Q2(a) 10 marks · 150 words · answered on its own
‘Hatred is destructive of a person’s wisdom and conscience that can poison a nation’s spirit.’ Do you agree with this view? Justify your answer.
Approach · directive: “do you agree; justify”
What it asks · Take a stand on whether hatred destroys a person's wisdom and conscience and can poison a nation's spirit, and justify it with reasons and examples.
It asks 3 things — answer each
- State whether you agree that hatred destroys a person's wisdom and conscience
- Justify how hatred can poison a nation's spirit, with examples
- Qualify the view and show how hatred is overcome
Open with · Hatred as settled hostility towards a person or group, deeper and more lasting than anger; agreement with the view, since hatred corrupts first the hater's judgement and conscience, then a nation's spirit.
Cover
- A flowchart traces the slide: prejudice, hatred, clouded judgement, silenced conscience, collective violence.
- Wisdom destroyed: Tagore on peoples taught to foster hatred through half-truths and untruths in history.
- Conscience silenced and a nation poisoned: Tagore's warning against moral callousness; the killings of Partition; Tehseen Poonawalla (2018) on mobocracy.
- The qualification: anger at injustice is not hatred; Gandhi's precept 'Hate the sin and not the sinner', rarely practised, which is why the poison of hatred spreads.
- Remedies: action against hate speech and mob violence, education for empathy, dialogue and leaders who model restraint.
Close with · The Dhammapada's law that hatred is never appeased by hatred, only by non-hatred.
Add value (verified)
- Tehseen S. Poonawalla v Union of India (Supreme Court, 17 July 2018), on mob lynching: mobocracy cannot be allowed to override the law or become the new normal.Tehseen S. Poonawalla vs Union of India, Supreme Court, 17 July 2018 — Indian Kanoon ↗“The horrendous acts of mobocracy cannot be permitted to inundate the law of the land. Earnest action and concrete steps have to be taken to protect the citizens from the recurrent pattern of violence which cannot be allowed to become “the new normal”.”
- Gandhi, An Autobiography (Part IV, Ch. 9): 'Hate the sin and not the sinner' is a precept easy enough to understand but rarely practised, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world.M. K. Gandhi, An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Part IV, Ch. 9 (A Tussle with Power) — mkgandhi.org (PDF, p. 310) ↗“understand, is rarely practised, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world. This ahimsa is the basis of the search for truth.”
- Dhammapada, verse 5: hatred is never appeased by hatred, only by non-hatred.Dhammapada, Yamakavagga: Pairs (verses 1-20), tr. Acharya Buddharakkhita — Access to Insight ↗“Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world. By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is a law eternal.”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2020, GS Paper IV — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 3 Oct 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer· 217words · Minimalist IAS
Hatred is settled hostility towards a person or group, deeper and more lasting than anger. I agree with the view: hatred first corrupts the hater's judgement and conscience and, once shared by many, the spirit of a nation.
- Prejudice
- Hatred
- Clouded judgement
- Silenced conscience
- Collective violence
- Wisdom destroyed: hatred filters every fact through prejudice, so the hater cannot weigh evidence. Tagore warned that peoples taught 'to foster hatred' are fed 'half-truths and untruths in history'.
- Conscience silenced: hatred dehumanises its target, so cruelty stops feeling wrong; Tagore saw a people taught to take pride in its 'moral callousness'.
- A nation's spirit poisoned: collective hatred produced the killings of Partition and, in our time, mob lynchings. In Tehseen Poonawalla (2018) the Supreme Court held that 'horrendous acts of mobocracy cannot be permitted to inundate the law of the land'.
- The qualification: anger at injustice is not hatred and can fuel reform. Gandhi observed that 'Hate the sin and not the sinner' is easily understood but rarely practised, 'and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world'.
- Remedies: firm action against hate speech and mob violence, education for empathy, inter-community dialogue, and leaders who model restraint.
As the Dhammapada puts it, 'Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world. By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased.'
Prepared by Minimalist IAS to the answer standard of Shivam Singh (mentor, 7 years) · facts checked against official sources (how we verify) · updated 3 Oct 2026. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.
Q2(b) 10 marks · 150 words · answered on its own
What are the main components of emotional intelligence (EI)? Can they be learned? Discuss.
Approach · directive: “what; discuss”
What it asks · Set out the main components of emotional intelligence, then discuss whether, how and how far they can be learned.
It asks 2 things — answer each
- Identify the main components of emotional intelligence
- Discuss whether they can be learned, how, and the limits
Open with · Emotional intelligence defined, after Salovey and Mayer, as the ability to perceive, use, understand and manage emotions, one's own and others'; Goleman's five components.
