UPSC Mains 2016 GS Paper 4 Q2b: model answer
Discuss Mahatma Gandhi’s Concept of Seven Sins.
What the question wants
Discuss Gandhi's concept of the seven sins, with their meaning today.
How to structure it
List all seven, each with a modern example.
- –
- Relevance
How to think it through
Young India 22 Oct 1925: Wealth without work; Pleasure without conscience; Knowledge without character; Commerce without morality; Science without humanity; Religion without sacrifice; Politics without principle. Examples: speculative wealth/ponzi (Saradha 2013), drug abuse, cheating scams (Vyapam), Satyam, chemical weapons/gene editing, communal religion, defections. Arun Gandhi added 8th 'rights without responsibilities'.
Model answer
In Young India (22 October 1925), Gandhi listed seven 'social sins'. Each pairs something good with the missing value that turns it harmful.
The seven sins and their modern face
1. Wealth without work: money made by speculation, fraud or rent-seeking; chit fund scams like Saradha cheated lakhs of small savers.
2. Pleasure without conscience: enjoyment that harms others, such as drunk driving or drug use.
3. Knowledge without character: education used to cheat, as in exam paper leaks and impersonation rackets.
4. Commerce without morality:
adulteration, cartels and misleading advertisements.
5. Science without humanity: research that ignores ethics, such as unsafe drug trials or chemical weapons.
6. Religion without sacrifice: ritual and display without compassion, or faith used to divide.
7. Politics without principle: defections for office, money power and hate speech.
Relevance today
- Gandhi's grandson Arun Gandhi added an eighth: rights without responsibilities.
For a public servant
- Officers face several directly: refuse 'wealth without work' in the form of bribes, and enforce 'commerce with morality' as regulators.
Gandhi did not condemn wealth, science or politics; he condemned them when they forgot why they exist.
Draw: A seven-row table: 'good thing' and 'missing value', with one modern example per row.
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
seven social sins, Young India 1925, wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, religion without sacrifice, politics without principle, Saradha, paper leaks, Arun Gandhi's eighth.
Where most answers lose marks
- Listing the seven sins without explaining or giving modern examples.
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Fresh examples from current affairs
Supreme Court: no prior approval under Section 17A needed to probe a bribe demand
In a judgment of 16 October 2026, a Supreme Court Bench of Justices S.V.N. Bhatti and N.V. Anjaria held that investigating a bribe demand by a public servant does not need prior approval under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Asking for a bribe, the court said, is not part of discharging official duties.
UPSC angle: Prelims: Sections 7, 7A, 17A and 19 of the PC Act. · Mains GS-II/GS-IV: honest officers versus accountability.
19 Oct 2026Learn the concept
Question text as printed in the official UPSC Civil Services (Main) question paper. The model answer is original Battle IAS work; use it to learn structure, not to memorise.
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