A nation flourishes only when the people from top to bottom realize their duty towards the country and offer their services to the cause of upliftment of the whole society. It is the dutiful people who lead a nation to the way of glory. So is true with a family or an individual.
History is a record of the glory of great nations—glory that followed the painstaking efforts of selfless people who even forsake their lives to accomplish goals for all. It was his sense of being guided by the angel of duty that brought name to Abraham Lincoln, but fame and glory to the USA. He laid his life at the altar of duty and didn’t allow the country to be divided. He also considered it his duty to follow Great Britain in abolishing slavery in the USA. It was initially Lincoln’s sense of duty that made the country strong. It is still the strongest nation in the world. It is because of the continuance of the sense of duty towards the nation that the USA is leading the world in this unipolar scenario. Having a great control over the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) the USA is in a position to dictate the peoples throughout the world.
It was the high spirit of duty of Joan of Arc that filled the hearts of the soldiers who gave a crushing defeat to Great Britain the biggest Navigation Power in the world. Having been burnt at the stake to bring freedom back to her country she brought glory to France after a long interval of time. The sense of duty in De Valera led him to the scaffold but brought success to the cause. Ireland was free. It became a strong nation. The glory that De Valera brought to the country sustained the nation and it still does.
Dutybound to unite the scattered kingdoms of India Chanakya brought fame and glory to the nation, started the dynasty of Mauryas and became immortal himself. It was his deep insight and sense of duty to put to pen the Artha Shastra-the classical book on how to rule and bring economic succour to the nation.
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Glory kissed the feet of Vivekananda the roaming saint of India who considered it his duty to draw the true picture of India before an inter-national gathering at Chicago. His path of duty brought fame and glory to this ancient land. Duty bound Jhansi ki Rani Laxmibai left a trail of glory in Bundelkhand. Folk songs of the region still revitalize the spirit of the people.
Glory knocked at the door of Subhash Chandra Bose. He inspired thousands of young men to consider it their duty to lay their lives for the noble cause of making the nation free. ‘Give me blood, I shall give you freedom’—the immortal words still ring in the ears of millions of people. It was his sense of duty towards the downtrodden that inspired EV Ramaswamy Naicker to raise his voice against the king of Travancore and Cochin at Vaikkom to allow them to move freely on the road leading to the historic temple. The circle of glory is complete by the installation of the statue of Naicker in February 1994 at the place where he staged satyagraha.
The path of duty opened the flush gates of glory for Ambedkar. He placed his own example before the so called Dalits to inspire them to stand on their own through education. The glory that the nation achieved under the stewardship of Gandhi who showed the path of duty to millions of his country men is unassailable.
No individual in the world history can claim of having such a huge following of millions of young men and women. He, of course, had to offer his life at the altar of the nation. The sense of duty of the revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev dyed the very fabric of the nation with the glorious saffron that has symbolized sacrifice for centuries in this land of saints.