Abstract
The origin and history of civil services in India is related to the establishment of the East India Company. The actual ‘system’ of the administrative service came into existence in 1861 through ‘The Civil Services Act’ passed by the British Parliament. The recruitment to this service was initially exclusively and later practically restricted to Britons/Europeans, stationed in Great Britain. The entrance examination was conducted in London.
From 1922 onwards, the ICS entrance examination was conducted in India as well. This resulted in opportunities very well taken and grasped with both hands by the Indians. Thus, in a period of little less than 20 years, Indians had shown their competitive intellectual worth vis-à-vis the British to enter the Indian Civil Service. During this period 60 per cent of the persons recruited to ICS were Indians. But what about the Indianness factor in the civil service? How the Brown sahibs shaped and impacted the structure of the Indian Civil Service? At the time of Independence in 1947, there were only about thirty-five plus ICS officers who chose to serve the Government of India. What part this miniscule group of people played in the furtherance of the colonial system of administration, along with the values and ethos of India? Who will provide the answer? I think the generation of personnel of IAS who were inducted in the system after Independence has reflected the legacy of continuation and, of course, the changes that have come about since then. In order to have a peep into their minds, what better way one could have had other than reading their minds through the book titled District Collectors—Recollections and Reflections?
The book under review is a welcome addition to the very few books on the subject. A total of twenty-four IAS officers who have contributed in writing the history of the districts they served, belonged to the ‘five decades’, beginning from the early 1950s to the late 1990s. The number of districts these twenty-four officers have served is fifty plus, spread over nine states; thus, it is a history of approximately more than 10 per cent of districts of India. It is a history of feudal India, trying to develop and discover itself through socialistic norms, ironically with the help of age-old ‘capitalist and imperialist’ steel framework known as Indian Administrative Service. To add to this, seemingly unending list of contradictions, our constitution makers decided to opt for ‘parliamentary, quasi-federal, unitary form of government’ and subjected it to experiment with mixed economy in a highly confusing mixed polity and society of India. The challenges it inherited and the challenges we created on way have been handled well by our IAS structure. In fact, this structure presupposes two qualities—one firmness and the second elasticity.
In each one of the experiences of twenty-four writers, we find these qualities manifesting in many ways. A district collector is a harbinger of the government of the day. He also acts as a kingpin holding the brunt of four variables simultaneously, namely the people, the local set of political representatives, the Chief Minister (CM) and of course, the chief secretary. In this connection, the book under review sheds light on the many known, little known and unknown meanders and frontiers of districts administration.
Mr Sanjoy Bagchi has given a detailed account of the role of collectors in the first two decades. From the days of the ‘direct representative of the king emperor’ to the position of a subservient of legislators, has snatched away the discretionary powers of collectors. Up till 1970
The book enlightens the reader about a few amusing and awful aspects of cadre management of IAS officers. Mr Bagchi, a 1953 batch officer, became a district collector even before the completion of his training in 1956. In 1958, he was transferred as collector of Guna, but after three months he was reverted as SDO Ashok Nagar, for political reasons. Subsequently, he was posted as collector of Bhind, but his insistence on obeying the government orders invited the ire of the HM and he was transferred to Betul, a place normally meant for fresh entrants in the service.
Mr Bagchi has given a detailed account of structural changes and the resultant impact thereof on the administration of land record, land revenue, criminal law administration and so on, covering a period of two decades. These observations merit attention even today.
Mr T.N. Chaturvedi emphasises on the role of team spirit a collector generates. He also values the role of interpersonal relationship in administration. So much so, that he could get telephonic sanctions for some of his schemes at the fag-end of the financial year in March and could also draw the money with the help of a manager of State Bank of India up to 31 March. Now nobody in administration can think of such practices because these will tantamount to highhandedness and corruption. Mr Chaturvedi has also given details of his firm dealings with high-ups of the level of Chief Election Commissioner of India over the establishment of a polling booth in Mayo College, Ajmer. Strange it may seem, but the fact that emerges is that political untouchability had started vitiating the relationship among officers and administration in general, immediately after Independence. For example, when Mr Chaturvedi attended a private tea party in honour of the leader of Swantantra Party and the first Governor General of India Mr C Rajagopalachari, he remarked ‘so you were not afraid to come’.
Scores of collectors have written about the complaint charges they faced from visiting ministers in the districts as ‘collector did not observe normal courtesies’ of receiving the minister and seeing him off and so on. Mr M.L. Mehta and many others have narrated about the tug of war and shrewdness shown in dealing with such problems. Mr Mehta also lists ways and means he adopted in furtherance of development in fields like agriculture, land revenue, relief works and welfare initiatives.
Mr Sharad Chandra Behar has at the outset observed that ‘the human and the office (of collector) Should not be mixed up…. It is only the person, the human being, who remembers, not the office’. Maybe it is true or otherwise. But nobody would disagree with a fact that as a person a district collector impacts various levels of administration and also gets impacted by them. Mr S.C. Behar’s write-up is lucid, forthright, candid and introspective. He has touched upon many aspects of administration and also the economics and politics of development; the role played by the leader of opposition and the party in power; the politics of scarcity and famine and the limits of democratic rights to stage dharna and opposition, leading to administrative actions and fallout thereof, referring to the politics of starvation. Not many people in the administration may have the heart, courage and openness of mind to admit the so-called mistakes they make. Behar writes, ‘[T]he chief medical officer could report that the death was not on account of starvation but I was not personally convinced. I feel and plead guilty to severe malnutrition and many deaths on account of long-term-starvation.’
