Mahatma Gandhi said that some of his deepest convictions were reflected in a book titled, “Unto this Last” and the book transformed his life. What was the message from the book that transformed Mahatma Gandhi?
Answer & explanation
Answer: (b) The good of individual is contained in the good of all.
In his Autobiography (Part IV, Chapter 18, 'The Magic Spell of a Book'), Gandhi summed up what he took from Ruskin's 'Unto This Last'. The first teaching he listed was that individual welfare is bound up within the welfare of everyone, which is option (b). He later paraphrased the book in Gujarati under the title 'Sarvodaya'. The ideas in options (a) and (c) are not among the three teachings he listed.
- ✗ (a) Gandhi's summary does not say that uplifting the poor is the moral duty of the educated. His teachings stress the equal worth of all work and the dignity of labour.
- ✓ (b) This is the first of the three teachings Gandhi drew from the book. He paraphrased the book in Gujarati as 'Sarvodaya', meaning the welfare of all.
- ✗ (c) Celibacy and spiritual pursuit are not part of the book's message as Gandhi summarised it. His third lesson was that a life of labour, such as the tiller of the soil or the handicraftsman lives, is the life worth living.
- ✗ (d) Since (a) and (c) are not among the teachings he listed, 'all of the above' cannot be right.
Remember · Unto This Last (Ruskin) gave Gandhi three lessons: individual welfare is bound up within the welfare of everyone; all work has equal value; the life of labour is worth living. He paraphrased it in Gujarati as 'Sarvodaya'.
Sources
- Ruskin's Unto This Last: A Paraphrase by M. K. Gandhi (mkgandhi.org) ↗ · reference work “At the end of that chapter Gandhiji gives us a summary of the teachings of Unto This Last as he understood it: 1. The good of the individual is contained in the good of all.”
Question: UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) 2011, General Studies Paper I. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 25 Oct 2026 (how we verify). ·
