Some useful themes (jo GS answer writing mein

chal jayengi ache se) <these themes are not at all

Work Author exhaustive obviously>

• Humans evolved to be the smartest ones bcoz we

can communicate, cooperate and live in large
numbers
Yuval • Real strength of man lies in his collectiveness; we
Sapiens Noah stand no chance in a 1vs1 encounter with any big
Harari animal
• Humans live on emotions more than rationality
• African savannah mindset vs modern life in age of
robots and AI

• Threat of AI and all technology

• "useless class of citizens"
• Is 'free will' really free? Whatever we feel are
driven by hormones and chemicals inside our body;
Yuval if using biotech someone can manipulate them,
Home Deus Noah they can very well control our 'free-will'
Harari • Man thinks in stories, not facts or gures - thus
giving them 'grand stories' to believe results in
manipulation of free will; this is what politicians do
• Machines are better in that sense, that they analyse
things on facts and not just emotions, stories etc.

• How we should use technology with restraint; how

tech and new thoughts are changing the concept of
liberty, democracy, religions
• protect humans, not jobs; make them skillful
• there is just one civilisation in the world ->
Yuval
21 lessons for humanity
Noah
21st century • global problems need global solutions
Harari
• big data is watching you (1984 studaap)
• never underestimate human stupidity (wars etc)
• our sense of justice might be out of race
• you know less than you think (ignorance)
• chance is the only constant (education)

Kadvi Hawa • Movie on climate change and its consequences

Sujata
Do we care? Rao,
India's health former
system Health • "Political leadership should now opt for zero
Secy tolerance policy for laxity in healthcare"

Created by Rajat Yadav, AIR 111, UPSC CSE 2022

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 Malala
I am Malala Yousafaza • Terrorism, women empowerment, education for
i girls

• World is much better than we think it is; global

level of poverty, homelessness, crime is going
down statistically
• this is the safest period of human history viz a viz
Hans
Factfulness earlier wars/epidemics; yet people are dying of
Rosling
lifestyle diseases
• we humans have come up a long way and we
should acknowledge this collective endeavour
• our bias towards paying more attention to bad news

• Democracy was a "bold experiment" in a largely

illiterate and unpropertied India; sphere of politics
Pratap has truly created opportunities for people who
The Burden of
Bhanu participate in society; at the same time he also
Democracy
Mehta raises ags where this whole idea of democracy has
now lost its way and is under threat wrt ideas of
majoritarianism, persistent social inequality etc.

The Tipping Malcolm • How little things can make a big difference;
Point Gladwell butter y effect

• Rules of chnage in the post-crisis (2008) world -

can be understood in post-covid world funde too
• Bad times make good policies; never let a crisis go
waste
• How natural factors like climate, location etc can
play a major role in determining success of any
The Rise and Ruchir
nation, provided that we have right set of leaders
Fall of Nations Sharma
and will of people
• Debt is not a problem, but sharp rate of rise in debt
is
• Technocrats are tricky; use them with caution
• How govt meddling can be good, but only if done
in limit

Created by Rajat Yadav, AIR 111, UPSC CSE 2022

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 • India and its contradictions
• Education is most important - Japan was a shell -
Meiji Restoration focused a lot on education and
transformed the destiny of Japan
• Instead of nding a New India, contribute in
making one
• Privatise public healthcare, but only after
strengthening it rst
An Uncertain Amartya • India is booming - but for whom?; social
Glory Sen inequality; minority rights
• "There has been major failures both to foster
participatory growth and to make good use of
public resources to enhance the general level of
living."
• This book not just pictures a gloomy picture of
Indian society rugged by social inequality,
deprivations, but also argues for the possibility and
plausibility of change through democratic practice

• How throughout human history, nations/societies

reached prosperity and why others haven't?
• Creative Disruption | Eng vs. France — Printing
press case
• Critical Junctures | Black Death (Plague) of
England — 1348 — how it transformed the social
setup. Sort of Natural Selection.
• Institution are THE MOST important determining
factors of success. Sound Political Institutions are
muse for a sound Economical Institutions. Polity
drives Economics and economics provides a
Why Nations James positive feedback to politics.
Fail Robinson • So close and yet so far || City of Nogales in US and
Mexico border, on both side, startling differences
becoz of institutions || China- Tajikistan border
differences in agriculture level
• European colonised is responsible in a big way
why many of the present day economies are in such
despair — Africa, South America, South Asia
• 1688 Glorious Revolution — how it wrote the
destiny of Britain as biggest colonial power.
Creative Disruptions → Industrial Revolution ->
Expansion

