Discuss Mahatma Gandhi's concept of seven sins.

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Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Gandhi's seven social sins, printed in Young India in 1925, each describe an activity cut loose from its governing value, from wealth without work to politics without principle. ADR found 46% of Lok Sabha members elected in 2024 declared criminal cases, showing politics without principle today.

**Introduction**

In Young India (1925), Gandhi listed seven social sins, each an activity cut loose from the value that should govern it, and the list still reads as an audit of modern life.

**Sins in Personal and Economic Life**

1. **Wealth without Work**: Speculative or rent-seeking income violates bread labour, as the Harshad Mehta scam (1992) showed.
2. **Pleasure without Conscience**: Consumption blind to its cost on others and on nature drives the climate crisis, which Mission LiFE (2022) answers with mindful consumption.
3. **Knowledge without Character**: Skill without integrity produces clever wrongdoers, as the Vyapam scam (2013) exposed.
4. **Commerce without Morality**: Profit at any cost breeds fraud, seen in Satyam's inflated accounts (2009).

**Sins in Public and Spiritual Life**

1. **Science without Humanity**: Technology without care harms people, from Bhopal (1984) to today's deepfakes.
2. **Worship without Sacrifice**: Ritual without service becomes display, whereas the Sikh langar turns faith into sharing.
3. **Politics without Principle**: ADR found 46% of Lok Sabha members elected in 2024 had declared criminal cases, and ADR v Union of India (2024) struck down electoral bonds.
4. **A Balanced View**: Critics call the list idealistic, yet it rejects only the divorce of activity from values, and each finds an antidote in Gandhi's own ideals.

SKETCH: comparison | Sins and Gandhian Antidotes
a: Social sin
b: Gandhian antidote
- Wealth without work :: Bread labour
- Pleasure without conscience :: Self-restraint
- Knowledge without character :: Nai Talim
- Commerce without morality :: Trusteeship
- Science without humanity :: Sarvodaya
- Worship without sacrifice :: Seva
- Politics without principle :: Pure means

**Conclusion**

The seven sins share one diagnosis: means severed from morals. Read with the Fundamental Duties and the Nolan principles, they give a civil servant a ready checklist to test every act for work, conscience, character, morality, humanity, sacrifice and principle.

Discuss Mahatma Gandhi's concept of seven sins.

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