When I saw this question in UPSC essay paper 2013 I was very happy , It gives you freedom to write and allows you to paint beyond the lines , but I am a quote-o-holic and I really love quotes too much and I know that in Internet quotes are often wrongly attributed .
Misquoting and bogus quotes are every where , what happened here too is that words are tweaked and simplified,there is actually no proof of Gandhi Ji every saying these lines verbatim .
The closest verifiable remark we have from Gandhi ji is this:
“If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. … We need not wait to see what others do.”
In this open-ed Falser Words Were Never Spoken by Brian Morton he interprets,
Gandhi is telling us that personal and social transformation go hand in hand, but there is no suggestion in his words that personal transformation is enough. In fact, for Gandhi, the struggle to bring about a better world involved not only stringent self-denial and rigorous adherence to the philosophy of nonviolence; it also involved a steady awareness that one person, alone, can’t change anything, an awareness that unjust authority can be overturned only by great numbers of people working together with discipline and persistence.
So this is as close as we come to find the source of real quote , UPSC has immortalized this quote now ,if you find any source or interesting article please do let me know . Have you written this essay ? Please do share some key points and dimension for this essay “Be The Change You Want To See In Others” .
As Albert Einstein once said (or most likely didn’t),
“If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.”
this quote via Bryan Farrell Spare the quotations: the truth behind famous quotes .
Hey! I wrote this essay with the main idea that almost all of us have same kinds of expectations from others. So, if each one of us adapts oneself according to our own expectations from others, then whole society would become what is desired. For exa – If one wants that others shoull talk to him politely, then others also expect same from him. So, if each one start speaking politely to others by bringing change in oneself, then obviously whole society will change, and that too on desirable lines.
……In simple terms I made flow portraying the individual as ‘every individual’. So, any change in individual means that change in ‘every individual’, which means whole society is changed. And I knit it with common desires like every individual wants to be respected, to be loved, to be honoured. I further expanded the horizon that every individual also wants that his wife, girlfriend, husband or boyfriem should be loyal to him/her, his/her children must progress, his/her locality should become the best locality in the city, his country should become developed country and a superpower, the govt services provided should be efficient, corruption free and effective……then I connected all these how all this can be brought by bringing change in individual…..
Then I further enlarged the concept by saying that determined change in one individual can inspire millions to tread the path. I substantiated it by giving example of Mahatma Gandhi in Africa defying discriminatory law against Indians, who was initially alone to do so, but later joined by many. Similarly, I used examples of Anna Hazare, Subhas chandra bose.
Then I told the negative side…..it is not guaranteed that you change yourself, then whole world will change…….exa – Nirbhaya case- law was made stringent, yet rape cases in Delhi only increased……Then I said….it is quite dificult as well and involves lot of risk….and substatntiated by giving example of Satyendra Dubey’s murder in golden quadrilateral project.
Then……I gave suggestions that if deterred by failures, individual should not leave the commitment, rather change their approach, and substantiated it by Subhash chandra bpse’s exam that when he found that normal politics will not liberate the country, he went on to negotiate with axis powers and formed INA to liberate the country.
Then I concluded ……..
Please tell me what you would write in this??
Your answer is quite nice, and you wrote it covering wide topics,best of luck .