Q7 · UPSC Civil Services Mains 2015 · Essay · 125 marks · 1 min read

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Dreams which should not let India sleep.

Topic: Philosophical and ethical quotes. Syllabus: Philosophical and ethical quotes Same official PYQ from year-wise 2015 and Philosophical and ethical quotes.

Essay map

Opening scene

Anecdote

A child still defecates by a railway line under a billboard of a ‘new India’. Sleep would be to believe the billboard. The dreams that should not let India sleep are the ones the Preamble already wrote and a street has not yet received.

Keep this in every paragraph

One stand

  • Dreams: Ambedkar’s social democracy, a tap, a science, a border that is quiet. Should not let sleep: urgency, not anxiety as a personality. Write three, not thirty.

Use once, in a scene — do not dump names

Quotes to earn

  • Ambedkar

    A life of contradictions — stay awake until the social is democratic.

  • Kalam cousin

    If used: a knowledge dream — then a government school, not a missile only.

Turn each heading into a full paragraph in the hall

Heading map

What the line is asking

  • Dreams: public oughts, not private fantasies only.
  • Should not let India sleep: a duty of restlessness.
  • Which dreams: pick; do not list ministries.

Social

  • Caste, a woman walking at night, a language.

Economic / ecological

  • Decent work. A river that still runs.

Strategic / knowledge

  • A science that is ours. A peace that is not a TV war.

The counter

A nation that never sleeps is a fever. Sleep is also a right of a night-shift worker. The line is about elites and a state that dozed on a promise — not about denying rest. And some ‘dreams’ are nightmares (a homogeneity). Keep the Preamble’s dreams.

Drop one peg where it fits — not a data dump

Value addition

  • Preamble / DPSP The official dream-file.
  • SBM / JJM A toilet and a tap — waking work.
  • Art. 21 A life that is more than a slogan.

Last 8–10 lines in the exam

Last paragraph

  • Close: stay awake for the street under the billboard. Expand — this is only the map.

Quick related

Students also ask

  • Can capitalism bring inclusive growth?

    Next question on this syllabus topic (2015 · Q8). View answer →

  • Is this the full essay?

    No. It is a map. In the exam, each heading becomes a paragraph with one Indian case.

  • Tone?

    Urgent, not a vision PDF. One street. Three dreams, not thirty schemes.

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