I remember the exact moment the numbers landed on my desk. Fifty-three Muslim candidates had cleared the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2025, out of 958 successful candidates across India. I sat with that figure for a while, turning it over in my mind like a stone I have been polishing for thirty years.

It is not a huge number in a country of India’s size. But it signals something I have long waited to see that it gains  momentum. 

Last year, only 30 Muslims cleared the exam out of 1,009 candidates, about 3 percent, and none made it to the top 30 ranks. In 2023, the number was 50. In 2022, it was 29. 

The fresh figure marks a significant jump from previous years, and I will admit to feeling something I rarely allow myself: satisfaction. 

These young people have brought pride to their families, and to a community that has often found itself speaking from the margins. Their success speaks of dedication, perseverance, and years spent hunched over books while the world outside moved at a different pace. 

But I also know, with the certainty of someone who has watched this cycle repeat across decades, that this breakthrough did not happen by accident. My involvement with this question, how to increase Muslim representation in India’s civil services, began in earnest when I returned from an international assignment and joined the Institute of Management and Public Administration (IMPA) in Srinagar as Joint Director in 1988. 

India was different then, less connected, more formal, and the pathways into government service seemed to many young Muslims like routes through a closed garden. I could not accept that. 

Along with my colleague Mr Srivastava from the Indian Forest Service, we began visiting colleges with a simple philosophy: catch them young. 

We would arrive in lecture halls and seminar rooms, two middle-aged men with files and enthusiasm, trying to convince teenagers that the civil service was not somebody else’s inheritance.

The transition to Indira Gandhi National Open University in 1992 opened another door. At IGNOU, we conducted an analysis that surprised even us. We wanted to know who was purchasing our self-learning materials beyond our enrolled students. 

The........

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