Colonial State

Apparatus
CIVIL SERVICE, JUDICIARY, POLICE & THE ARMY
Civil Service
 The term Civil Services was used for the first time by the EIC to demarcate its civil
employees from their military and ecclesiastical counterparts.
 Clive Dewey observed, “in their heyday they were the most powerful officials in the
empire, if not the world”.
 It was a ‘patronage bureaucracy’ at the outset, as the method of recruitment, as outlined
by the India Act of 1784 and the Charter Act of 1793, was only through nomination by
the members of the Court of Directors of the Company, who would sign a declaration
that they had not received any money for offering this favour.
 Covenanted Civil Services: Robert Clive laid the foundation of British rule in India by
covenanted civil services, i.e., officers bound by terms and conditions to work only for
administration.
 Father of Civil Services in India
 Lord Cornwallis laid down the basic structure of Civil Services and came to be known as the
Father of Civil Services in India.
 He tried to check corruption, thus imposed certain restrictions with strictness on the civil servants
like forbidding private trade and acceptance of presents, and enforcing promotions through
seniority to ward off outside influence.
 He increased their salaries. The collector of a district was now to be paid 1500 Rs/ month, besides
the one percent commission on the revenue collected from his district.
 Indians were carefully excluded from Civil Services, as laid down in 1793 that no position worth an
annual salary of 500 pounds or more could be held by them.
 The Indians were accommodated in administrative structure at subordinated positions only, known
as the Uncovenanted Civil Service.
 Haileybury
 Lord Wellesley established the Fort William College in Calcutta on 24 November, 1800 for the
training of young recruits to the Civil Service.
 The Directors of EIC feared that such a training programme might result in the loyalties of the civil
servants shifting from London to Calcutta.
 In 1802, Fort William College was closed. It would continue there only as a language school.
 In 1805, The EIC was established at Hertford near London, it was moved to Haileybury in 1809.
 All the candidates nominated by the Court of Directors had to undergo 2 years of training at this
college and were mandated to pass the final examination to secure an appointment to Civil Services
in india.
Demand for Open Competition: Charter Act
1833 and 1853
 The idea of competition for recruitment as against nomination practised earlier was
introduced for the first time by the Charter Act of 1833.
 But it was limited competition among the candidates nominated by the directors and
could be termed as nomination-cum-competition for recruitment.
 The Court of Directors were to first nominate four times the number of civil services
required. These nominated candidates had to go through a competitive examination
through which one-fourth could ultimately be selected to join the coveted civil services.
 Finally, the Charter Act of 1853 made provision for open competition.
 Subsequently, the Haileybury College was abolished in 1858 and the Civil Service
Commission assumed the sole responsibility of recruiting civil servants through a
competitive exam held annually in England.
 Stages towards Indianization
 After 1813 under Warren Hastings a gradual process of Indianization of the subordinate
services had begun, mainly in the judiciary.
 William Cavendish Bentinck advocated inclusion of Indians for orientating administration to
local needs.
 A regulation in 1831 gave more power and responsibility to the Indian judicial officers, but
the top echelon of the Covenanted Civil Services still remained closed to the Indians.
 The introduction of competitive examination in 1853 technically opened the gates to the
Indians; but they were still effectively barred, as the recruitment examination was held only
in England. It was based on classical learning of Greek and Latin and the maximum
permissible age for appearing was gradually lowered from 23 (1859) to 22 (1860), 21 (1866)
and 19 (1878).
 The Indian Civil Service Act was passed in 1861. It stated that any person, whether Indian or
European, could be appointed to any of the offices if he had lived in India for a minimum of
7 years.
 In 1863, Satyendra Nath Tagore became the first Indian to qualify for the Indian Civil Services.
 In the late 19th century the nationalists demanded that the competition examination should be held in
India. As a compromise, the Government introduced the Statutory Civil Service in 1870. This
provided for nomination of Indians of ability and merit to a few positions hitherto reserved for the
European covenanted civil servants.
 The structure of Civil Service was ultimately reformed in 1892 on the basis of the recommendations
of the AITCHISON COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SERVICES (1886).
 The Committee recommended to drop the terms ‘covenanted’ and ‘uncovenanted’ and classify civil
services into- Indian Civil Services (ICS), Provincial Civil Services (PCS) and Subordinate Civil
Services. The Statutory Civil Service was abolished.
 The Age limit for recruitment was raised to 23 years.
 The Indians could still enter the ICS through the open examination held in London; but their
representation in this service remained abysmally low- just about 15 percent in 1922.
Islington Commission
 The Royal Commission on Public Services in India, also known as the Islington
Commission was carried out under the Chairmanship of Lord Islington.
 It submitted its report in 1915.
 Recruitment to the superior posts should be made partly in England and partly in India.
However, it did not favour holding competitive exams simultaneously in England and
India, which was the prime demand of the Indian Nationalists.
