Promotion

In the tiny village of Madhopatti in Uttar Pradesh, the unexpected is routine. Fewer than 0.004 percent of the people who write the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) exam every year make the final cut.

In this village of of 75 households, however — there are as many as 47 IAS officers.

This village, in Jaunpur district of Uttar Pradesh, also holds the record for four siblings who have all cleared the exam. These four brothers are, in descending order of age, Vinay Kumar Singh, Chatrapal Singh, Ajay Kumar Singh, and Shashikant Singh. Vinay Kumar, the oldest, cleared the exam in 1955. He retired as chief secretary of Bihar. Chatrapal was chief secretary of Tamil Nadu.

The first civil servant from Madhopatti was Khan Bahadur Syed Mohammad Mustafa (father of poet Wamiq Jaunpuri). He joined the civil services (then the Indian Civil Services, during British India) in 1914. There seems to have been a bit of a slow-down after this, since the next person to clear the exam was Indu Prakash in 1952. But things have been going strong since then.

Promotion

“You will find students studying in intermediate, going through guide books for IAS and PCS examinations. They start young and also try to brush up on their English since the medium of education in most schools here is still Hindi,” said Arvind Kumar, a local teacher, as reported inThe Asian Age.

A lot of the village’s success in its niche of choice has been attributed to intense competition and peer pressure.

Image for representation only. Source: Wikimedia

Despite the number of people from this village who have made it to India’s elite bureaucratic service, it still lacks basic amenities. Roads are potholed, electricity supply is erratic, medical facilities are very basic, and there are still no coaching institutes for IAS aspirants.

Featured image for representation only. Source: Wikimedia (left); Wikimedia (right)

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