Mr V.I. Rajagopal served four districts of Rajasthan as collector. Mr Rajagopal, a God-fearing person, testifies his faith in astrology and divine deliverance. At the same time he is not blind to changes taking place in the field of science and technology. He observes that
laptops or I-Pads, e-governance now has the potential of revolutionising administration and becoming a game changer… district/rural development agency, urban development getting into fast mode will be edging out Collector from any meaningful role and emergence of police commissionerates would also ease him out from a position of preeminence in the law and order domain.
Mr P.R. Dubhashi’s recollections are indicative of his working as per rule book. But unfortunately rule book does not contain every functional aspect associated with the role of a collector. Traditionally, collector’s ‘word’ was taken as a law. In Independent India he could exercise his authority by tact and shrewdness in dealing with his administrative and political high-ups and people in general. This way, collectors promoted themselves as persons and also succeeded in promoting the interests of the districts they served.
In this context, I am reminded of a recollection, narrated by Mr S.C. Behar, Ex. Chief Secretary of Madhya Pradesh during a holy mass organised on the 13th day of the death of India’s last ICS officer Mr R.P. Nayak. Mr S.C. Behar, referring to a comment made by Mr Nayak, quoted him as observing on a C. R. note of an officer ‘Mr. … is thoroughly knowledgeable about rules. So much so that he has become a prisoner of rules’. Clearly, on the one hand, ‘rule of law’ ordains and binds government functionaries, and yet they are also expected to make changes in or scuttle rules as and when required.
Mr I.C. Srivastava, Ex-District Collector of Barmer (Rajasthan), has given a beautiful and thrilling account of preparations made by the civil administration before, during and after the war of December 1971. He has narrated verbatim the talk he had with the then PM of India Mrs Indira Gandhi on civil defence preparedness, in the face of onset of war with Pakistan, at the Barmer Airport on 25 November 1971.
In the Barmer Sector, the Indian Army had seized 8,000 sq. km area of Pakistani territory which included four railway stations and more than 50,000 refugees. These people were housed in camps and fed by the district administration. As per Shimla agreement, the territory was returned back, but only 5,000 refugees went back to Pakistan, remaining 45,000 plus Pakistani people were assimilated in India.
Mr O.P. Dube served as collector of three districts, namely, Raisen, Vidisha and Bhopal. Mr Dubey has given a telling account of the decision-making process and behind-the-scene happenings affecting district administration. He also sheds light on the functioning of the then CMs Mr Arjun Singh and Mr Motilal Vohra. He has also brought to the fore the ugly face of district judiciary and also the callous attitude of district and state administration while dealing with ‘gas tragedy’ of Bhopal in 1984.
Mr Adarsh Kishore, Ex-Collector of Alwar (Rajasthan), has given a very well-documented account of the empowerment of about 25,000 plus landless families of agri-workers belonging to SCs/STs. These people were shortlisted under the PM’s new economic programme in 1975 as viable landholders. This Scheme required the identification and creation of land pool, empowering officers as per the legal norms, devising and monitoring the modus operandi, facilitating credit supply to new landholders. Such a stupendous task was completed within more than a month’s period. Mr Adarsh Kishore’s account is indicative of the potential the government has, in case it really resolves to bring transformation in the lives of poor people.
Mrs Meenakshi Hooja, collector of Sirdhi, Rajasthan, served the district in 1984. She belongs to a family of IAS officers. Her husband, father-in-law and father belong to the IAS fraternity. Mrs Meenakshi Hooja was a point of attraction as a ‘lady’ collector. She tried her best to be treated like a collector and not as a lady collector, but at last accepted the special courtesies that are normally extended to a lady officer. In her household also, her relatives belonging to IAS club tried to ‘advice’, to quote Mrs Meenakshi, ‘a more sophisticated way of saying “criticize”’ her on every aspect of her office life. But her mother-in-law came to her support and ordained that ‘I should be left free to run my district the way I wanted’. Mrs Meenakshi hosted Mrs Indira Gandhi and Mr Rajiv Gandhi, the then PM to her district. She was awarded a merit certificate for the revenue work in the district on Independence Day.
To sum up, the book in question sheds light on multifarious aspects of administration, challenges of development, and day-to-day management of rural, urban, tribal, hilly areas of India and also anecdotes related to PMs beginning from Pandit Nehru, to Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and P.V. Narasimha Rao. The two very able editors—Professor Ramesh K. Arora and Professor C.K. Sardana—have done a stupendous job in reaching out to senior IAS (retd.) officers and obtaining exclusive articles from them.
The book will serve as a primary source material for research on issues/subjects related to Public Administration. It will also be a great help as a reference book on the history of development of district administration. The contents of the book, on the one hand, serve as a travelogue, yet, they also give a vibrant feel of the times we have lived before and that also unfolding on the canvas of the future, on the other.