Civil Service reading list

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• Gilmour, David

The ruling caste : imperial lives in the Victorian Raj. London: Pimlico, 2007

"This is a well written and impressively researched account of the elite group of civil servants which governed India during the Victorian era (1837-1901). Until 1858 they were known as the Honourable East India Company's Civil Service (HEICS), after that date, when the administration of India was transferred from the Company to the Crown, as the Indian Civil Service (ICS). The author approaches the institution through its members, not vice versa, and to this end has made extensive use of the large collection of ICS private papers held by the British Library, enlivening his narrative with many individual anecdotes...The author has much of interest to say on most aspects of ICS life in India... All in all, this is an excellent read which will be found rewarding both by the general reader new to the subject and by those already acquainted with the history of the Raj." The full review by Ian A. Baxter is on pp.46-47 of the FIBIS Journal 15 (Spring 2006). Available in the FIBIS Shop.

see also The great hedge of India (Moxham, 2001) in the Travel reading list