When Engineers and Scientists Turn to the Humanities en masse 😊
#newspaper #reflections
Today’s Times of India | 29th April 2025
At a time when it looked like the distress bells have started tolling for the Humanities in the field of academics, it’s Humanities that win hands down when it comes to administrative services.
Today’s feature article in the Times of India, titled, “Why engineers & scientists turn to humanities to ace civil services exam”, offers a ray of hope, a whiff of sunshine, or the proverbial silver lining for the Humanities subjects.
Shakti Dubey, a 29-year-old biochemist from Banaras Hindu University who had topped the civil services exams this year in her fifth attempt had opted for political science and international relations because it meshed neatly with the wider syllabus and matched her interests.
“While I prepared for my optional subject, I could use the information in general studies paper IV on ethics and integrity. I also drew on it for the essay,” she explains.
Dubey’s strategy is no secret: engineers, doctors and science graduates dominate the applicant pool of civil services, yet when it comes to choosing the most heavily weighted optional subject, 85% of successful candidates turn to the humanities.
Nearly ten lakh aspirants registered for the 2024 civil services exams.
However, only a little over half of them turned up for the preliminaries and, after the nine months of exams and interviews, just a thousand crossed the line to what’s considered the most coveted job in India.
Far more striking than the odds, however, is the subject U-turn hidden in the data.
Between 2017 and 2021, almost two-thirds of those who eventually won appointments held engineering degrees, with doctors and scientists accounting for much of the rest.
Yet in the 2020 mains, 85% of the finalists elected to write their optional papers on humanities or literature, and just 5.5% stuck with engineering.
What’s Behind the Flight to Humanities?
One answer is time. “Most of us have 10-12 months to master an optional,” says Kush Motwani, an alumnus of IIT-Bombay who bagged 11th place last year. “Numerical subjects need relentless practice; anthropology or sociology let you optimise the clock.”
Technical aspirants, he adds, “go rusty” within a year of graduation and must first relearn their trade before tackling past papers.
General Studies (GS) papers — four exams worth twice as many marks as the optional — test Indian polity, history, social issues and ethics. “Political science overlaps with GS and current affairs,” notes Animesh Shukla, preparing in Delhi’s Rajinder Nagar.
“You slash duplication.” Academics echo this rationale. Professor Bipin Kumar Tiwari from the department of political science, Delhi University, said, “When they study political science, some portion of general studies is also covered. That’s an advantage.”
Topper Dubey agrees. And why not — when studying Kant and Kautilya for an optional subject doubles as revision for GS-IV on integrity, and foreign-policy theory feeds directly into the compulsory essay.
Rohit Singhal, a manager at Reserve Bank of India, Mumbai, who secured 70th rank in 2024, had to switch to humanities because his subject, information technology, isn’t among the optional subjects.
He picked public administration. “Engineering graduates like me find humanities relatively easier and comparatively less time-taking for preparations,” he says.
The Scoring Mystique
Scoring patterns and accessibility also influence this shift. Delhi’s Meghna Mishra, an aspirant with a background in science and economics, chose sociology.
She pointed to the lack of coaching support and limited study material for science subjects as key reasons. “It is almost impossible to find physics or chemistry teachers,” she says.
Coming back to the point in question –
Whatever said, the mad rush to the Humanities is also because of yet another important reason that the article has failed to make mention of!
Well, the Humanities subjects often emphasize critical analysis, interpretation, and the ability to construct well-reasoned arguments. These skills are crucial for tackling the essay-based format of the UPSC mains examination and for clear thinking in the interview stage.
Additionally, these subjects typically involve extensive reading and writing, which helps the candidate to develop a strong command of language, clarity of expression, and the ability to articulate their thoughts effectively. These skills are invaluable for scoring well in the mains papers and for effective communication as a civil servant.
Moreover, Humanities subjects provide insights into the complexities of society, human behaviour, cultural nuances, and historical contexts. This understanding is vital for a civil servant who needs to engage with diverse populations and address multifaceted social issues.
The answer then, lies in the concluding remarks of Dr. Joe’s article in yesterday’s The Hindu.
I quote –
Firstly, the world certainly needs the Humanities, which talk about transcendence, while the Sciences are confined to immanence. This is one of its strengths.
Second, a study of Humanities ingrains a sense of empathy, which is vital to the survival of humankind. Aristotle talked about pity and terror, and the resultant catharsis.
Only because the learners are empathetic to the tragic protagonists do they experience pity and fear.
Third, the Humanities help enhance the learners’ emotional intelligence. Fourth, the Humanities promote hermeneutics, the theory of interpretation.
Finally, the Humanities teach us to look at the world aesthetically and appreciate even the ‘meanest flower that blows’, says Dr. Joe, and concludes his article by saying –
Without ethics, aesthetics and hermeneutics that constitute the soul of Humanities, the world will not be an ideal place for human beings,
says Dr. Joe!
To conclude then,
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that -
If the civil services are the backbone of a well-functioning civil society, then the Humanities can rightly be called the backbone of the civil services! 😊
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