UPSC Forum

Musings on our ICS and IAS Rulers Then… and now?…

(article by : ano457@yahoo.com : source Google Groups)

Picture shows during the days of the Raj, the Government in the person
of the District Collector used to go to the people at least once in a
year - it used to be called variously in different provinces. For
example Jamabandi. Here is a tent, a temporary office, in a Bengal
village from where the ICS officer worked. Nowadays, after we became
free, the citizens will have to go to the government in the person of
an IAS officer many times and bribe the officers also if necessary.
Reward of freedom is corruption!

A British historian David Gilmour has written a book on India’s ICS
(Indian Civil Service) officers who ruled the Raj and apparently got
applause for their incorruptibility and able administration.

The most glamorous, highly respectable and very much feared person in
the British bureaucracy in India was an ICS Officer. A man for all
seasons and for all reasons, a versatile person of many parts who could
handle any kind of job just like our present IAS (Indian Administrative
Service). As we know these IAS wallahs could head or be responsible for
Atomic Energy Commission though he knows nothing about atomic science
or could be the Vice - Chancellor of a Medical or Technical University,
not having ever studied either Engineering or Medicine.

We can go on giving such examples. No wonder, all IAS Officer - headed
departments, where special knowledge and skill of a technocrat or of a
specialist is required, have miserably failed, both in administration
and production.

During the days of the British Raj on a typical day, this ICS officer
might be called upon to judge a case involving husband and wife or
arrange rice to be supplied to a famine - stricken village or meet a
local Maharaja and, in the evening, or whenever he likes, go for a
shikar with great fanfare.

Basically, these ICS Officers were tax collectors. Which is why they
were known as District Collectors. And to collect tax, one must have
power to punish too or power to intimidate. Therefore, ICS Officers
were also given the power of a District Magistrate. Thus he became both
the Police and the Judge - prosecutor and the dispenser of justice.
Strange but true in a colonised country.

It seems, in 1901, there were about 1,000 ICS Officers in India who
administered the then population of about 300 million people (30
crore). Now the present population is, of course, more than one billion
- over 100 crore. Correspondingly the number of IAS Officers too
might have increased. After Independence, we Indians did not have the
genius to find an alternative to ICS to suit our independent status as
a country and to meet the requirement of economic development as also
the need for creating a new social order in a pluralistic caste -
ridden country, where more than 50 per cent of the people are steeped
in utter poverty.

We found a short cut by changing the nomenclature of ICS to IAS.
Without making major changes, either in the nature of job or service
conditions, the magisterial power still continues to be with them but
that is only regarding the law and order of the district, where the IAS
Officer is both a Deputy Commissioner and a District Magistrate.

The most admired quality of an ICS Officer of the British days, where
almost all of them were Britishers, was that despite their vast power,
he had a reputation of being incorruptible. These Officers were also
considered very honest, fair - minded and able administrators. No
wonder, even today, those who have seen the British administration,
secretly admire the Raj days and remember with nostalgia the corruption
- free and efficient administration. Indeed, these ICS men created a
kind of mystique around the British Empire in India. David Gilmour,
probably could not find any fault with the ICS in his new book titled
The Ruling Caste: Imperial Lives in the Victorian Raj. It is said this
book has been written to defend the ICS Officers who were accused
recently by the Revisionist historians of sins, ranging from
selfishness to incompetence in times of social or political disturbance
or in dealing with famines which happened too frequently.

In the beginning, all ICS Officers used to be Britishers. It was only
towards the end of British Raj in India, that Indians were allowed to
appear for ICS exams that always took place in England. Some of the
famous names among Indians could be mentioned - Aurobindo, Subhash
Chandra Bose and Jayaprakash Narayan.

According to Lord Dalhousie, who was the Governor General of India,
members of the civil service in England were just clerks. But a member
of the civil service in India was a very top official. At the age of
19, one could take the entrance exam in England for the ICS. This age
was fixed in late 1870s. However, the age was later increased to 23
years.

After they were trained, they were shipped off to India, to work in its
far flung provinces and districts to be the “steel frame” that held
the British Raj together. These ICS Officers used to be responsible for
everything that happened in their jurisdiction except for impregnation
of women and abortion. He had to settle all the legal disputes, all
criminal cases from theft to murder, look after forests, roads,
schools, hospitals, canals etc. In other words, he was the Maharaja of
the place he was posted to. His word was the law. Because, ultimately,
it was he who interpreted the law.

While all this power and glory of this ICS Officer was fine, his
personal life was not. Except for the lucky ones, others were posted in
remote towns with no Englishmen around or, if at all, very few, having
lower social status and Government position. Therefore, it was not
surprising that they yearned to go to their motherland. If this is the
feeling of these officers who could fully occupy themselves during
daytime, the life of their wives was rather miserable, being left alone
at home during daytime and in the night without any social life or
entertainment.”.

Gilmour says, all ICS Officers could not be brilliant or competent.
However, these officers were honest. They had vast opportunities to be
corrupt but with very few exceptions, they did not abuse their power in
order to enrich their life. Now, compare this with our present day IAS
Officers, the new avatar of old ICS. The IAS Officer, who succeeded
later, after our country’s independence, are not only incompetent and
dishonest but also corrupt (exception apart).

Some years back, newspapers headlined the huge properties acquired by
an IAS officer who was also the Chief Secretary of the State, which
included many commercial complexes, seaside villa, rubber plantation so
on and so forth considered acquisition of wealth disproportionate to
his known source of income. What happened? Do you know of the Union
Ministers, who had stacked cash in their bathrooms and anterooms loaded
in gunny bags while they themselves were holidaying in London and
America. What happened?

It is said that the ICS Officers of British Raj were not corrupt
because they were paid very high salaries with very attractive perks
and allowances. If that is so, our IAS officers too should be given a
higher salary, perks and allowances that would keep them from the
temptation of corruption. But then, if an individual is attracted to so
many expensive habits or is being put to pressure by his wife and
children to give them all that the present day consumer society makes
available, then even the strong - willed person of integrity is shaken
and may succumb to corruption.

No doubt, corruption is a universal phenomenon; but then, in India, it
is a curse for its people who are already cursed with poverty,
illiteracy and ill - health. Only our politicians and bureaucrats, by
their own personal conduct of honesty and hard work can remove these
curses and make our country a developed nation. If they do so, they
will be fulfilling the wishes of our President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam,
who wants our country to be a developed nation by the year 2020.