Created by Rajat Yadav, AIR 111, UPSC CSE 2022

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 • Banking Reforms in India | AQR
• MPC — the need and success of it
• How systemic failures led to the massive TBS and
NPA problems?
• Why we need to privatise more and more banks?
• Why we need few, but strong banks — infra needs
($4.5 trillion) | shock absorber.
• Why we need diversi ed and targeted banking —
payment banks, banking correspondents — Take
Dr.
banking to the people, not banks.
I do what I do Raghuram
• In ation control should be THE most important
Rajan
target of any central bank.
• We need to deepen and diversify our securities
market | give more options for investment | Masala
bonds are important.
• Trust your lenders and borrowers | trust your
citizens
• Bring in the behavioural change towards the whole
idea of debt. Debt and credit is not bad, inef cient
management of them, is.

• The hidden forces which shapes our decisions

• How the whole idea of ‘man is a rational animal’ is
wrong. There are numerous times where we can
and we do make irrational decisions, going with the
ow.
Predictably Dan • Companies and Service Providers (Google, FB,
Irrational Ariely Insta, The Economists etc) have capitalised over
this fundamental aw with us humans. With the use
of big data and technology they can really predict
our ‘irrational’ decisions. They carve out their
pricing scheme, marketing strategies to manipulate
our though process.

• Focus on India’s diplomacy and foreign policy.

• Tharoor argues that we now need to look to the
Shashi new millennium.
Pax Indica
Tharoor • He calls for restructuring out ’soft-power’ status
and proposes thoughts for the new ‘grand-strategy’
for the nation.

• A elaborated and fascinating work at Indian history

and civilisation.
• How India’s history & culture was shaped by its
The Land of Sanjeev
Geography, Geology.
Seven Rivers Sanyal
• How cities and civilisations ourished alongside
rivers and how the river changes resulted in change
in civilisation — Saraswati “the lost river”.

Created by Rajat Yadav, AIR 111, UPSC CSE 2022

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 • Horrors of Partition and the miseries experienced
by people on both side of the border.
Train to Khushwan • Tells about how a peace loving village Mano Majra
Pakistan t Singh at the Indo-Pak border transformed into a
battle eld, as the trains from Pakistan come full
with dead bodies of Sikhs.

The Origin of Charles • Natural Selection and Survival of the ttest (latter
Species Darwin is a concept by Herbert Spencer)

Transformative ideas for India

The Path Amitabh • Health, Education, Finance etc all are covered
Ahead Kant • Bureaucratic reforms (lateral entry)
• Innovation

• One of the most revolutionary book about science

and biological evolution.
• Evolution of life through the prism of a gene’s eye
The Sel sh Richard
view of life.
Gene Dawkins
• It established the Darwins’ Natural Selection into a
conceptual framework with far-reaching
implications for our understanding of evolution.

• How the geology, geography of Earth played a role

in writing human history?
• Author takes on a ride through hundreds of
millions years of Earth history.
• How voting patterns in parts of the USA and
Britain are the result of geology.
Lewis
Origins • How climate changes and mass extinction events
Dartnell
are connected.
• Why does Democracy originated in Greece — Alps
mountains
• Caution over how in last 200 years we humans are
dangerously playing with the Earth, repercussions
of which are beyond our control and imagination.

Agamennon,
The
Choephori,
and The • Justice through retaliation
Eumenides Aeschylus • Justice through law

The Three Alexandre

Musketeers Dumas • Friendship, brotherhood

Created by Rajat Yadav, AIR 111, UPSC CSE 2022

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 The Diary of Anne • Courage and hope in face of adversity and inner
Anne Frank Frank con icts

Main Points of Aristotle's Ethical Philosophy

• The highest good and the end toward which

all human activity is directed is happiness,
which can be de ned as continuous
contemplation of eternal and universal truth.
• One attains happiness by a virtuous life and
the development of reason and the faculty of
theoretical wisdom. For this one requires
suf cient external goods to ensure health,
leisure, and the opportunity for virtuous
action.
• Moral virtue is a relative mean between
extremes of excess and de ciency, and in
general the moral life is one of moderation in
all things except virtue. No human appetite or
desire is bad if it is controlled by reason
according to a moral principle. Moral virtue is
acquired by a combination of knowledge,
habituation, and self-discipline.
• Virtuous acts require conscious choice and
moral purpose or motivation. Man has
personal moral responsibility for his actions.
• Moral virtue cannot be achieved abstractly —
it requires moral action in a social
environment. Ethics and politics are closely
related, for politics is the science of creating a
society in which men can live the good life
Ethics Aristotle and develop their full potential.

