Over 70% jump in Muslim civil services recruits. Four of them make it to top 100

Growing awareness about exam among minorities, people coming forward to help by providing hostels, study material, coaching classes helping, say UPSC coaching industry experts.

File photo of aspirants outside the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) office in New Delhi | ANI

New Delhi: When Shah Faesal topped the UPSC list 14 years back, it not only brought about a sense of pride among the Muslims but also set in a renewed interest in civil services. This year, over 50 civil service aspirants who cracked one of the world’s toughest competitive exams are Muslims — an over 70 percent jump from the previous year.  

What makes it commendable are four — Nausheen (All India Rank 9), Wardah Khan (AIR 18), Zufishan Haque (AIR 34), and Fabi Rasheed (AIR 71) — figure in the top 100 of the Civil Services Examination (CSE) 2023 merit list.

And while there has been a jump in the Muslim representation when compared to 29 in 2022 and 25 in 2021, the numbers are not representative of the community.

“I would need more data for this claim. In my opinion. They are still grossly underrepresented, not matching even their population ratio. If any ‘minority’ is increasing its clout in civil services, it’s not Muslims but Jains,” said Vijender Chauhan, educator, and assistant professor at New Delhi, who has been conducting mock interviews of UPSC aspirants for more than 20 years. 

Overall, a total of 1,016 candidates have been selected for appointment into the Indian Administrative Services (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and other branches as per the UPSC Civil Service Merit 2023 released Tuesday.  

As far as the information about the candidates are concerned, the above mentioned numbers were collated from the final result that the UPSC list. On its own, the UPSC does not categorise candidates based on their religion. 

Another point to be noted is that the CSE vacancies has seen a slight uptick in the last three years. In 2021, the number of posts was 712 and it went up to 1022 in 2022 and 1,016 in 2023. 

So, is the Muslim representation increasing in the UPSC? According to a source in the coaching industry, it is the case if the numbers of the last three years are taken into consideration. 

This, the source said, is because of the awareness about the exam among minorities and communities are also coming forward to help students by providing hostels, study material, and coaching classes.

Chauhan was more specific about the reasons for the uptick. “There is more awareness among students from minorities, and they are trying to catch up. So, we do see more Muslim students, thankfully more women aspiring to be in services,” he explained. 

The 2023 final result shows that Jain’s representation is also increasing in UPSC. This year, there are 12 candidates in the list.  

However, those from the civil service coaching sector experts say that this data is not sufficient to claim that the representation of Muslims is increasing.

Last year, ThePrint reported how Jains, Baniyas, Dalits, and Baniya communities are helping their own to crack the civil services entrance exam in the country. These community outreach initiatives to sponsor UPSC coaching are the new model of helping poorer members and ensuring they are adequately represented in India’s power elite. The outcome is ‘affordable UPSC’ for millions of Indian youth. 

“Such a foundation has played an important role in this result and also the internet. Now most of the material is available online so that is also helpful. foundations like Atiya, Humdard, and Jamia provide an environment and help aspirants need,” said Younis Yousuf Mir, who manages the hostel of Atiya Foundation.

This year, one student from Atiya Foundation secured AIR 88 while six candidates made it to the final list. 

The foundation has been producing IAS and IPS officers, but people from the Muslim community feel they still have a long way to go. 

“I feel that the level of awareness is increasing and the selection of middle-class and lower middle-class children from the Muslim community is creating a feeling that great things can be achieved based on education,” said Moin Ahmed, IAS officer of 2023 batch.

“Because earlier people used to think that Muslims will not get jobs or only big people will get jobs, this myth is decreasing but still proportionally the representation is very less.” 

Chauhan also spoke on the same lines, saying that Muslim candidates were minuscule going by the community’s share in India’s population. “The Jain population is 0.4 percent  in the country. By that count there should be 480 Muslims to match Jain’s ratio,” he said. 

The sentiment is shared by many social media users who while congratulating the successful candidates do not forget to mention that 51 out of 1,016 candidates is still not enough given the Muslim population is around 30 percent in the country.

2 Muslims in #UPSC2024 top ten.
Overall 51 Muslims qualified for #UPSC this year among 1016 total selection.
Still it is only 5% of total selection. Remember there was never 14% Muslims in any UPSC selection list since independence.
However other minorities get enough selections. pic.twitter.com/nm3CSkbmZF

— Shameela (@shaikhshameela) April 16, 2024

In the midst of celebration and introspection, Suresh Chavhanke, editor-in-chief of Sudarshan News, came out with a tweet regarding the number of Muslims clearing the civil services exam.

इस बार 51 मुस्लिम छात्र UPSC में सेलेक्ट हुए ..
पिछली बार 29 हुए थे ..
उसके पिछली बार 25 हुए थे ..

अगली बार कितने होंगे?

— Dr. Suresh Chavhanke “Sudarshan News” (@SureshChavhanke) April 16, 2024

Four years back, Chavhanke had come out with an episode on ‘UPSC jihad’ — an alleged conspiracy to infiltrate Muslims into the Indian civil services — as a result of which he drew flak for the contents of his show, with many saying that it tantamounts to hate speech.

The episode is “offensive, not in good taste and has the likelihood of promoting communal attitudes”, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting said in an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court in 2020. “…The tone and tenor of the episodes telecast do indicate that the channel through the various utterances and audio-visual content breached the Programme Code,” it added.

(Edited by Tony Rai)