Urdu Literature - Optional for UPSC Civil Service Exam

Urdu Literature is one of the optional subjects offered by the UPSC in the civil services mains examination. Although not many candidates opt for this optional subject, every year there are a few successful candidates with this optional subject.This article shares information on the success rate, syllabus, and reference books for Urdu Literature Optional subject.

Aspirants would find this article very helpful while preparing for the IAS Exam.

How Many take Urdu Literature Optional?

The following table shows the number of candidates who had taken the Urdu optional and cleared the exam from 2010 to 2015, as per the latest official figure released by the commission.

UPSC Urdu Literature Success Rate

As you can see from the above table, even though there are less takers for the Urdu optional, it enjoys a good success rate in the IAS exam.

Urdu Optional Toppers

Urdu Optional Pros and Cons

Like any other optional, Urdu literature has its share of benefits and drawbacks for the IAS mains exam. In this section, you can read about the pros and cons of the Urdu Literature optional.

Urdu Literature Pros

1. The syllabus is static and you do not have to update any current affairs for this optional unlike subjects like pub ad, political science, economics, etc.
2. There is less competition here because of the relatively less number of takers for Urdu literature.
3. You do not have to be a graduate in Urdu for you to take this as your optional. You only need to know the basics of the language and have a genuine interest in it. But, please remember, you should be able to write this language well. Just an appreciation of the Urdu language and a knack for reciting Urdu couplets without good writing skills will not help you in this paper.
4. The questions asked are mostly direct and straight-forward.

Urdu Literature Cons

1. You have to know the language and be fluent in writing if you wish to do well in the IAS exam.
2. You might find it difficult to get hold of a good test series for this optional. Guidance is also hard to come by.
3. There is a need for a good understanding of the language and subject especially to perform well in paper II.

UPSC Urdu Syllabus

Let us take a look at the syllabus for Urdu Literature for the UPSC mains exam.

There are two optional papers in the UPSC exam pattern. Both the papers are for a total of 250 marks making the total optional marks to 500.

Urdu Syllabus for UPSC:-Download PDF Here

Urdu Literature Optional Strategy for IAS

Urdu literature optional mandates good reading from a variety of sources. The sources are mentioned below:

Paper I

Section A

For this section, you should read Urdu ki Lisaani Tashkeel by Mirza Khaleel Beigh.

Section B

1. Refer to Urdu Nasr ka Tanqeedi Mutala and Urdu Shayari ka Tanqeedi Mutala by Sumbul Nigar.
2. As you can see, paper I requires you to read the above three books. Now, let us see how to go about reading these three books:
3. You should memorise certain lines from these books. To illustrate, let us take a topic literary criticism. There are various writers on literary criticism such as Ale Ahmad Suroor, Kaleemuddin Ahmad, etc. You should prepare notes on them and memorise points so that you can reproduce them in the paper.
4. It is better to read one thing from one specific source and avoid multiple sources, for example, study Ghazal from Sumbul Nigar and not from any other source/notes.
5. Paper I involves a bit of cramming especially the bit about Urdu history and the different genres of Urdu like ghazal, nazm, afsana, etc.

Paper II

There are two sections here – prose and poetry.

Prose Section

This involves reading the works of six writers.

You don’t have to read all the works completely. Each of them are discussed below:

1. Read Bagho-Babar by Mir Amman completely, it is very important. It is a small book anyway.
2. Intikhab-e-Khutoot-e Ghalib – You just have to read 5 – 6 letters and nothing beyond that.
3. Apne Dukh Mujhe Dedo by Rajendra Singh Bedi – This book should be read fully.
4. Premchand’s Godan – You just need to read 30 – 40 pages of this one.
5. Read Ghubar-e-Khatir by Abul Kalam Azad completely and thoroughly.
6. Nairang-e-Khayal by Mohd. Husain Azad is a collection of inshaiya (sort of essays). You need to read about 5 – 8 inshaiya from this book.

As  you can see, you only need to read three books on the list completely namely, Bagho-Babar, Apne Dukh Mujhe Dedo and Ghubar-e-Khatir.

Poetry Section

1. Here, you need to do seven poets. Again, you don’t have to read the entire books in detail. Only the important points and sections are to be covered.
2. Understand what are the important sections by going through the previous years’ UPSC question papers and relating them to the works of these poets.
3. Answer writing is very important and you must practice questions asked previously by the UPSC and  get them corrected by a teacher or senior.
4. There is a 50-marker question on tashreeh sher in this paper. Practice this specifically. Write the tashreeh of each sher in not more than 3 – 4 lines.
   • For Tashreeh of Mir, do a few selected ghazals from Sher Shor Angez by Shams-ur-rehman Farooqi.
   • For Tashreeh of Ghalib and Iqbal, look up explanations by Yousaf Saleem Chishti.
   • For Tashreeh of Faiz, refer to Sharah kalam e Faiz that is available online.
   • Tashreeh of Firaq, Mir Hassan and Akhtarul Iman can be done yourselves.
5. For both papers, writing practice is necessary. It is easy enough to write faster in English but it gets tricky with Urdu. For this, you need to have adequate writing practice with a timer.

Reference Books – Urdu Literature Optional for UPSC Civil Service

1. Urdu Nasr ka Tanqeedi Mutala by Sumbul Nigar
2. Urdu Shayari ka Tanqeedi Mutala by Sumbul Nigar
3. The texts in the syllabus
4. Urdu Adab Ki Tarikh by Noorul Hasan Naqvi
5. Urdu ki Lisani Tashkil by Mirza Khalil Ahmad Beg
6. Ansaf-e-SuKhan aur Sher Haiyyaten by Shamian Ahmed
7. Mokqadwa; Tarikh-e-Zuban-e-Urdu by Prof. Maswood Husain Khan
   

The above details would help candidates prepare for UPSC 2023.

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