Indian Civil Service (ICS), known as Imperial Civil Service till 1947, was a so-called elite civil service raised by British-occupiers in British India during 1858-1947. They constituted proverbial ‘steel frame’ of British occupation of the nation whose writ ran over some 250 districts inhabited by 20 crore citizens. The elite service was governed under Section XXXII (32) of the Government Of India Act 1858 legislated by British Parliament. It was administered by a Secretary of State for India, a British Cabinet Minister presiding over a cadre with all senior and middle level British-Gora ICS “Civilians” to begin with as they were addressed, taught in so-called “best” British schools. Majority of British “Civilians” returned home in 1947 with declaration of freedom from forcible British occupation. Number of Indian-Sepoys for ICS gradually increased as governance became complex with physically taxing jobs rose in numbers. By 1905, the cadre had 5% from Bengal alone (probably explaining roots of ‘Bhadralok snobbery, arrogance and drifting towards Marxism’). By 1947, there were 688 British “Civilians” while 322 ‘Deshi’ ICS-Sepoys, brown and dark brown in complexion. Entry of coloured natives into the service was deeply resented by Brit-Goras and by some of them, openly. One of them even objected by saying, “Government of India is not Indian. It is English…England has made herself responsible for India and she cannot shirk or divide the responsibility. No Indian can tell us what to do.” So they were vehemently averse to accepting Bharatiya-s in positions of authority. Till 1930s, senior positions in the cadre were not accessible to ‘Deshi’ ICS-Sepoys as British racism attained critical mass by mid-1880s. Majority of cases recommended for promotions to higher positions used to be rejected and only a miniscule were allowed to succeed intended more to dodge accusations of being racists rather than normal promotions.
Given their racist and imperialistic doctrine, Hindu-s were perceived as racially inferior heathens destined to be ruled by superior white British race. So sanctity of the gap between ‘rulers’ and the ‘ruled’ had to be maintained and anyone violating that, was immediately ostracized. British-Gora occupiers of the country were absolutely unable to concede excellence of any kind to native browns and dark browns. Wherever excellence in any field they discovered created by brown and dark brown Hindu-s, they ensured some strong link is established with their God, Jesus or the British Crown loaded with blood and tears of 70 countries that they colonised. ‘White Mans Burden’ so called is best symbolised and exemplified by Rudyard Kipling, a racist to the core of his conscience in his profoundly motivated composition as under –
Take up The White Man’s burden—
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need;
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild—
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.
Take up the White Man’s burden—
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain.
To seek another’s profit,
And work another’s gain.
Take up the White Man’s burden—
The savage wars of peace—
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch Sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.
Take up the White Man’s burden—
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper—
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go make them with your living,
And mark them with your dead!
Take up the White Man’s burden—
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard—
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:—
“Why brought ye us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?”
Take up the White Man’s burden—
Ye dare not stoop to less—
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloak your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your Gods and you.
Take up the White Man’s burden—
Have done with childish days—
The lightly profferred laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years,
Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers !
When a dark brown Bharatiya ICS-Sepoy from a southern State was appointed in a remote district, local club having English ‘Civilians’ refused to admit him as an honourable member. He was severely handicapped in discharging his official responsibilities as most of important official work used to be discussed over drinks in blue mood in lawns of the clubhouse. Instead of blaming it as British-racism, many of them blamed faulty recruitment policy that allowed brown and dark brown Bharatiya-s into the so-called elite service of ICS. Poor man finally shot himself dead after a long trail of frustration and depression caused by the racial exclusivism and discrimination perpetrated upon him by British occupiers of the country while elite snobbery of ICS-Sepoys continued unmitigated before poor, plundered natives across the country. Ostensibly Club-culture, boot-licking and offering gifts to seniors and their wives etc. happen to be unadulterated British legacies we inherited and gladly perpetuated unremittingly even after 1947.
Satyendra Nath Thakur (anglicised as Tagore later) was the first to break this glass ceiling albeit he too, could knock at the position of a District Judge in Satara after 30 years of service overcoming plethora of obstacles. They all had to undergo excessive personal humiliation and insults including SN Thakur. Surendra Nath Banerjee was barred from promotions by accusing him of lying on his actual age in 1869, then awarded an insignificant position as a measure of racist humiliation. In 1874, he was duly dismissed from service for the offence of requesting for accommodation in British colony that housed senior British-Gora ‘Civilians’ !! He went on to become a distinguished freedom-fighter and a brilliant intellectual. British-Goras sacked him instead of using his talent for furthering national interest, not even colonial interest as they felt so much threatened and humbled by his talent. Similar was the case of Aurbindo Ghosh who stood second in ranks out of thousands yet summarily rejected as he was not skilled in horse-riding !! British-occupiers planted seeds of nasty rivalry so deep in Bharatiya soil that it continues even today in the country almost in every institution, in every discipline of activity. Starkly it came to the fore when appointment of Narendra Modi as Convener of Election Campaign Committee was announced for Lok Sabha-2014 elections resisted vehemently by senile old war-horses.
Syed Mahmud, a Cambridge educated ICS-Sepoy, was appointed as Judge of Allahabad High Court in 1887 but without real authority. Continuous humiliation and discrimination led him to alcoholism and acute depression that snatched his life young, merely at 53 despite his being son of influential Syed Ahmad Khan, founder of Aligarh Muslim University critically required by British-Goras to sow seeds of Partition-1947 !! Differences in emoluments were too conspicuous to be ignored. To sum up, no parameter of discrimination and humiliation was ignored be that salaries, power enjoyed, seniority or career advancement. Repositories of senior level experience were all Brit-Goras who left the country in 1947 and the country was deprived of experienced manpower to govern thereafter.
During British occupation of the country all brown and dark brown ICS-Sepoys were mandated by Brit Gora-masters to remain bachelors till the age of 30 or so. That made them ‘sitting ducks’ to be ‘shot’ and ‘captured’ by scores of husband-hunting English lasses coming over to British occupied India after being rejected by elite British boys 1850s onwards, failing to get married in Britain. Those Cigarette smoking, wine drinking British Gori women used to be either ‘too fast’ or ‘too ordinary’ to be hitched by anyone there in Britain and ICS-Sepoys were ‘turbots’ and ‘helibuts’ i.e. best catches of the ‘matrimonial net’ for them. Since it was not possible to bleach them into Euro-Whites completely, it was an ernest endeavour to be closest possible to their race with their ‘better halves.’ Tales of comfortable life in British occupied India used to attract them to try their luck here after being rejected by eligible worthy British boys. As ICS-Sepoys were strictly prohibited from ‘fooling’ around with ‘Svadeshi’ brown Hindu women, they used to be easy preys being utterly bored and frustrated of loneliness by the end of their thirties. So they used to easily fall for the woman on ‘Love At First Come First Served’ basis !! These ‘Fishing seasons’ used to be live with entertainments, ball dances, golf / tennis matches etc. on Gymkhana grounds with ‘husband-hunters’ sardonically known as ‘Fishing Fleet’. Such fleets used to sail out to British occupied India from British shores in Autumn and return in Spring in case of being unsuccessful in ‘husband-hunting’ or for strong aversion to stay in British-occupied India for long. They were then known as ‘The Returned Empties’ in British cocktail circuits who were asked to pay for their return tickets. Successful members of the ‘Fishing fleet’ enjoyed life in British occupied India with English clubs (wherein Indians and dogs were not allowed to enter), tennis matches, elegant balls, tiger-hunting, flotilla of servants, maids, beauty sessions, salacious gossips, promiscuity and other extravagances. Needless to say, those British women were the worst racists who used to abuse Hindu-s / India whenever back home during summers and their heavily brainwashed brown and dark brown ICS-Sepoy hubbies were condemned to be pathetic listeners nodding abjectly. The phenomenon of ‘husband-hunting’ by this ‘fishing fleet’ came to an end by the end of WW-II followed by freedom battles but by that time some Nehru-s too, had ‘White-fisherwomen’ from the ‘fishing fleet’ to reckon with.
Today we shudder to visualise, what sort of agonies and humiliation our ancestors had to undergo in British occupied India perpetrated by their British-Gora occupiers.
Published @ https://indusscrolls.com/vicious-colonial-racism-was-unleashed-upon-sepoys-of-the-indian-civil-service
niratishaya 