Pub: March 12, 2023
The origin of the Indian Civil Service has its roots in the British era of administration when they wanted to separate their military operations from their revenue operations.
As the Britishers slowly began to strengthen their foothold, they soon understood they couldn’t rule a diverse nation like India without the support of the local inhabitants.
Hence they imparted western education to create clerks who were Indian in blood but British in taste.
As time passed by, they opened the Imperial Civil Services examination to all.
The elite Indians of the time sent their sons abroad for western education.
They began competing with Britishers for the coveted Imperial Civil Services and slowly Indians got into it.
However, this transformation didn’t mean the Indian Bureaucrats were now equal to the British Bureaucrats as the high-ranking posts of the Imperial Civil Services were kept exclusively for the British.
Most of the Indian Bureaucrats were loyal to their rulers while others weren’t. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was one Individual who resigned from the Imperial Civil Services after obtaining the 6th rank as he felt his duty lay with his countrymen and not the foreign rule.
Finally, when India attained Independence, the steel frame of British Bureaucrats left our nation and the Imperial Civil Services became the Indian Civil Services.
Indians were now free to rule ourselves and our permanent executives were now completely Indian in origin.
The Modern Indian History classes at iLearn IAS PCM Program gives you a holistic understanding of the evolution of Indian Civil Services.