Revision summary
Tolerance is respect for difference without using the stamp as a communal weapon. It is essential to impartiality in a plural district. It is not indifference to crime, hate, or cruelty. Constitutional morality still ranks dignity above a majority custom. Daily tests are language, festivals, hearings, and refusal to let a crowd rewrite the queue.
Model answer
Introduction
Tolerance is the habit of letting others live, speak, and worship without using the stamp as a weapon. For a civil servant in a plural State, it is a working value of the first rank, but it is not a licence to tolerate crime or humiliation of the weak.
Body
Meaning in office
- Tolerance is patient respect for difference of faith, language, caste, party, and custom, so long as the Constitution is not broken.
- It is not indifference; the officer still decides, still enforces law, and still protects the weaker party.
- It is not moral emptiness; a communal lie or a lynching is not a “viewpoint” to be hosted at the desk.
- In India it sits beside secularism, Article 14, Article 15, and Article 25 as the administrative face of equal citizenship.
Why it ranks high for a civil servant
- The officer serves a whole district, not a biradari; every file will contain someone the officer does not privately like.
- Without tolerance, impartiality collapses into quiet favour for “people like us.”
- A hearing that lets a minority speaker finish, a festival order that is even-handed, and a language used at the counter are daily tests.
- In Uttar Pradesh’s density of identities, intolerance at the thana or tehsil becomes a public order risk, not a private taste.
Limits of “supreme”
- Tolerance of corruption, delay-money, or cruelty is not a value; it is collapse.
- Tolerance of hate speech that is already an offence is not liberalism; it is failure to protect.
- The supreme test remains constitutional morality: dignity and equality bind even a majority custom.
- Ranking values, integrity and compassion stand with tolerance; one cannot buy the others by being merely polite to the powerful.
Practice
- Recuse when one’s own community is a party if fairness will not be believed.
- Record reasons in a language the loser can follow.
- Refuse to let a crowd’s impatience rewrite a legal queue.
- Train staff that mockery of a petitioner’s dress or accent is misconduct, not humour.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD T[Tolerance] --> I[Impartial hearing] T --> L[Law still binds] I --> U[Equal citizenship] L[L] --> U[U]
Conclusion
For a civil servant, tolerance is a first-rank working value because the office belongs to every citizen. It is supreme in the sense of daily necessity, not as a blank cheque for crime or for the humiliation of the weak.
Quick related
Students also ask
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What do you understand by social influence? How can social influence and persuasion bring out behavioural change?
Next question in the 2022 paper (Q13). View answer →
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Must an officer tolerate an illegal custom?
No. Hear the community, then apply the law. Tolerance is of persons, not of a crime dressed as custom.
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Is tolerance the same as weakness?
No. A calm, even order that a mob dislikes is strength. Panic firing or communal targeting is not strength.
Same topic · past papers
UPPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2025 · Q16 · UPGS4 · 12 marks
Why are tolerance and sympathy necessary qualities for a civil servant to promote mental health among the weaker sections of society? Give answer with suitable arguments. -
2024 · Q9 · UPGS4 · 8 marks
Explain your suggestions to promote tolerance and compassion among civil servants to serve better the weaker sections. -
2021 · Q9 · UPGS4 · 8 marks
How can tolerance and compassion be fostered among civil servants? Give your opinion. -
2025 · Q1 · UPGS4 · 8 marks
Defining value; explain the distinctive features of human values and the role of the family in inculcating these values. -
2024 · Q20 · UPGS4 · 12 marks
"An environmental movement led by youth gains popularity through social media, rallies and collaboration with influencers and scientists. With time the movement gained public support and led the government to propose changes in the policy." What will be your stand to cope with the situation as a civil servant?
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Q1 · UPSC Mains 2022 · UPGS4 · 8 marks · Solution
Differentiate between democratic attitude and bureaucratic attitude of public servants.
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Q2 · UPSC Mains 2022 · UPGS4 · 8 marks · Solution
Explain the role of persuasion in relation to public protest with proper argument.
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Protest is often an Article 19 voice; persuasion is public reason before coercion. Ethos, pathos, logos and Cialdini’s tools explain how a trusted, factual, felt message works. Naming the grievance and offering an auditable next step convert heat into a file. Gandhi’s satyagraha is persuasion plus discipline, not vandalism. Force is last when life or another’s right is hit; empty persuasion is deceit.
Q3 · UPSC Mains 2022 · UPGS4 · 8 marks · Solution
Define impartiality and discuss the role of impartiality in solving problems of weaker section.
Civil Service aptitude and values
Impartiality decides by statute, evidence and need, not by caste, party, gift or fear. Nolan, Kant and Rawls give the same test: a noting that survives a hidden name. For the weaker section it applies Articles 14–17 and 46 instead of selling the free entitlement. Speaking orders, social audit and protection of the honest officer are the method. Ambedkar and field officers like Sankaran show impartiality as social democracy in the file.