Historical Perspective of The Indian Civil Services & The Union Public Service Commission.

“Civil Service”, this term alludes to the regulatory administration of the state which is liable for actualizing recommendations made by the political official, which comprises the chosen agents in a democratic society.

Civil service was all there in India since the ancient past, but it was not exactly the same as it is now.

Civil Service in India before British Rule:

India is a nation full of history as it has witnessed ruling periods of various empires.

As mentioned in Kautilya’s Arthashastran, in the Mauryan periods, there was a centralized bureaucracy. This centralized system was used for tax administration purposes. The period which was ruled by the Gu[ta had a similar kind of governing system.

For ranking the officers depending on a number of troops commanded by them, an elaborate bureaucracy was introduced by the Mughals. It was named as the Mansabdari system.

There was no clear demarcation between civilian officials and military officials in India before the British rule.

Civil Service in India under The East India Company Rule:

With the coming of the British, a systematized civil service was introduced in India that clearly distinguished it from the military services. A hierarchy of officials was created and those were paid out of public revenues.

A post was created by Warren Hastings for the purpose of land revenue collection. The post was named as district collector. Later it got abolished due to the excessive concentration of corruption.

The Covenanted Civil Services composed of the highly paid Europeans and the Uncovenanted Civil Services, mostly of native-born Indians, was introduced by Lord Cornwallis, the father of civil services in India.

After getting trained at Haileybury College in London, the civil servants nominated by the directors of the company were sent to India.

The Origin of the Civil Service Examination

The Charter Act of 1853 recommended the replacement of the patronage-based recruitment of civil servants by a merit-based system. This introduced the competitive examinations for the civil services in 1855.

The examination for the recruitment of Indian civil servants was conducted in London where the minimum required age was 18 years and the upper age limit was 23 years.

The syllabus of the examination was difficult for Indian as it was mostly comprised of European Classic.

Indian Civil Service under the British Rule

Shri Satyendranath Tagore was the first Indian to succeed in the competitive exam in 1864, followed by 4 other Indians in the coming year.

Indian civil services began to take place in India from 1922 onwards. Allahabad was the first place where the examination took place. With the setting up of the Federal Public Service Commission, the exam took place in Delhi.

The Civil Service Commission continued to conduct the exam in London.

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