

Methodological individualism denies the independent existence of community because often the people who favour the communal position assert an independent existence to their community in order to justify their elevation of the goals.

COMMUNITY INTERESTS

A community is a group of people with some common interests, goals and values. Individuals may be the members of two or more communities; for example, one of geographic residence and another of employment and so on…

Community responsibilities are an individual's duties or obligations towards the community and include the cooperation, respect and participation of every individual participant of the Community and in the Community or collectivist cultures, most of the people’s social behaviour is largely and somehow determined by some goals, attitudes, and values that all are shared with the collective group of persons in the community.

The creation of a community is an arbitrary process and the community may be determined by the race, Cast, religion, wealth country of birth and so on… but every community thinks that its goal is superior and important while the goals of the collective are merely the goals of those individuals who exert the most power or influence over that community.

Importance of Community responsibilities[1]:

There is the mass or the large no. of people voluntarily came together with a shared sense of purpose for the common cause or interest with the intent of doing a right of a wrong in the community or society. Voluntary actions by some private citizens working together for the injustices, changing directions and pursue benefits for the common interest are noted the no. of times throughout the world history. This includes the number of cases like The abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, public education, community hospitals, the civil rights movement, the women's movement, the environmental movement, the gay rights movement, the organization of migrant workers and many others. There are the no. of movements' leaders who achieved great fame and the respect of the nation and the world, in which some of them are as; Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, etc. These Movement leaders led a mass struggle for racial equality and freedom for the nation or country that not only changed India & America but the whole world.

In 1787, there was a chief architect of the Declaration of Independence named Thomas Jefferson who urged the drafters of the Constitution to clearly identify the rights of the people and the Bill of Rights contains the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution which includes the basic privileges of all United States citizens of America.

MISSES’ VIEWS

There was a great Philosopher and Austro-Hungarian Economist named Mr Ludwig von Mises who favoured the ability of individuality to chose their own goals in life and act accordingly but he was not an “anti-society person”, only saw the individualism as an essential for peace and prosperity in the society.

GANDHIAN CONCEPT[2]

In the present times and the current situation, we all can easily saw that the growing assertion of rights often ignores the importance of duties in the society as it is correlative. Individuals in our society at large are very well seen and occupied in identifying their rights and often overlooking their duties but in this context, Gandhi’s thoughts on duties, it becomes pertinent to address the prevailing challenges of the society and in the Gandhi Ji's view duties are more fundamental and important than the rights because the latter springs from the former which ensure its better implementation.

As we can see, Gandhi’s idea or views on duty becomes more relevant in the 21st century, giving the increasing clamour for rights. Though India came up with a new species and dedicated Amendment of Part IV- A on Fundamental Duties in the Constitution of India who’s its effectuation and realization is still a great challenge.

ROLE OF NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS

There are the numbers of Nonprofit and charitable organizations working around the world to identify and underlying the causes of social problems that change or effect to the benefit of the public while the Nonprofit organizations reinforce both the individualism and community responsibility by establishing or operating an arena of action through which the individuals may take the initiative to promote their own well-being and to advance the well-being of others in the community or society.

ROLE OF SUPREME COURT

Our Constitution of India provides a special mechanism for the interpretation that is The Supreme Court of India. Earlier, the no. People disagreed with the Supreme Court as regards the meaning of a specific special right, but adherence to the rules of law requires obedience to the interpretation by the Court. The duty of the Supreme Court of India is sworn to uphold the Constitution of India and to reflect and decide the evolving notions of conflicts of rights among the individuals, communities, etc. The Supreme Court is recognized as the chief agent for safeguarding the constitutional rights and making decisions on the current socio-logical issues with the needs of the time and society.

CONCLUSION

At last, we conclude that the number of researchers in the field of cultural and cross-cultural psychology had a view of a love-hate relationship between Community interests and Individuality.

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[1] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331431824_Individualism_and_Collectivism

[2] http://clc.du.ac.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/CALL-FOR-CHAPTERS-FOR-BOOK-2-converted.pdf