The Indian Civil Services Under British

Lord Cornwallis was the one who established the Civil Service. We know that the East India Company operated in the East from the beginning by employing servants who were paid low wages but allowed to trade privately. When the Company expanded into a territorial power, the same servants took on administrative roles. They had become extremely corrupt at this point. They amassed untold wealth by oppressing local weavers and artisans, merchants and zamindars, extorting bribes and ‘gifts' from rajas and nawabs, and engaging in illegal private trade. They retired to England with this wealth. Clive and Warren Hastings attempted, but were only partially successful, in putting an end to their corruption.

 

•    Cornwallis, who arrived in India as Governor-General in 1786, was determined to clean up the administration, but he realised that unless the Company's servants were paid adequately, they would not provide honest and efficient service. As a result, he strictly enforced the rules prohibiting private trade and the acceptance of gifts and bribes by officials. 

 

•    At the same time, he increased the Company's servants' pay. For example, the Collector of a district was to be paid Rs 1500 per month plus a 1% commission on his district's revenue collection. 

 

•    The Company's Civil Service, in fact, rose to become the highest-paid service in the world. Cornwallis also stipulated that the Civil Service would be promoted solely on the basis of seniority, ensuring that its members were free of outside influence.

 

•    Lord Wellesley established the College of Fort William in Calcutta in 1800 for the education of young Civil Service recruits. The Company's directors disapproved of his actions, and in 1806 they established their own East Indian College in Haileybury, England.

 

•    Until 1853, all Civil Service appointments were made by the East India Company's directors, who appeased the members of the Board of Control by allowing them to make some of the nominations. 

 

•    The directors fought hard to keep this lucrative and prized privilege, refusing to give it up even when Parliament took away their other economic and political privileges. They finally lost it in 1853, when the Charter Act mandated that all Civil Service recruits be chosen through a competitive examination.

 

•    The rigid and complete exclusion of Indians from the Indian Civil Service has been a feature of the Indian Civil Service since the days of Cornwallis.

 

•    All higher administrative positions worth more than £500 a year in salary were to be held by Englishmen, according to a decree issued in 1793. Other branches of government, such as the army, police, judiciary, and engineering, were also subjected to this policy.

 

•    Cornwallis believed that “Every native of Hindustan is corrupt.” It should be noted that some of this criticism was directed at a small group of Indian officials and zamindars at the time. But it was just as true, if not more so, of British officials in India at the time. 

 

•    Cornwallis had proposed that they be paid well in order to help them resist temptations and become more honest and obedient. However, he never considered using the same solution of adequate salaries to combat corruption among Indian officials.

 

•    The exclusion of Indians from higher ranks in the military was, in fact, a deliberate policy. These services were necessary to establish and consolidate British rule in India at the time. Obviously, Indians who lacked the same instinctive sympathy for and understanding of British interests as Englishmen could not be trusted with the job. 

 

•    Furthermore, the powerful classes in British society were eager to maintain their sons' monopoly on lucrative appointments in the Indian Civil Service and other services. They actually fought tooth and nail over these appointments.

 

•    The right to make them was a constant source of contention between the Company's directors and British Cabinet members. How could the English allow Indians to occupy these positions? Indians, on the other hand, were enlisted in large numbers to fill lower-level positions because they were less expensive and more readily available than Englishmen.

 

•    The Indian Civil Service grew over time to become one of the world's most efficient and powerful civil services. Its members wielded enormous power and were frequently involved in policymaking. They developed traditions of independence, integrity, and hard work, though these traits clearly benefited the British rather than the Indians. 

 

•    They began to believe that they possessed a near-divine right to rule India. The Indian Civil Service has been referred to as the "steel-frame" that supported British rule in India. It became the chief foe of all that was progressive and advanced in Indian life over time, as well as one of the main targets of the rising Indian national movement.