What was the status of Public Service after the revolt of 1857 in India?

We have seen that Indians had little control over the Government of India. They were not permitted to play any part in the making of laws or in determining administrative policies.

In addition, they were excluded from the bureaucracy who put these policies into practice. All positions of power and responsibility in the administration were occupied by the members of the Indian Civil Service who were recruited through an annual open competitive examination, held in London.

Indians could also appear for this examination. Satyendranath Tagore, brother of Rabindranath Tagore, was the first Indian to do so successfully in 1863.

Almost every year thereafter one or two Indians joined the coveted ranks of the Civil Service, but their number was negligible compared with that of the English entrants. In practice, the doors of the Civil Service remained barred to Indians for they suffered from numerous handicaps.

The competitive examination was held in faraway London. It was conducted through the medium of the alien English language. It was based on Classical Greek and Latin learning which could be acquired only after a prolonged and costly course of studies in England.

In addition, the maximum age for entry into the Civil Service was gradually reduced from twenty-three in 1859 to nineteen in 1878.

If a young Indian of twenty-three found it difficult to succeed in the Civil Service competition, the Indian of nineteen found it almost impossible to do so.

In other departments of administration police, public works, medicine posts and telegraphs, forests, engineering, customs and, later, railways the superior and highly paid posts were likewise reserved for British citizens.

This preponderance of Europeans in all strategic posts was not accidental. The rulers of India believed it to be an essential condition for the maintenance of British supremacy in India.

Thus Lord Kimberley, Secretary of State, laid down in 1893 that “it is indispensable that an adequate number of the members of the Civil Service shall always be Europeans;” and the Viceroy, Lord Lansdowne, stressed “the absolute necessity of keeping the government of this widespread empire in European hands, if that empire is to be maintained.”

Under Indian pressure the different administrative services were gradually Indianised after 1918; but the positions of control and authority were still kept in British hands.

Also, the people soon discovered that Indianisation of these services had not put any part of political power in their hands. The Indians in these services functioned as agents of British rule and loyally served Britain’s imperial purposes.