Urdu Literature Syllabus for UPSC

About Urdu Language: –

Urdu language, member of the Indo-Aryan group within the Indo-European family of languages. Urdu is spoken as a first language by nearly 70 million people and as a second language by more than 100 million people, predominantly in Pakistan and India. It is the official state language of Pakistan and is also officially recognized, or “scheduled,” in the constitution of India.

Urdu Syllabus Subject For UPSC

Urdu is the language provided as a Literature Optional which focuses on the candidates’ understanding of the basic concepts of literature. Candidates who have studied the Urdu literature can opt for it as an optional subject in the IAS (UPSC CSE) Mains Exam. Analytical and unconventional questions are appearing in previous papers so while preparing students should keep IAS Mains Urdu Syllabus and previous papers for reference. The aspirants who are well versed with the Urdu language and are familiar with the grammatical aspects can easily score high marks in this optional. 

Urdu Syllabus Exam Pattern: –

The Urdu language is one of the optional subjects offered for the 2 optional papers in the IAS (UPSC CSE) Main Exam. Each Urdu optional paper consists of 250 marks. Duration for each Urdu mains paper is 3 hours. With well-planned strategies, you can easily score well in the Urdu literature. Interest should be the prime criteria for choosing any optional. The aspirants have to answer the questions from both the papers in Urdu language.

Advantages of choosing Urdu  

· Well defined syllabus and Less subjectivity

• Direct and straightforward questions
• Ample scope to score marks with diagrams
• The inquiries in this subject are immediate and crucial.
• Room for interpretation in the written answers
• Quality of answers as there is no limitation to different kinds of answers.
• Updation in the syllabus is rare

Disadvantages of choosing Urdu

• Subjective Nature of the answers can lead to less scoring at times if your views do not match with the evaluator.
• Lack of resources
• No syllabus overlaps with GS papers
• Essay writing and interviews won’t pose much of a problem as the amount of reading will help with these.

IAS Mains Urdu Paper 1

The answers should be written in the Persian script.

Section A

Development of Urdu Language

• Development of Indo-Aryan
  • Old Indo-Aryan
  • Middle Indo-Aryan
  • New Indo-Aryan
• Western Hindi and its dialects Brij Bhasha Khadi Boli, Haryanavi Kannauji, Bundeli-Theories about the origin of Urdu Language
• Dakhani Urdu-Origin and development, its significant linguistic features.
• Social and Cultural roots of Urdu language and its distinctive features. Script, Phonology, Morphology, Vocabulary.

Section B

• Genres and their development :
  • Poetry: Ghazal, Masnavi, Qasida, Marsia, Rubai, Jadid Nazm,
  • Prose: Novel, Short Story, Dastan, Drama, Inshaiya, Khutoot, Biography.
• Significant features of :
  • Deccani, Delhi and Lucknow schools
  • Sir Syed movement, Romantic movement, Progressive movement, Modernism.
• Literary Criticism and its development with reference to Hali, Shibli, Kaleemuddin Ahmad, Ehtisham Hussain, Ale-Ahmad Suroor.
• Essay writing (covering literary and imaginative topics)

IAS Mains Urdu Paper 2

Answers must be written in Urdu