Revision summary
Guru Nanak taught one God, rejection of caste, honest labour, sharing, langar, and welfare of all. Those teachings still judge communal hate, bribes and unpaid hunger. Social capital is trust, reciprocity and networks that make cooperation possible. It helps good governance through participation, social audit and lower transaction costs. Bonding groups can exclude; bridging and linking capital are what a constitutional State needs.
Model answer
Introduction
Guru Nanak’s teaching is a public ethic of one God, honest work and equality. Social capital is the trust and networks that let people cooperate. Both still sit inside Indian governance.
Body
(a) Major teachings of Guru Nanak and relevance today
- Guru Nanak taught Ik Onkar: there is one divine reality, so sectarian hatred of another’s worship has no spiritual ground.
- He rejected caste ranking and priestly monopoly, insisting that dignity does not follow birth.
- Naam Japna, Kirat Karo and Vand Chakko form a three-fold discipline: remember the truth, earn by honest labour, and share what is earned.
- Langar, the community kitchen, made equality edible: people sit in one line without caste or rank.
- He criticised empty ritual when it replaced truthful living, and he spoke for women’s dignity against the habit of calling her inferior.
- Sarbat da bhala, the wish for the welfare of all, turns personal piety into a social aim.
- Relevance today: communal polarisation fails Ik Onkar; a bribe economy fails Kirat Karo; hunger beside surplus fails Vand Chakko and langar.
- Honest work is an anti-corruption ethic that does not wait for a new statute.
- Gender justice and a common kitchen for disaster relief are Nanak’s teaching in present administration.
- Inter-faith respect is not courtesy only; it is the constitutional fraternity that his one-God teaching supports.
(b) Social capital and good governance
- Social capital is the stock of trust, norms of reciprocity, and networks that help people cooperate without a contract for every act.
- Robert Putnam stressed associations and civic trust; James Coleman stressed obligations inside a community; Pierre Bourdieu noted that networks can also exclude.
- Bonding social capital ties similar people; bridging social capital links across caste, class and religion; linking social capital connects citizens to the State.
- Good governance needs participation, rule of law, transparency, responsiveness and accountability. Those qualities are cheaper where people already trust one another and the office.
- Self-help groups, cooperatives, resident welfare associations and a working gram sabha are social capital that can audit a ration shop or a road.
- Social audit under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 uses village networks to check muster rolls.
- High trust reduces the need for a bribe to “get the file moving” and raises the shame cost of cheating a neighbour.
- The same networks can become capture: a caste panchayat or a closed club can exclude women and minorities. Governance must build bridging and linking capital, not only bonding clubs.
- An officer enhances social capital by keeping promises, publishing information, inviting hearing, and not treating every association as an enemy.
- Digital public goods help when they add to local trust; they fail when they replace every human network with a password the poorest cannot use.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD GN[Guru Nanak] --> IK[Ik Onkar equality] GN --> KK[Honest work and sharing] SC[Social capital] --> TR[Trust and networks] TR --> GG[Good governance] KK --> GG
Conclusion
Guru Nanak’s teaching is one God, honest work, sharing and equality, which still judges hate, graft and hunger. Social capital is trust and cooperation. It enhances good governance when it is bridging and open, and it harms governance when it is only a closed group.
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Case study. You are working as an executive in a nationalised bank for several years. One day one of your close colleagues tells you that her father is suffering from heart disease and needs surgery immediately to survive. She also tells you that she has no insurance and the operation will cost about Rs. 10 lakh. You are also aware of the fact that her husband is no more and that she is from a lower middle class family. You are empathetic about her situation. However, apart from expressing your sympathy, you do not have the resources to find her. A few weeks later, you ask her about the well-being of her father and she informs you about his successful surgery and that he is recovering. She then confides in you that the bank manager was kind enough to facilitate the release of Rs. 10 lakh from a dormant account of someone to pay for the operation with a promise that it should be confidential and be repaid at the earliest. She has already started paying it back and will continue to do so until it is all returned.
Next question in the 2023 paper (Q7). View answer →
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Is Guru Nanak only a religious topic in an Ethics paper?
His teachings are public ethics: honest earning, sharing, gender dignity and refusal of caste. Those are administrative tests, not only theology.
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Does more social capital always mean better governance?
Only if the capital is open and lawful. A dense network that protects a riot or a cartel is social capital used against the Constitution.
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