No, there is no separate subject as ‘Islamic studies’ in the UPSC Examination - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
February 23, 2022
A post is being shared widely on social media with a request to the Hindus to either support the removal of ‘Islamic studies’ or the addition of ‘Vedic studies’ to the UPSC Examination. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: UPSC Examination has ‘Islamic studies’ as a separate subject but  not ‘Vedic studies’.
Fact: None of the examinations conducted by the UPSC has a separate subject by name ‘Islamic studies’ in the syllabus. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducts several examinations like Engineering Services Examination, Combined Defence Services Examination, Civil Services Examination, etc. None of those examinations has a separate subject as ‘Islamic studies’. In the UPSC Civil Services Examination, one can find the mention of ‘Islam’ in the syllabi of optional papers like Anthropology and History. However, it is either given as a dimension (along with other religions) to study certain aspects or as a period in history.
In the ‘List of optional subjects for Main Examination’, while there is no separate subject as ‘Islamic studies’, one can find ‘Urdu Literature’ as an option. However, it can be seen that the literature of various other languages (like Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, etc.) are also given as options. Also, it can be seen that the syllabus of Sanskrit literature has topics such as – ‘Main characteristics of Vedic Sanskrit language’, ‘General Knowledge of Ramayana, Mahabharata’, etc.
When a similar claim went viral previously, Somesh Upadhyay (IAS) has tweeted saying – “There is a parallel universe where UPSC offers Islamic Studies as optional subject. It’s called WhatsApp Universe.” A tweet made by Arun Bothra (IPS) on the viral claim can be seen here.
To sum it up, there is no separate subject as ‘Islamic studies’ in the UPSC Examination.