Given below are three quotations of great thinkers. What do each of these quotations convey to you in the present context?
- (a)“The simplest acts of kindness are by far more powerful than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.” — Mahatma Gandhi
- (b)“To awaken the people, it is the women who must be awakened. Once she is on the move, the family moves, the village moves, the nation moves.” — Jawaharlal Nehru
- (c)“Do not hate anybody, because that hatred that comes out from you must, in the long run, come back to you. If you love, that love will come back to you, completing the circle.” — Swami Vivekananda
Approach · directive: “what do they convey”
What it asks · Bring out the core message of each quotation and apply it to present-day society and to public service.
The question has 3 parts — answer each
- (a) What Gandhi's quotation on kindness conveys in the present context
- (b) What Nehru's quotation on awakening women conveys in the present context
- (c) What Vivekananda's quotation on hatred and love conveys in the present context
Open with · A saint of non-violence, a nation-builder and a monk of Vedanta make one point: ethics is proved in conduct, not in display.
Cover
- (a) Gandhi: sincere everyday acts of kindness outweigh ritual and show; service to others is the truest form of worship.
- (a) Today: small acts of help and empathy build social trust; in administration, compassionate service delivery counts for more than formal compliance.
- (b) Nehru: when women are educated and empowered, families, villages and the nation advance; women are agents of change, not only beneficiaries.
- (b) Today: girls' schooling, women's work participation, safety and political representation, including the one-third reservation in legislatures (2023), decide national progress.
- (c) Vivekananda: hatred returns to the hater, and love completes a circle of goodwill; the moral order rewards how we treat others.
- (c) Today: polarisation, hate speech and online abuse damage society; a civil servant's impartiality, tolerance and compassion reflect this teaching.
Close with · Together they set one test, much like Gandhi's talisman: does my act help the weakest, include those left out, and heal rather than divide?
Add value (verified)
- Gandhi's talisman: recall the face of the poorest and most helpless person you have seen, and ask whether the step you contemplate will be of any use to him. The Gandhi Talisman — This Was Bapu, mkgandhi.org (Bombay Sarvodaya Mandal & Gandhi Research Foundation) ↗“Recall the face of the poorest and the most helpless man whom you may have seen and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he be able to gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny?”
- Under Section 134A of the Motor Vehicles Act (with rules notified by MoRTH), a Good Samaritan is not liable to civil or criminal action for injury to or death of an accident victim he helps (legal news report). Centre Amends Motor Vehicles Rules For Protection Of 'Good Samaritans' — LiveLaw (legal news report) ↗“such a Good Samaritan shall not be liable for any civil or criminal action for any injury to or death of the victim of an accident involving a motor vehicle”
- Under DAY-NRLM, 10.05 crore rural households have been organised into 90.90 lakh self-help groups. Lakhpati Didi Scheme — PIB, Ministry of Rural Development (2025) ↗“So far, 10.05 crore rural households have been organised into 90.90 lakh SHGs in country under DAY-NRLM.”
- Vivekananda at the Parliament of Religions, Chicago (1893): sectarianism, bigotry and fanaticism have filled the earth with violence and sent whole nations to despair. Swami Vivekananda, Response to Welcome, Parliament of Religions, Chicago, 11 September 1893 — Complete Works, Vol. 1 (ramakrishnavivekananda.info) ↗“Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilisation and sent whole nations to despair.”
- Martin Luther King Jr., sermon 'Loving Your Enemies' (Dexter Avenue Baptist Church): hate for hate only intensifies hate; the strong person cuts off the chain of hate. Loving Your Enemies, Sermon Delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church — Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University ↗“hate for hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. . . . The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil.”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2023, GS Paper IV — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer · 449 words (UPSC limit 150) · Minimalist IAS
A saint of non-violence, a nation-builder and a monk of Vedanta make one shared point: ethics is proved in conduct, not in display. Each quotation speaks sharply to India today.
(a) Gandhi: simple kindness above ritual
- Message: a sincere act of kindness outweighs a thousand ritual prostrations; for Gandhi, service of the needy was itself worship.
- Gandhi's own test: his talisman asks us to recall the face of the poorest and most helpless person we have seen, and to ask whether our next step will be of any use to him.
- Present context: social trust is built by small acts; citizens who fed stranded migrant workers in 2020 did more good than any display of piety.
- Law that protects kindness: under Section 134A of the Motor Vehicles Act, a Good Samaritan who helps an accident victim is not liable to civil or criminal action.
- Public service: an officer who makes sure a widow's pension actually reaches her serves better than one who merely keeps files in order.
(b) Nehru: awaken the woman, and the nation moves
Educated, empowered womanHealthier, schooled familyOrganised villageStronger nation
- Message: women multiply development; they are agents of change, not merely its beneficiaries.
- Economic awakening: under DAY-NRLM, 10.05 crore rural households have been organised into 90.9 lakh self-help groups (PIB, 2025); a village moves when its women organise.
- Political awakening: the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023 provides for one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies to be reserved for women.
- Social awakening: Article 51A(e) asks every citizen to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women; safety, schooling and paid work turn that duty into fact.
- Caution: awakening means agency and choice; a nation that moves only on women's unpaid labour has not awakened them.
(c) Vivekananda: love completes the circle
- Message: hatred returns to the hater and love returns as goodwill; in Vedanta all beings share one Self, so harming another harms oneself.
- His own warning: at Chicago in 1893 he said sectarianism, bigotry and fanaticism had filled the earth with violence and sent whole nations to despair.
- Present context: polarisation, hate speech and online abuse corrode cohesion; Article 51A(e) asks citizens to promote harmony and common brotherhood across religious, linguistic and regional lines.
- A modern echo: Martin Luther King Jr. preached that hate for hate only intensifies hate, and that the strong person cuts off the chain of hate.
- Public service: impartiality towards every community, tolerance of criticism and restraint before a hostile crowd put this teaching into practice.
Read together, the three set a civil servant one test, much like Gandhi's talisman: does my act help the weakest, include those left out, and heal rather than divide?
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.