The ‘Seven Blunders of the World‘ (aka the Seven Social Sins) is a list that my Grandfather gave to me, written on a piece of paper, on our final day together, shortly before his assassination in 1948.
The Seven Blunders are:
This list grew from Gandhi’s search for the roots of violence. He called these acts of passive violence. Preventing these is the best way to prevent oneself or one’s society from reaching a point of violence, he would say.
To this list, I modestly added an eighth blunder, “rights without responsibilities.”
The idea behind the first blunder originates from the feudal practice of Zamindari. The first and the second blunders are interrelated. In the final analysis they are all interrelated, and they lay at the core of the phenomena of violence. If not resisted, these 7 (or 8) deadly sins can destroy both persons and countries.
“We live in a world in which these social sins flourish as much today as they did in Gandhi’s time; surely the battle against them is still worth waging.” — Peter Gomes, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus
