In 1886 Lord Dufferin appointed a ” Public Services Commission” to investigate the problem with Sir Charles Atchison, then Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, as its President. The Commission rejected the idea of simultaneous examinations for covenanted service, and advised the abolition of the Statutory Civil Service. They proposed that a number of posts hitherto reserved for covenanted service should be thrown open to a local service to be called the Provincial Civil Service, which would be separately recruited in every province either by promotion from lower ranks or by direct recruitment. The terms Covenanted and Uncovenanted were replaced by Imperial and Provincial, and below the latter would be a Subordinate Civil Service.
These recommendations were accepted. The Covenanted Civil Service was henceforth known as the “Civil Service of India”, and the Provincial Service was called after the particular province, as, for example, the Bengal Civil Service. A list was prepared of posts reserved for the Civil Service of India, but open to the new Provincial Service, and local governments were empowered to appoint an Indian to any such “listed post”. In other branches of administration, such as Education, Police, Public Works and Medical departments, too, there were similar divisions into Imperial, Provincial, and Subordinate services. The first was mainly filled by Englishmen, and the other two almost exclusively by Indians.
This system remained in being with slight changes till the end of British rule. It improved the standard of service, but failed to satisfy the legitimate aspirations of the Indians for employment in larger numbers in higher offices of State.
In 1893, the House of Commons passed a resolution in favour of simultaneous examinations in England and India for the Indian Civil Service. The resolution was forwarded by the Secretary of State to the Government of India for opinion. Lord Lansdowne’s Government, after consulting Provincial Governments, definitely opposed the principle of the resolution. “They maintained that material reduction of the European staff then employed was incompatible with the safety of the British rule. The system of unrestricted competition in examination would not only dangerously weaken the British element in the Civil Service, but would also practically exclude from the service Muhammadans, Sikhs and other races, accustomed to rule by tradition, and possessed of exceptional strength of character, but deficient in literary education.” Nothing came of the proposal, and more than a quarter of a century had elapsed before any step was taken in this direction.
Local Self-Government
From time immemorial ideas of local self-government prevailed in India to a far greater extent, than anywhere else in the world. The villages and towns were small States in miniature, where all the local needs for sanitation, communication, the judiciary and the police were served by assemblies of the people themselves with a chief executive officer.
During the turmoil that followed in the wake of the dissolution of the Mughul Empire, these self-governing organisations almost entirely disappeared from towns and greatly decayed in villages. The British Government tried to keep up the village assemblies wherever they were in working order, and revived them in places where they were wanting. But they were confronted with the task of evolving a definite system of local government both for the vast rural areas as well as for towns.
To begin with, the Government adopted no definite system in the administration of local affairs in the rural areas. They worked through the existing institutions or improvised others as the need was felt. In Bengal regulations were passed in 1816 and 1819 authorising the Government to levy money for the maintenance of ferries and the repair and construction of roads, bridges and drains. In administering the fund so raised, Government were advised by local Committees, with the Magistrate as Secretary, which they appointed in each district.
Outside Bengal, the necessary amount was raised by imposing a cess or small percentage on land revenue. In 1869 the matter was put on a definite basis in Bombay by means of legislation. It provided for expenditure on public works by legalising the cesses and set up committees for the administration of funds, not only for the district as a whole but also for its subdivisions.
A great stimulus was given to the development of local self-government by the Government of India’s Resolution of 1870. Within a year, Acts were passed in various provinces on the lines of that of the Bombay Government. Existing cesses were legalised and even increased. For the administration of the funds, Committees were set up for the district as a whole, but not for smaller areas as in Bombay. These Committees were all nominated by the Government and controlled by them. They consisted of both officials and non-officials and had an official Chairman.
In Bengal the cess was imposed for the first time by the new Act and a great hue and cry was raised that it was a violation of the Permanent Settlement. The Government partly yielded and decided to restrict the cess only to the amount required for the roads. Thus the road-cess, as it was called in Bengal, could not be diverted to purposes of primary education as was done in other provinces.
The system introduced in 1871 was no doubt a distinct improvement upon the existing situation. Much was done to improve the communications, sanitation and education of the localities. But there were several grave defects. The Committees were entirely dominated by officialdom, and popular wishes and feelings had no scope in them. Besides, the area served by them was too large, and private members had very inadequate knowledge of, and consequently little interest in, the local affairs of a large part of the area.
Lord Ripon made an earnest endeavour to remove these defects and to introduce a real element of local self-government somewhat on the lines of English law. His ideas were laid down in the shape of a Government Resolution in May, 1882. The two essential features of this new plan were:
