Revision summary
Thiruvalluvar’s line is about equanimity: a calm officer can master a crisis that a panicked one worsens. William James argued that changing attention and attitude can change a life; for an officer that means seva, not cynicism, without blaming the poor. Vivekananda held that a society’s real strength is the people’s morality, not the thickness of the statute book. Laws still matter; they work when character supports them. Together the quotes train inner weather, professional will and social ethics.
Model answer
Introduction
UPSC here gives three lamps, not three slogans. A good answer explains the line, then walks it into a tehsil. Thiruvalluvar speaks of inner weather. William James speaks of the mind’s lever. Vivekananda speaks of the people’s character. Together they are self, will and society.
Body
(a) Thiruvalluvar: the untroubled in trouble
The Kural says, in substance, that those who stay calm when trouble comes will make trouble itself tired. This is not numbness. It is equanimity — what the Gita calls samatva, what stoics call meeting what one cannot yet change without panic. A Deputy Commissioner in a cloudburst who shouts at every junior spreads fear; one who prioritises, delegates and still feels the dead, governs. Emotional intelligence here is an ethical skill, not a soft extra. The quote also warns against performative panic on television. Courage is steady work.
(b) William James: alter the attitude, alter the life
James, the American psychologist, meant that habit of attention shapes destiny. A bitter officer who sees every citizen as a cheat will find cheats and miss the honest poor. A growth attitude — I can learn this flood protocol — is objectivity plus hope. The ethical risk is blaming the victim: telling a hungry person to “change attitude” is cruelty. James is for the agent’s inner freedom, not for a State that withdraws welfare. For a civil servant, attitude is seva versus darbar: the same desk can be a service or a throne.
(c) Vivekananda: strength in morality, not only in law
“The strength of a society is not in its laws, but in the morality of its people.” Law without internalised honesty is a police-statute graveyard. India has many Acts and still leaks. Vivekananda wanted character as nation-building. The civil servant’s job is both: write a good rule and model it. If the officer takes a Diwali gift that is a bribe, the law is a joke in that office. If citizens will not queue without a tout, no portal will save them. Durkheim would call this the collective conscience. Vivekananda calls it man-making.
- The three quotes in one life: calm in the crisis, a chosen professional attitude, and a people who do not need a camera to be honest.
Flow diagram
flowchart LR T[Thiruvalluvar: calm] --> CS[Civil servant] J[James: attitude] --> CS V[Vivekananda: public morality] --> CS
Conclusion
Thiruvalluvar praises calm competence in crisis. James praises a chosen attitude that changes conduct. Vivekananda reminds us that statutes fail if people and officers are not moral. A civil servant needs all three.
Quick related
Students also ask
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(a) Attitude is an important component that goes as input in the development of human beings. How to build a suitable attitude needed for a public servant? (b) In case of a crisis of conscience does emotional intelligence help to overcome the same without compromising the ethical and moral stand that you are likely to follow? Critically examine.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2021 · Q4). View answer →
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Is James saying poverty is an attitude problem?
No. That would be a misuse. He spoke of the agent’s inner change, not of denying material injustice.
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If morality is enough, why have law?
Vivekananda is not anti-law. He is anti the illusion that a gazette can replace conscience.
PYQ trend
When UPSC asked this
Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.
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2021 · Q4 · GS IV · 10 marks
(a) Attitude is an important component that goes as input in the development of human beings. How to build a suitable attitude needed for a public servant? (b) In case of a crisis of conscience does emotional intelligence help to overcome the same without compromising the ethical and moral stand that you are likely to follow? Critically examine. -
2020 · Q4 · GS IV · 10 marks
(a) Distinguish between laws and rules. Discuss the role of ethics in formulating them (b) A positive attitude is considered to be an essential characteristic of a civil servant who is often required to function under extreme stress. What contributes to a positive attitude in a person? -
2016 · Q6 · GS IV · 12 marks
Our attitudes towards life, work, other people and society are generally shaped unconsciously by the family and the social surroundings in which we grow up. Some of these unconsciously acquired attitudes and values are often undesirable in the citizens of a modern democratic and egalitarian society. (a) Discuss such undesirable values prevalent in Today's educated Indians. (b) How can such undesirable attitudes be changed and socio-ethical values considered necessary in public services be cultivated in the aspiring and serving civil servants? -
2015 · Q5 · GS IV · 12 marks
Two different kinds of attitudes exhibited by public servants towards their work have been identified as bureaucratic attitude and the democratic attitude. (10 Marks) (a) Distinguish between these two terms and write their merits and demerits. (b) Is it possible to balance the two to create a better administration for the faster development of our country?
More from this topic
Q4 · UPSC Mains 2021 · GS IV · 10 marks
(a) Attitude is an important component that goes as input in the development of human beings. How to build a suitable attitude needed for a public servant? (b) In case of a crisis of conscience does emotional intelligence help to overcome the same without compromising the ethical and moral stand that you are likely to follow? Critically examine.
Attitude
Attitude is a stable leaning that shapes how an officer sees the public and the rule. Build a citizen-centric, impartial attitude through family, academy, field, role models and 360 feedback. Unlearn contempt, rank-worship and cynicism. Crisis of conscience is a clash of duties or of duty and fear. Emotional intelligence helps if it names and regulates emotion so the moral stand holds; it harms if charm is used to justify a comfortable wrong.
Q4 · UPSC Mains 2020 · GS IV · 10 marks
(a) Distinguish between laws and rules. Discuss the role of ethics in formulating them (b) A positive attitude is considered to be an essential characteristic of a civil servant who is often required to function under extreme stress. What contributes to a positive attitude in a person?
Attitude
Laws are general norms from the Constitution or legislature; rules are usually subordinate procedure under a parent Act. Rules cannot lawfully eat the Act; ethics forbids hiding policy in fine print that the poor cannot meet. Drafting ethics is equality, consultation, non-retrospectivity of pain, and proportionate means. Positive attitude under stress is realistic, duty-centred energy, not denial. It grows from character, EI, drills, team support and institutions that do not punish honesty.
Q6 · UPSC Mains 2016 · GS IV · 12 marks
Our attitudes towards life, work, other people and society are generally shaped unconsciously by the family and the social surroundings in which we grow up. Some of these unconsciously acquired attitudes and values are often undesirable in the citizens of a modern democratic and egalitarian society. (a) Discuss such undesirable values prevalent in Today's educated Indians. (b) How can such undesirable attitudes be changed and socio-ethical values considered necessary in public services be cultivated in the aspiring and serving civil servants?
Attitude
Attitudes are first learned at home and often survive a degree. Undesirable patterns include status contempt, kin and caste preference, gender hierarchy, queue-jumping as cleverness, civic indifference and communal stereotype. Public service needs integrity, impartiality, empathy, objectivity and constitutional morality. Cultivate them through hard selection, case-based academies, upright mentors, mixed living, RTI and e-systems, mid-career ethics, and leadership example. Slogans and cultural excuses do not delete the old software.
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