Anthem Ayn Rand • Self discovery and self awareness

Atlas
Shrugged Ayn Rand • Individualism, objectivism

The
Fountainhead Ayn Rand • Individualism, objectivism

• Kindness, sympathy, and generosity are more

David Charles important and perhaps more desirable than wealth,
Copper eld Dickens power, and social position

Great Charles • Wealth and poverty, love and rejection, and the
Expectations Dickens eventual triumph of good over evil

Created by Rajat Yadav, AIR 111, UPSC CSE 2022

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 • Dickens's primary goal in Hard Times is to
illustrate the dangers of allowing humans to
become like machines, suggesting that without
Charles compassion and imagination, life would be
Hard Times Dickens unbearable

• Oliver Twist is a story about the battles of good

versus evil, with the evil continually trying to
corrupt and exploit the good. It portrays the power
of Love, Hate, Greed, and Revenge and how each
can affect the people involved. The love between
Charles Rose and Harry in the end conquers all the
Oliver Twist Dickens obstacles between them.

• A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, deals

with the major themes of duality, revolution, and
resurrection. It was the best of times, it was the
worst of times in London and Paris, as economic
A Tale of Two Charles and political unrest lead to the American and
Cities Dickens French Revolutions.

• At the center of Robinson Crusoe is a tension

between society and individuality. As the novel
begins, Robinson breaks free of his family and the
Robinson Daniel middle-class society in which they live in order to
Crusoe Defoe pursue his own life.

• The standard that evil is to be punished and good

rewarded is written into the very fabric of the
Divine Comedy, and it's a standard Dante uses to
measure the deeds of all men, even his own. Moral
The Divine judgments require courage, because in so judging,
Comedy: Dante a man must hold himself and his own actions to the
Inferno Alighieri very same standard.

Concerning
the Principles David
of Morals Hume

• One of the themes central to The Age of Innocence

is the struggle between the individual and the
group. Newland Archer has been raised into a
world where manners and moral codes dictate how
The Age of Edith the individual will act, and in some cases, even
Innocence Wharton think.

Created by Rajat Yadav, AIR 111, UPSC CSE 2022

 • A Farewell to Arms focuses on several
contradictory themes: war and love, masculinity
and femininity, and fear and courage. Although the
Ernest setting of the novel is war, the characters are able
A Farewell to Hemingw to overcome their fears, rede ne gender roles, and
Arms ay fall in love with each other.

• The phrase “for whom the bell tolls” comes from a

short essay by the seventeenth-century British poet
and religious writer John Donne. Hemingway
excerpts a portion of the essay in the epigraph to
his novel. In Donne’s essay, “For whom does the
bell toll?” is the imaginary question of a man who
hears a funeral bell and asks about the person who
has died. Donne’s answer to this question is that,
Ernest because none of us stands alone in the world, each
For Whom Hemingw human death affects all of us. Every funeral bell,
The Bell Tolls ay therefore, “tolls for thee.”

• The moral lessons from The Old Man and the Sea
are as follows: the journey through life is the
reward; a person who lives with courage and
integrity can be destroyed but never defeated; and a
strong person never complains about what he
doesn't have but instead uses what is at hand with
Ernest the knowledge that it is one's inner resources that
The Old Man Hemingw count. There are also moral lessons about
and the Sea ay persistence, one's life work, and more.

• In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald offers up

commentary on a variety of themes -- justice,
power, greed, betrayal, the American dream, and so
The Great F Scott on. Of all the themes, perhaps none is more well
Gatsby Fitzgerald developed than that of social strati cation

• Tender Is the Night is F. Scott Fitzgerald's last

nished novel. ... The novel's themes, however,
delve far deeper: Fitzgerald examines the
pernicious in uences of social class, the tragedy of
Tender is the F Scott mental illness, the ravages of sexual abuse, and the
Night Fitzgerald destructive force of codependent love.

The
Metamorphosi • Diverse themes with kafkaesque lens -> Social
s and Other Franz isolation, alienation, guilt, burden of responsibility,
Stories Kafka human relations and economy etc.