Cover
- A hub lays out Goleman's five components: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skill.
- Managing oneself (self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation) and managing relationships (empathy, social skill), such as reading the fear behind a crowd's anger.
- Learnable: Goleman grants a genetic component but finds that research and practice show emotional intelligence can be learned and rises with maturity.
- How: the limbic system learns through motivation, extended practice and feedback, so reflection, mindfulness, role-play and mentoring beat lectures; temperament sets the starting point.
Close with · Delhi's Happiness Curriculum (2018), which teaches self-awareness, empathy and coping with stress from Nursery to Grade 8, to create confident, mindful, responsible and happy individuals and a harmonious society.
Add value (verified)
- Goleman: there is a genetic component to emotional intelligence and nurture plays a role too, but research and practice clearly show that it can be learned; it also increases with age.Daniel Goleman, 'What Makes a Leader?' (Harvard Business Review, reprinted 2004) — republished by the American Association for Physician Leadership ↗“Scientific inquiry strongly suggests that there is a genetic component to emotional intelligence. Psychological and developmental research indicates that nurture plays a role as well. How much of each perhaps will never be known, but research and practice clearly demonstrate that emotional intelligence can be learned. One thing is certain: Emotional intelligence increases with age.”
- Goleman: emotional intelligence arises largely in the brain's limbic system, which learns best through motivation, extended practice and feedback, unlike the analytical learning that most training targets.Daniel Goleman, 'What Makes a Leader?' (Harvard Business Review, reprinted 2004) — republished by the American Association for Physician Leadership ↗“Emotional intelligence is born largely in the neurotransmitters of the brain’s limbic system, which governs feelings, impulses, and drives. Research indicates that the limbic system learns best through motivation, extended practice, and feedback.”
- SCERT Delhi: the Happiness Curriculum, for Nursery to Grade 8 in Delhi government schools, was introduced in 2018; it holds that education should create confident, mindful, responsible and happy individuals who build a harmonious society.Happiness Curriculum — State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Government of NCT of Delhi ↗“Happiness Class is a program developed by the Government of NCT, Delhi for students from Nursery to Grade 8. The curriculum was introduced in 2018 by His Holiness Dalai Lama. The Curriculum is a path-breaking initiative that questions and challenges the traditional pedagogy and practice. The curriculum believes that the purpose of education is to create confident, mindful, responsible, and happy individuals who collectively build a happy and harmonious society.”
- SCERT Delhi: the curriculum's objectives include self-awareness and mindfulness, empathy and healthy relationships, and life skills to deal with stressful and conflicting situations.Happiness Curriculum — State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Government of NCT of Delhi ↗“To develop self-awareness and mindfulness amongst learners. To inculcate skill of critical thinking & inquiry in the learners. To enable learners to communicate effectively and express themselves freely and creatively To enable learners to understand their expectations in relationships, develop empathy, and ensure healthy relationships with family, peers & teachers To enable learners to apply life skills to deal with stressful & conflicting situations around them”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2020, GS Paper IV — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 3 Oct 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer· 217words · Minimalist IAS
Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to perceive, use, understand and manage emotions, one's own and others', as Salovey and Mayer described it. Daniel Goleman groups it into five components.
The main components of emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence: Self-awareness; Self-regulation; Motivation; Empathy; Social skill
- Managing oneself: self-awareness is knowing one's moods, strengths and triggers; self-regulation is the pause between impulse and action; motivation is drive that does not depend on reward.
- Managing relationships: empathy reads the feeling behind words, such as the fear behind a crowd's anger; social skill turns that reading into trust, persuasion and teamwork.
Can they be learned?
- Largely, yes: Goleman accepts a genetic component, yet holds that 'research and practice clearly demonstrate that emotional intelligence can be learned'; it also rises with age, as maturity.
- By practice, not lectures: EI is rooted in the brain's limbic system, which 'learns best through motivation, extended practice, and feedback'. Reflection, mindfulness, role-play and mentoring build it; a lecture on empathy does not.
- The limit: temperament sets the starting point, and training without sincere motivation yields polite technique, not real empathy.
Delhi's Happiness Curriculum (2018), for Nursery to Grade 8, shows the way: it teaches self-awareness, empathy and coping with stress to create 'confident, mindful, responsible, and happy individuals who collectively build a happy and harmonious society'.
Prepared by Minimalist IAS to the answer standard of Shivam Singh (mentor, 7 years) · facts checked against official sources (how we verify) · updated 3 Oct 2026. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.
