The qualifying paper on Indian Languages will be of Matriculation or equivalent standard. The marks obtained in this paper will not be counted for ranking. The aim of the paper is to test the candidates’ ability to read and understand serious discursive prose and to express his ideas clearly and correctly, in the English and Indian Language concerned. The minimum marks needed is 30%. (UPSC says, the papers on Essay, General Studies and Optional Subject of only such candidates will be taken cognizance who attain 30% marks in Indian Language and 25% marks in English as minimum qualifying standards in these qualifying papers.)
Qualifying Indian Language Syllabus – Civil Services Mains Exam
The pattern of questions in the qualifying Indian Language Paper would be broad as follows:
(i) Comprehension of given passages.
(ii) Precis Writing
(iii) Usage and Vocabulary.
(iv) Short Essay
(v) Translation from English to the Indian language and vice‐versa.
Indian Languages and Scripts Allowed by UPSC for Civil Services Exam
For the Language medium/ literature of languages, the scripts to be used by the candidates will be as under:—
Language Script
- Assamese Assamese
- Bengali Bengali
- Gujarati Gujarati
- Hindi Devanagari
- Kannada Kannada
- Kashmiri Persian
- Konkani Devanagari
- Malayalam Malayalam
- Manipuri Bengali
- Marathi Devanagari
- Nepali Devanagari
- Oriya Oriya
- Punjabi Gurumukhi
- Sanskrit Devanagari
- Sindhi Devanagari or Arabic
- Tamil Tamil
- Telugu Telugu
- Urdu Persian
- Bodo Devanagari
- Dogri Devanagari
- Maithilli Devanagari
- Santhali Devanagari or Olchiki
Note: For the Santhali language, the question paper will be printed in Devanagari script; but candidates will be free to answer either in Devanagari script or in Olchiki.
Note: Paper A will not be compulsory for candidates hailing from the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Sikkim.