Indian Civil Service
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 and new members of the service were contacted for a is 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.
Positions
- Assistant (to Magistrate and Collector)
- Deputy Collector
- Joint Magistrate,
- Collector-Magistrate
- 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 the District, or gain a seat on the Board of Revenue. Moving sideways, he may become an Under-Secretary for the Lieutenant Governor.
Entry
Arriving in India in 1830, entrants became a student writer at Calcutta College, Fort William, and sought to gain “Writership”. Students were lavishly rewarded, 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 to finance the keep three horses and a buggy. Club memberships and mess parties continued to allow them to gain social influence in the capital.
By 1880 courses of instruction to study native languages were carried out at Hertford and Haileybury 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 to acquire the local dialect.
Records
Short records of service, providing the date of appointment, promotions and qualifications for individuals in the Indian Civil Service were published in the India Office List.
External Links
Historical books online
- "Sketches of Indian Social life" Ch IV The Bengal Civil Service. by CT Buckland ex: Bengal Civil Service
- The India List and India Office List 1905 Google Books
- Lives of Indian Officers: Illustrative of the History of the Civil and Military Service of India Volume 1 by John William Kaye (1867) gives, from page 45, the background to the Civil Service
- Alphabetical list of the honourable East India Company's Bengal civil servants, from the year 1780, to the year 1838 etc by Edward Dodwell, James Samuel Miles (1839) Google Books
- Thirty-eight years in India : from Juganath to the Himalaya Mountains by William Tayler (1881) The author commenced work in the Bengal Civil Service in 1829. Volume 1, Volume 2 Archive.org
- "Abridged Code of Regulations Affecting Civil Employees" in The Bengal and Agra annual guide and gazetteer, for 1841 Part 2, page 193 Google Books
- Appointment in 1848 from The Oriental Interpreter and Treasury of East India Knowledge: A Companion to "The Hand-book of British India." by Joachim Hayward Stocqueler (1848) page 284, Google Books
- Sessional Papers Printed by the Order of the House Of Lords: Session 1852-53 Volume XIII Accounts and Papers East India Company - includes Return of the Officers in each Court of Justice in India and the fixed salary of each. Google Books
- Record of services of the Honourable East India Company's civil servants in the Madras presidency, from 1741 to 1858... comp. and ed. from records in the possession of the Secretary of state for India by Charles Campbell Prinsep 1885Archive.org