(a) The crisis of ethical values in modern times is traced to a narrow perception of the good life. Discuss. (b) Increased national wealth did not result in equitable distribution of its benefits. It has created only some “enclaves of modernity and prosperity for a small minority at the cost of the majority.” Justify.
Approach · directive: “discuss / justify”
What it asks · (a) Explain how a narrow idea of the good life as wealth and comfort weakens ethical values; (b) justify, with evidence, the view that growth has created islands of prosperity at the majority's cost.
The question has 3 parts — answer each
- (a) Discuss how a narrow perception of the good life, as wealth and comfort, produces the crisis of ethical values
- (a) Discuss the wider perception of the good life and the way back to it
- (b) Justify, with evidence, the view that growth created enclaves of prosperity for a minority at the majority's cost
Open with · (a) When success is counted only in money and comfort, values are treated as obstacles; (b) the same logic shows in who gains from national wealth.
Cover
- (a) Narrow good life: wealth, status and consumption become the aim, so honesty, restraint and duty give way to shortcuts and competition.
- (a) Consequences: corruption, exploitation of people and nature, loneliness and profit placed above people, in private, business and public life.
- (a) Wider view: Aristotle's flourishing through virtue, India's four life goals led by dharma, and Gandhi's warning that the earth meets need, not greed.
- (a) Remedy: value education in homes and schools, simple living, service and leaders who set an example.
- (b) Evidence: NCEUS (2007): 77 per cent lived below Rs 20 a day in 2004-05; gains went mostly to an urban, skilled, propertied minority.
- (b) Costs borne by the majority: displaced tribals and villagers for dams and mines, insecure work and uneven health and education access.
- (b) Ethical test: Article 39(c) warns against concentration of wealth, and Rawls's difference principle and Gandhi's talisman ask that development uplift the last person.
Close with · A broader idea of the good life and growth that reaches the last person are two sides of the same ethical repair.
Add value (verified)
- NCEUS, Report on Conditions of Work and Promotion of Livelihoods in the Unorganised Sector (2007): at the end of 2004-05 about 836 million people, 77 per cent of the population, lived below Rs 20 a day. NCEUS, Report on Conditions of Work and Promotion of Livelihoods in the Unorganised Sector, August 2007 (copy hosted by DC-MSME, Government of India) ↗“At the end of 2004-05, about 836 million or 77 per cent of the population were living below Rs.20 per day and constituted most of India's informal economy.”
- Gandhi's seven social sins: Politics without Principle, Wealth without Work, Pleasure without Conscience, Knowledge without Character, Commerce without Morality, Science without Humanity, Worship without Sacrifice (Young India, 22 October 1925). Seven Social Sins — mkgandhi.org (Bombay Sarvodaya Mandal / Gandhi Research Foundation) ↗“Seven Social Sins Politics without Principle Wealth Without Work Pleasure Without Conscience Knowledge without Character Commerce without Morality Science without Humanity Worship without Sacrifice - Young India, 22-10-1925”
- Amartya Sen pioneered the capability approach: freedom to achieve well-being is a matter of what people are able to do and to be. The Capability Approach — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ↗“it is economist-philosopher Amartya Sen who pioneered the approach and philosopher Martha Nussbaum and a growing number of other scholars across the humanities and the social sciences who have significantly developed it. The capability approach purports that freedom to achieve well-being is a matter of what people are able to do and to be”
- NITI Aayog estimate (PIB backgrounder, 19 January 2024): multidimensional poverty declined from 29.17% in 2013-14 to 11.28% in 2022-23, with about 24.82 crore people escaping poverty. 9 years, 9 schemes: 24.82 crore uplifted from poverty — PIB backgrounder, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, 19 January 2024 ↗“During the past 9 years, the multidimensional poverty in India has declined from 29.17% in 2013-14 to 11.28% in 2022-23 with about 24.82 crore people escaping poverty.”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2017, GS Paper IV — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer · 443 words (UPSC limit 150) · Minimalist IAS
Wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, commerce without morality: these are among the seven social sins Gandhi listed in Young India (1925). Each is a good life measured only in money and comfort.
| Aspect | Narrow good life | Wider good life |
|---|---|---|
| Aim | Wealth, status, comfort | Flourishing, virtue, service |
| Measure | What one owns | What one can be and do |
| Result | Shortcuts, greed, loneliness | Trust, restraint, community |
(a) How the narrow view breeds the crisis of values
- Ethics as a cost: when success means possessions and rank, honesty, restraint and duty look like handicaps; bribes and adulteration become rational.
- Every sphere infected: profit above patients or safety in business, office as a source of rent, relationships valued for their use.
- Nature and neighbours: nature becomes raw material and others become rivals, hence environmental damage and a loneliness that wealth has not cured.
(a) The wider good life, and the way back
- Flourishing, not accumulation: Aristotle saw the good life as virtue in action; the Indian four aims keep artha and kama within dharma; a popular saying holds that the earth meets every need but not every greed.
- Freedom to be and do: Amartya Sen's capability approach judges well-being by what people are able to do and to be, not by what they own.
- Repair: value education at home and school, simple living, service, and institutions that reward the honest rather than the merely successful.
The charge in (b) is that growth built islands of prosperity while the majority bore its costs; the evidence supports it.
(b) Evidence of enclaves of prosperity
- Uneven gains: the NCEUS reported (2007) that at the end of 2004-05 about 836 million people, 77 per cent of the population, lived below Rs 20 a day, making up most of the informal economy.
- Costs on the majority: tribal and village communities displaced for dams and mines; insecure work without social protection; health and schooling that depend on ability to pay.
- A constitutional promise unmet: Article 39(c) directs the State to prevent concentration of wealth to the common detriment.
- The ethical test: Rawls's difference principle allows inequality only if it helps the least advantaged, and Gandhi's talisman asks whether a step helps the poorest; enclaves fail both.
(b) Since then, and the way forward
- Progress, unfinished: multidimensional poverty fell from 29.17 per cent (2013-14) to 11.28 per cent (2022-23), about 24.82 crore people escaping it (NITI Aayog, via PIB, 2024). Universal health and schooling, secure work and fair resettlement must carry this further.
A broader idea of the good life and growth that reaches the last person are two halves of one repair: a society that values only wealth will also share it badly.
Written by Minimalist IAS from facts checked at source (how we verify) — a little fuller than exam length, so every part of the question is covered; in the hall, keep the structure and trim the detail. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.