Shah Faisal is the third Muslim to lead the UPSC list

Shah Faesal is the first Kashmiri to top the UPSC list. But he is not the first Muslim to do so as claimed by this blog. Dr Adil pointed out this error. I did some research and came out with the following details.
In 1987 Br Aamir Subhani of Bihar created history when he became the IAS Topper. Before him another Brother to top the list is Br Javed Usmani. He must have achieved this feat in 1978. He has served the Aligarh Muslim University as Registrar and had been posted as Joint Secretary in PMO and was instrumental in getting the Sachar Report on minorities in place. Probably he is serving in the World Bank in Washington too. Syed Shahabuddin, ex-Member of Parliament and, presently, the President of All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, was the first Muslim from Bihar to get second rank in civil services exam in 1958. That was then the highest rank a Muslim got since Independence. Besides a sister from Bihar Shahla Nigar secured second rank in 2001. Jaza Kallah, Dr Adil bhai. As pointed out earlier, Br Abubaker Siddique of Tamil Nadu secured second rank in 1990's.

But the basic point to be noted is that the percentage of successful Muslim IAS canditates has remained hovering around 2% to 4%. This situation is very pathetic. We cannot remain content with the occasional sweet victories of a Shah Faesal here and a Aamir Usmani there. What we are losing by this insipid state of affairs has been summed up by the legendary Dr Syed Hamid with the following words:

The percentage of successful Muslim candidates over past 17 years has varied between 1.38 per cent and 3.72 per cent. For the first six years, on an average it is 1.75 per cent, and for subsequent 11 years, it works out to 2.87 per cent. There has thus been a slight improvement in results over the last decade but viewed against the 12 per cent Muslim share in the country’s population, these are unsatisfactory. The poor performance deprives the Muslim community of a sense of participation of governance and management of their country. They are in the process denied a role in the existing adventure of national reconstruction and development. Read More

An analysis of IAS results

The importance of IAS in the state structure of the country cannot be underrated. Politicians may come and go but bureaucrats are there forever. On account of its instinct for survival, its rigid posture and rugged resistance to change, it is rightly known as the ‘steel frame’ of the country. Policy decisions are credited to the politicians as legislators, but in practice they are formulated and finalized by bureaucrats, drawn mainly from IAS cadre. 

From Saeed Suhravardy's analysis in Milli Gazette. Read More

Muslim representation in Civil Services - An Analysis

According to Sachar Committee Report, the proportion of Muslim graduates, during 2004-05 was 3.4 per cent. Among the 'General Hindus' it was found to be 15.3 per cent, among 'SC/ST Hindus' it was 2.2 per cent, among 'OBC Hindus' it was 4.4 per cent and among 'other minorities' it was 8.9 per cent. In short, roughly 7.7 per cent of non Muslims were found to be graduates as against 3.4 per cent among Muslims. (Page 67, Sachar Committee Report)

We don’t have detailed data on the above social sections. However, one can broadly conclude that this 7.7 per cent of non-Muslim graduates could corner 96 per cent and 97.5 per cent of seats in the Civil Services Examination in the year 2009 and 2010 respectively, leaving 4 per cent and 2.5 per cent for Muslims in the respective years. That means the ratio of success among non-Muslim graduates was more than twelve times of the ratio of graduates among them, whereas, for the Muslims it was almost at par.

From M Naushad Ansari's analysis in Two circles. Read More.