State and Government in Ancient India c11.s1.8

c11.s1.8

Government and citizens are both limbs of the body politic; they can function only in cooperation with each other and will both perish if there is a conflict between the two. The state seeks to bring about the moral and material progress and prosperity of the citizens by its measures and efforts; it can succeed in its mission only if the latter offer it hearty cooperation by discharging their obligations to the state. Enlightened self-interest, therefore, demands that since the state is engaged in promoting the progress of its citizens in moral, economic and aesthetic spheres, the latter should make the state’s onerous task easy by their hearty cooperation in discharging all their political obligations.