was not a member of the Constituent Assembly and did not write or authorise a draft constitution. However, Narayan Agarwal drafted the Gandhian Constitution of Free India in 1946 based on Gandhian thought.24 M.K. Gandhi wrote a foreword that partially endorsed the document as not being ‘inconsistent with what I would like to stand for’.25 The Gandhian Constitution is organised into two Parts. Part 1 reads like a preface to the draft Constitution and reveals motivations and explanations for the proposed constitutional model. Part 2 sets out the draft Constitution with the draft clauses of the Constitution itself. I will review the references to duties in each part in turn below. In Part I of the Gandhian Constitution, in the section titled ‘The End of the State’, Agarwal undertakes an inquiry into the various strands of thought put forth by major Western political thinkers as well as Indian political thought. While examining the teachings of the Ramayana and Mahabharata, the Manusmriti, Kautilya’s Artha-Sastra, and Shukracharya’s Nitisara, he concludes that while it is the duty of the state to harmoniously balance the interests of the state and the individual, tactfully negotiating both Liberty and Authority, it is also the duty of the individual to perform his duty to the state. He further quotes the work of Prof. Tawney, relying on the concept of a ‘Functional Society’ where rights are contingent on social service.26 This strand of thinking is developed in the section titled the ‘Case for Democracy’. While discussing the importance of the democratic model of governance as perhaps the only form of government that allows for individual growth and development within an organised government, Agarwal goes on to reiterate that along with the exercise of rights, individuals must also discharge duties towards the State or Society.27 He relies on thinkers to further establish that the moral and religious basis of democracy implies a sense of brotherhood and contribution to the success of others.28 This focus on duty, brotherhood and contribution to society finds expression once again in the section on ‘Decentralisation’. Agarwal argues for the inclusion of local self-governance in the form of village republics to avoid the pitfalls of centralisation and modernisation that invariably pits individual, group, and state interests against one another. In this section, Agarwal talks about the rights and powers of the individual within the Panchayat system while still maintaining ties to fellow-citizens. In such a system of government, while individual personality development was fostered, Gandhian Constitution of Free India, 1946. Foreword, Gandhian Constitution of Free India, 1946. 26 R.H. Tawney, Acquisitive Society, quoted in Part I, the Gandhian Constitution. 27 Article 24, Part I, Gandhian Constitution of Free India, 1946. 28 Article 24, Part I, The Moral Basis of Democracy, p. 13, Eleanor Roosevelt. See also, Article 38, The Gandhian Way, Part I, Gandhian Constitution of Free India, 1946, quoting Lord Bryce, Modern Democracies. p. 666. 24 25 Journal of the National Human Rights Commission, Vol. 22, 2023 27