Indian Civil Service

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The Writers Building in Calcutta

The Indian Civil Service may be abbreviated ICS. See also Writer.

History

Initially, the Honourable East India Company Civil Servants handled the civil administration of India, they were covenanted to provide a lifetime of service.

Civil service control was transferred to the Indian Government under the Government of India Act of 1858 afterwards new members of the service were contracted for a 10 year term. The creation of the Imperial Civil Service of India was as a result of the 1886–87 Public Service Commission recommendation.

Covenanted service was given by the elite top ranks of the Civil Service who gave a pledge good behaviour. Lower ranks that took Uncovenanted Service were recuited in India, be they English, Indian, or Anglo Indian.

Positions

Madras High Court

In the Regulated Provinces, those that were the older provinces with a long period of settled administration e.g. Madras, Bombay, the positions (after 1858) were:

  • Assistant (to Magistrate and Collector)
  • Deputy Collector
  • Joint Magistrate,
  • Collector-Magistrate (before 1858 known as the District Officer)
  • Judge

After reaching the rank of Joint Magistrate, career progessions was to become a Collector-Magistrate, or Judge. Judges, ofter went on to sit on the High Court after 20 years service. A Collector-Magistrate may become a Commissioner of a Division, or gain a seat on the Board of Revenue. Moving sideways, he may become an Under-Secretary for the Lieutenant Governor.


In the Unregulated Provinces, Deputy-Commissioners replaced the role of Collector-Magistrate.

Entry

Arriving in India in 1830, after 2 years patronage supported training at Hertford (1806-1809) and Haileybury Hertfordshire, England (1809-1858) entrants seeking to gain “Writership” became a student writer at The East India Company's Calcutta College in Fort William. Students were lavishly rewarded with ₤400 a year, and encouraged to borrow heavily to acquire high status and comfortable lifestyle - often enabling them to stable 40 horses; not unexpectedly this was reformed. Reforms still allowed students sufficient finance to keep three horses and a buggy. Club memberships and mess parties continued to allow them to gain social influence in the capital.

In 1856 the system of appointment by patronage was replaced by an open competitive examination. Courses of instruction and language training were then carried out in England. Young men were deemed to be fit for immediate service so no longer socialised in the capital unlike their predecessors. They would rely on local tutors for regional dialects.

Entrance requirements c 1872, page 158 Index Scholasticus: Sons and daughters. A guide to parents in the choice of educational institutions, preparatory to professional or other occupation of their children by R. Kemp Philp 1872 Archive.org

FIBIS resources

  • List of Uncovenanted Europeans Employed at Fort St George 1818, 1819 (logged in FIBIS members only), 1820 (logged in FIBIS members only) are available on the FIBIS database, transcribed by Sylvia Murphy
  • "Civil Service Records in the India Office Reading Room: A Study of the L/F/10 series" by Lawrie Butler with a contribution from David Blake FIBIS Journal Number 25 (Spring 2011), pages 37-42. This article focuses on the Uncovenanted Servants Lists within this series of records.

Records

British Library

  • Civil Service British Library guide on how to use sources from the India Office Records

Records include

  • Books
    • Alphabetical list of the Hon. East India Company’s Madras Civil Servants, from the year 1780 to the year 1839. Edward Dodwell and James Samuel Miles 1839
    • Alphabetical List of the Honourable East India Company’s Bombay Civil Servants, from 1798, to 1839 ... Edward Dodwell and James Samuel Miles 1839
    • A similar listing for Bengal is available online , together with a later listing for Madras, refer below.
  • India Office Serials IOR/V/6 1768-1948 This series comprises serials published or printed by, or on behalf of, the East India Company and the India Office. The serials include Lists of the Company's Servants 1768-1799, the East India Register and Directory (later India List) 1803-1895, the India Office List 1886-1947 and the India Office Establishment 1884-1948. Some are available online, refer Directories online, or on LDS microfilm, with this catalogue entry. These Lists usually provide short records of service, providing the date of appointment, promotions and qualifications for individuals.
  • Histories of Services IOR/V/12 1875-1955. This series includes records of service for overseas Indian Civil Service personnel and for other civil servants of gazetted rank.
  • Civil Lists IOR/V/13 1840-1958. This series includes all the issues of civil lists of the Government of India and of the provincial governments. Coverage is usually restricted to gazetted officers in the main series of lists, but there are a few supplementary lists of subordinate services and also some fuller departmental establishment lists which include non-gazetted appointments, in particular the Telegraph, Indo-European Telegraph, Public Works and Railways departments.

Uncovenanted service

This India List post advises that a number of LDS microfilms in respect of uncovenanted servants are listed in the LDS Library catalogue under the title A return of all offices, places and pensions, civil, political, military and commercial held under the East India Company within the United Kingdom and colonies. India Office. The reference IOR/ L/AG/30/1-22/1-60 is quoted, however an examination of page 2 of the film notes for the catalogue entry shows that many of the records for uncovenanted servants are from the series IOR/L/F/10/119-188, for the period to 1900 (broken range). India Office Records: Financial Department Records IOR/L/F c.1800-1948 states "For the principal subjects represented in L/F, see Martin Moir 'A General Guide to the India Office Records' (London 1988) pp.171-172". The series IOR/L/F/10 does not appear in the Access to Archives catalogue (The only catalogue entries in Access to Archives for IOR/L/F are Contracts and Agreements IOR/L/F/8 1853-1946). If you wish to view these records at the British Library you will need to consult a guide such as Baxter’s Guide for details.

Also see FIBIS resources above.

For 1818, 1819 and 1820 Lists of Madras uncovenanted civil servants, see FIBIS resources above

Individuals

  • Henry Mortimer Durand (Wikipedia) was Foreign Secretary from 1884-1894. Further information in Simla Rifles.
  • Olaf Caroe (Wikipedia) joined the Indian Political Service in 1923; served as Foreign Secretary (1939-45) and as Governor of the North West Frontier Province(NWFP) from March 1946 to June 1947. "Caroe's lessons" by AG Noorani, a review, from Frontline May 2006, of the book The Future of The Great Game: Sir Olaf Caroe, India's Independence, and the Defense of Asia by Peter John Brobst. This book is available through Amazon.co.uk from the FIBIS Shop.
  • Philip Mason This India List post transcribes the January 1999 Daily Telegraph (London) obituary of Philip Mason, who joined the Civil Service in 1928. He was the author of the books about the Indian Civil Service, The Men Who Ruled India, published in two volumes, The Founders (1953) and The Guardians (1954). The books were originally published under the name Philip Woodruff. A one volume abridged edition was published in 1985. His many books include an autobiography A Shaft of Sunlight: Memories of a Varied Life (1978). These books are available at the British Library.
  • Richard Walmesley Blair, who joined the Service 1875, was in the Opium Department, and was the father of the author George Orwell. www.orwell.ru


See also


External Links

The FIBIS Google Books Library
has books tagged:
Civil Service

Historical books online

Lists

Also see Directories online, particularly the category India List and India Office List

General

Administrative

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