Created by Rajat Yadav, AIR 111, UPSC CSE 2022

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 Franz • The Trial is about receiving justice—a moral good
The Trial Kafka that human society should afford to every person.

Narrative of
life of
Frederick
Douglass: An
American Frederick • Knowledge and ignorance; truth and justice;
Slave Douglass inexpressibility of enslavement

Fyodor
Crime and Dostoevsk
Punishment y • Criminality, Morality, Guilt

• The play discusses how war is made, how it is

fought, and how parties sue for peace at the close
of it. Indeed, the play's title is a direct quote from
Virgil's Aeneid, the Roman epic that glori es war.
Shaw used this quote ironically, drawing attention
Arms and the to how war should not be seen as romantic/heroic
Man G B Shaw thing...

• The main theme of Major Barbara is centered on

con icting social and moral ethics, one realistic
and the other idealistic. On the one hand, there is
Mr. Undershaft, who looks at life realistically and
believes that poverty is a crime. In contrast are the
moralists and idealists, like Major Barbara, who
seem to glorify poverty and suffering. They feel
that if the poor are treated kindly and given charity,
they can turn them into good people, saving their
Major Barbara G B Shaw souls.

• Pygmalion is a problem play in that it revolves

around the problem of poverty in Edwardian
Britain. It says a lot about the persistence of
poverty and the huge gulf in wealth and
opportunity between rich and poor that Eliza
Dolittle can only have a decent shot at life due to
her being used as a guinea-pig in an experiment by
Pygmalion G B Shaw a wealthy, upper-class male.

Created by Rajat Yadav, AIR 111, UPSC CSE 2022

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 • Story about Joan of Arc, a 15th century French
military general. Shaw's play examines the themes
of individualism, faith and even feminism. Joan
possesses all of these traits: Her extreme
individualism leads her to many victories and wins
her many followers, but it can also be viewed as
egocentric and imprudent.
• The fall of Joan is tragic in itself, but the focus of
the play is often on the social signi cance of the
con ict between the established order of the
Church and the feudal system on the one hand, and
St. Joan G B Shaw society's disruptor, the heretical saint, on the other.

Gabriel
100 Years Of Garcia • Circularity of time; Solitude; Progress and
Solitude Marquez civilsation

George • Love as a transformative force; compassion,

Adam Bede Eliot forgiveness, society, class, family

• Practical Knowledge Versus Bookish Knowledge

• The Claim of the Past Upon Present Identity
The Mill on George • The Importance of Sympathy
the Floss Eliot • The Effect of Society Upon the Individual

George
Animal Farm Orwell

• One of the de nitive texts of modern dystopian

literature.
• Powerful warning against totalitarian regimes and
extreme political ideologies
• “Big Brother” is watching you.
• “2+2 = 5 — dogma, spread by the government
through propaganda”.
• Memory Hole — any mechanism of destroying/
disappearance/alteration of the embarrassing
documents, photographs, transcript to give an
impression that something never happened
• Room 101 — Torture camp where party attempts to
subject a prisoner to his worst nightmare or fear or
George phobia etc
1984 Orwell • There is nothing called ‘Free Lunch’.

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 • Go Set a Watchman explores the theme of
conscience as a guide to moral decision-making.
The title re ects this theme, as "watchman"
symbolizes the conscience. Lee explores the
Go Set a Harper dangers of surrendering decisions about right and
Watchman Lee wrong to someone or something else.

• The Coexistence Of Good And Evil

• The Importance Of Moral Education
• The Existence Of Social Inequality
To Kill a Harper • Prejudice
Mockingbird Lee • Law

Henry • The Importance of Self-Reliance

David • The Value of Simplicity
Walden Thoreau • The Illusion of Progress

Herman • The Limits of Knowledge

Moby-Dick Melville • The Deceptiveness of Fate

• Alienation As A Form Of Self-Protection

• The Painfulness Of Growing Up
The Catcher in JD • The Phoniness Of The Adult World
The Rye Sallinger • Inaction

• Parallax, or the Need for Multiple Perspectives

James (post modernism type funda)
Ulysses Joyce • Compassion is a heroic thing

Pride and Jane

Prejudice Austen • Love; Gender; Family; Integrity; Class; Inequality

• The moral lesson of the novel is that it is prudent to

behave sensibly, but it is reckless or even
Sense and Jane dangerous to give up oneself to the excess of
Sensibility Austen sensibility.