 25% of the superior posts should be filled by Indians partly by direct recruitment and
partly by promotion.
 ICS in INDIA
 The Government of India Act, 1919 finally provided for a separate, not simultaneous, recruitment
examination to the Indian Civil Services to be held in India.
 Thus, under its provision, the first examination was held in Allahabad in February 1922.
 Later on the basis of recommendations of the LEE COMMISSION (1924), direct recruitment to ICS
on the basis of 50:50 parity between the Europeans and the Indians in the next 15 years was to be
achieved and a Public Service Commission to be established.
 The Government of India Act 1935 recommended establishment of a FEDERAL PUBLIC
SERVICE COMMISSION and PROVINCIAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION.
 As a result, by 1941 the Indians outnumbered the Europeans in the ICS.
 JUDICIAL SYSTEM
 The judicial administration of the Bengal subah remained initially in the hands of the Indian officers
between 1765 and 1772, and the Mughal system was followed in both civil and criminal justice.
 Clive appointed Mohammed Reza Khan to represent the Company’s civil jurisdiction; as Naib Nazim he
also administered the criminal jurisdiction of the nawab.
 Warren Hastings took full control of the justice system in 1772 and Reza Khan was arrested.
 Hastings established an elaborate judicial system in 1772 known as Adalat, with civil and criminal
jurisdictions.
 He for the first time made the district as a unit of judicial administration and tried to centralise judicial
authority.
 Under the new system of 1772, each district was to have two courts, a civil court or diwani Adalat and a
criminal court or faujdari adalat.
 Diwani and Faujdari Adalat- District
 Mofussil Diwani Adalat or Civil Court was presided over by the European District Collector who
was responsible for collection of revenue and looking after the general administration of the district
including judicial system and thus also functioned as judge. He was assisted by maulvis and pundits
who helped him in interpretation of indigenous laws of both Muslims and Hindus.
 This court did not handle the cases of succession of Zamindari and Talukdar properties as it was dealt
by the Governor-General and his council. The principle of duality between the courts of the Crown
and the Zamindari courts ended in 1861 when the Indian High Court Act established High Courts in
Calcutta, Madras and Bombay.
 Mofussil Faujdari Adalat or Criminal Court handled all criminal cases of district level and was
presided over by a learned Qazi and a Mufti, who were assisted by 2 maulvis well versed in Muslim
law but the supervisory control of this court was vested solely with the European District Collector.
 The court had the power to decide all criminal cases and punish the criminals except in the cases of
capital punishment, the proceedings of which needed to be submitted to the Sadar Nizamat Adalat for
confirmation.
Sadar Diwani and Sadar Faujdari
 Sadar Diwani Adalat or Civil court was located in Calcutta and was presided over by the Governor
General.
 Sadar Faujdari or Nizamat Adalat or Criminal court was an appellate court having the right to hear
appeals in criminal matters. The criminal courts were to be under a qazi and a mufti, but they were to
be supervised by the European collectors.
 Initially the appeal court was removed from Murshidabad to Calcutta. Hastings personally supervised
the criminal justice system until 1774.
 But Hastings finally acknowledged his failure to improve law and order situation and reluctantly
accepted the Court of Directors’ decision to reappoint Reza Khan at the head of the Nizamat Adalat,
which was once again moved back to Murshidad.
 Under the Regulating Act of 1773, the Supreme Court was set up in the Presidency town of Calcutta.
However, the establishment of the Supreme Court led to the emergence of two rival sets of judicial
authorities: the Supreme Court and the Sadar Diwani Adalat. Hence a temporary solution was
chalked out by the appointment of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court as the President of the
Sadar Diwani Adalat.
 With time its authority was confined to the city of Calcutta and to matters related to factories dependent on
Fort William and gradually in its place Sadar Diwani Adalat was now reconstituted to serve as an Appeal
court, with Sir Elijah Impey taking over its superintendence in 1780. The Supreme Courts in Madras and
Bombay were finally established in 1801 and 1823 respectively.
 The Code of 1781 prescribed specific rules and regulations to be followed in all the civil courts down to the
lowest level and all judicial orders were henceforth to be in writing.
 A Committee of 11 pundits compiled, at the behest of Hastings, a digest of Hindu laws in 1775, and it was
translated into English by N. B. Halhed in 1776 for the purpose of lessening the dependence of European
judges on their indigenous interpreters.
 A Code of Muslim law was also compiled by 1778.
 It was Lord Cornwallis and his code of 1793 which stabilised the system of judicial reforms by separating
the executive from the judicial responsibility.
 The faujdari adalats which until then functioned under Naib Nazim Reza Khan were therefore abolished and
replaced by courts of circuit, headed by European judges.
 Four Provincial courts were instituted at Calcutta Dacca Murshidabad and Patna.