• The play's central themes of freedom and

responsibility come from Sartre's doctrine that
"existence precedes essence." Sartre believed that
human consciousness, or a "being-for-itself,"
Jean-Paul differed from inanimate objects, or a "being-in-
No Exit Sartre itself,"

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 • Change, and its Dependence on Stability
Jhumpa • The Universality of “Foreignness”
The Namesake Lahiri • The Formation of Identity

The French • Gender, Feminism

Lieutenant's John • Post Modernism
Woman Fowles • Science and Religion

An Essay
Concerning
Human John
Understanding Locke

• The Predatory Nature Of Human Existence

Of Mice and John • Fraternity And The Idealized Male Friendship
Men Steinbeck • Freedom Vs. Captivity

• Greed as a Destructive Force

• The Roles of Fate and Agency in Shaping Human
John Life
The Pearl Steinbeck • Colonial Society’s Oppression of Native Cultures

• Man’s Inhumanity to Man

• The Saving Power of Family and Fellowship
The Grapes of John • The Multiplying Effects of Sel shness and
Wrath Steinbeck Altruism

• Might Versus Right

Gulliver's Jonathan • The Individual Versus Society
Travels Swift • The Limits of Human Understanding

Joseph • The Absolute Power of Bureaucracy and how it is

Catch-22 Heller worrisome

One Flew • Women as Castrators

Over The Ken • Society’s Destruction of Natural Impulses
Cuckoo's Nest Kesey • False Diagnoses of Insanity

• The Intersection of Political Events and Private

Lives
The Kite Khaled • Fraternity
Runner Hosseini • Racism and Ethnicity

• The Importance of Family

A Thousand Khaled • The Importance of Sacri ce
Splendid Suns Hosseini • The Rights of Women

Created by Rajat Yadav, AIR 111, UPSC CSE 2022

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 Leo
War and Peace Tolstoy

Machiavel
The Prince li

The
Autobiograph • Humanity as a Basic Right
y of Malcolm Malcolm • Racism
X X • Activism

• Language As A Tool Of Power

• The Causes Of Complacency
The • Totalitarian state
Handmaid's Margaret • Complicity
Tale Atwood • Banality of evil type funde

The • Racism and Slavery

Adventures of • Intellectual and Moral Education
Huckleberry Mark • The Hypocrisy of “Civilized” Society
Finn Twain • Empathy

• Moral and Social Maturation

The • The Hypocrisy of “Civilized” Society
Adventures of Mark • Freedom through Social Exclusion
Tom Sawyer Twain • Superstition in an Uncertain World

• Society and class

The Prince Mark • Justice and judgement
and the Pauper Twain • Versions of reality

I Know Why
The Caged Maya • Racism and Segregation
Bird Sings Angelou • Resistance to Racism

• The Hypocrisies of Social Behavior

The • The Acceptance of Human Flaw
Misanthrope Moliere • The Rationality of Compromise

• Sin, Knowledge, And The Human Condition

Nathaniel • Female Independence
The Scarlett Hawthorn • Identity And Society
Letter e • Empathy

The Picture of Oscar • The Negative Consequences of In uence/peer

Dorian Gray WIlde pressure

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 Euthyphro,
Apology, Crito
and Phaedo Plato

Republic Plato

• Censorship
• Knowledge Versus Ignorance
Ray • Technology
Fahrenheit 451 Bradbury • Dissatisfaction

• There is a genuine and beautiful message in 12

Years A Slave: people don't just deserve the
capacity to survive, but to live. We must make a
12 Years A Solomon cultural change that urges us to do something,
Slave Northup anything, and everything to end human traf cking.

• The Power of Unwritten Law

The Oedipus • The Willingness to Ignore the Truth
Trilogy Sophocles • The Limits of Free Will

Song of Toni • The Alienating Effects of Racism

Solomon Morrison • Dual burden on women

• Socialism as a Remedy for the Evils of Capitalism

Upton • The Immigrant Experience and the Hollowness of
The Jungle Sinclair the American Dream

• The Importance of Love and Compassion

Les Victor • Social Injustice
Miserables Hugo • French revolution

• The Folly of Optimism

• The Uselessness of Philosophical Speculation
• The Hypocrisy of Religion
Candide Voltaire • The Corrupting Power of Money

Leaves of Walt
Grass Whitman • Transcendentalism

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