 In 1831, William Bentinck abolished the 4 Provincial courts of Appeal and Circuit and redistributed
their work to Commissioners and District Collectors.
 By the Charter Act of 1833, all law making power was conferred on the Governor General and his
council and a welcome change was introduced in the judicial administration by opening of all the
judicial positions for Indians.
 A Law commission was also constituted in 1833 for codification of laws, appointed under Macaulay,
who completed the task of codification by 1837.
 But it had to wait until after the revolt of 1857 for full implementation.
 The Code of Civil Procedure was introduced in 1859.
 Indian Penal Code- 1860
 Criminal Procedure Code- 1862
POLICE
 Lord Cornwallis in 1793 decided to divest the zamindars of their police functions,
disband their armed retainers and establish a regular police force.
 He divided the districts into thanas, each placed under an Indian officer called a daroga,
appointed and supervised by magistrates.
 The daroga system was extended to Madras in 1802.
 In 1795, the Resident at Banaras Jonathan Duncan made tehsildars in charge of the
police units, more subservient to the magistrates. Tehsildars were divested of police
duties in 1807.
 The daroga system was formally abolished in 1812.
 The Madras Torture Commission (1854) Report says that the Darogas were new agents
of oppression in the rural areas.
Napier’s Sindh Model
 The need for an appropriate and uniform police system grew with time.
 The new model was first experimented in Sindh (1843) by Sir Charles Napier.
 He created a separate police department with its own officers, following the model of
Royal Irish Constabulary.
 Under this model, the whole territory was to be under the supervision of an Inspector
General, while the districts would have their own Superintendents of Police,
answerable to both the Inspector General and the District Collector, representing the
civilian authority.
 While the rank and file were to be Indians, the officers were to be invariably
Europeans.
 The Sindh model was later introduced in Punjab (1849), Bombay (1853), and Madras
(1859).
Police Commission
 The Police Commission was appointed in 1860.
 Indian Police Act- 1861
 A well defined hierarchy of command was established with the Inspector General
being the head of police in a province, the Deputy Inspector General functioned as the
head in a range and the District Superintendents were to be in charge of rural Police in
a district while the daroga became the sub inspector heading a thana.
 But Indians were systematically excluded from these positions of authority.
 Gradually in 1902, the Police commission provided for the appointment of educated
Indians to the position of officers in the police force, but here too they stopped in rank
where the European officer began.
 The Commission also recommended for the establishment of Criminal Investigation
Department (CID) in the provinces and a Central Intelligence Bureau at the centre.
ARMY
 The French first initiated the tradition of recruiting an Indian Army in 1721-29.
 As far as English EIC was concerned, Captain Stringer Lawrence first began the drive towards
recruiting a permanent Indian army for English EIC.
 It was renewed by Clive after 1757.
 During the initial formative years, Company’s army consisted of upper caste Brahmin and Rajput
landed peasants from Awadh and the Rajput and Bhumihar-Brahmin peasants from Bihar.
 From 1815, there was an experiment to recruit Gorkha soldiers.
 While the Bengal army remained more high caste in character, the Bombay and Madras armies
became more heterogeneous. The reforms of 1830s, which aimed at levelling the differences and
promoting a universal military culture created discontent among the sepoys.
PEEL COMMISSSION
 After the 1857 mutiny, the British Government sought to bring changes in the
military system and appointed Peel Commission.
 It recommended that the native army should be composed of different
nationalities and castes and as a general rule, mixed promiscuously through each
regiment.
 Those who mutinied were disbanded, castes were more evenly mixed across the
regiments, recruitment remained focused on Punjab which remained loyal during
the mutiny, and the regional elements like the Punjab, Bombay, Madras were
carefully kept separate.
Martial Race and Garrison State
 In the 1880s, the colonial knowledge of Indian ethnicity and racial stereotypes were
deployed to evolve a theory of ‘martial races’. Certain groups like Pathans, Jats, rajputs,
Gurkhas were identified as ideally suited for the job because of their martial background.
 These groups were thought to be warlike and trustworthy, but at the same time intellectually
deficient, so that they could fight but not lead.
 David Omissi in his book The Sepoy and the Raj: The Indian Army 1860-1940 argues that
the British raj was a garrison state. Except Russian threat the empire never faced any external
threat. But a large army was always maintained, devouring 40 percent of the central
revenue.
 Curzon-Kitchener Controversy
 The Commander-in-chief Lord Kitchener wanted to abolish the position of the Military Member in the
Viceroy’s council and centralise control and command of the army in his own hands.
 Viceroy Lord Curzon objected to it and when the home government offered a compromise formula of
reducing the powers of the Military Member without abolishing the position he offered his resignation.
The resignation was accepted.
 In 1905, the position of the Military Member was abolished and the commander-in-chief became
directly responsible to the Viceroy’s council.
 But for the financial control of the army, a separate Military Finance Department was created.