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This chapter examines Indian Civil Service officers. Six of the judges were officers of the storied ICS — the elite civil service trained during the colonial years. They were S.K. Das, K.N. Wanchoo, K.C. Das Gupta, R. Dayal, Vaidyanthier Ramaswami, and V. Bhargava. Acceptance was extremely competitive and there was not a more prestigious position for an Indian. None had practised law but all brought decades of practical experience to the SCI, particularly in criminal law, an area in which few SCI judges could claim much experience. One of them, K.N. Wanchoo, served as CJI in 1967–8. The six served during the 1956–71 years. The ICS ended in 1947 and its successor, the Indian Administrative Service, has no ‘judicial side’.

This chapter describes four features of the judiciary in colonial India which might have formally undermined its independence from the executive government. First, the Chief Justice of important courts like the Bombay High Court was always a Briton. Second, judges lacked security of tenure during most of the time that India was under colonial rule. Third, ‘acting’ judges were frequently appointed to the court, whose temporary status on the court made them vulnerable to the government’s whims and fancies. Fourth, the judiciary lacked separation of powers given that it was dominated by members of the Indian Civil Service, who began and ended their careers in the executive government. The next chapter, however, will discuss whether, or to what extent, these features of the colonial judiciary actually undermined judicial independence in practice.

When members of an organization identify their interests with those of their organization, they show commitment to its objectives. Identification with the organization gives members a purpose and a sense of belonging, as well as a degree of self-discipline that motivates them to support the organization in achieving its goals. In the context of civil service, such an identification is known as esprit de corps. In India, the civil service has forfeited esprit de corps which it itself created and nurtured. During the colonial period, esprit de corps was developed and nurtured by the Indian Civil Service that was eventually succeeded by the Indian Administrative Service. This chapter examines how India can promote esprit de corps in the civil service.

This chapter examines the so-called specialists in the Indian Civil Service (ICS). The civil service in India has been a generalist one before it was challenged with the passage of the Government of India of 1919 which transferred the responsibilities for nation-building activities to popularly elected ministers. The increased induction of the specialists in public administration brought to the fore the problem of the generalist-specialist relationship in the civil service.

This chapter examines Kim Philby's early years, first by focusing on his father, Harry St John Bridger Philby, whose career placed Kim's life in an international context and enabled him to establish an early pattern of deceit. It considers St John's acceptance to the Indian Civil Service, the organisation through which Britain administered the sub-continent, his travels to India in December 1908, and how his career finally took off following the outbreak of World War I. The chapter also analyses St John's influence on Kim, Kim's admission to Cambridge University in November 1929, and the role played by counter-espionage specialists Guy Liddell of Special Branch (the unit of the police force responsible for matters of national security) and Valentine Vivian of the British Secret Intelligence Service in Philby's story.

This chapter looks at how Jawaharlal’s decision not to join the Indian Civil Service (I.C.S.) changed the lives of his family and the history of India. It first shows that Jawaharlal was able to pass into Trinity College, Cambridge, despite the previous misgivings of the headmaster of Harrow. It was in Cambridge where Jawaharlal’s political thinking improved, and his distrust and cynicism towards British intentions and British professions are expressed in some of his letters to his father. It then describes Jawaharlal’s life at Cambridge and notes the passing phase of political and intellectual ferment most Indian students in England experienced. The chapter reveals that despite Jawaharlal’s developing extremism in politics, he did not discount the idea of joining the I.C.S.

This chapter examines the professional careers of the judges. The average age at which these men had completed their education and commenced their professional careers was twenty-four. All, except the six ICS officers, began as practising lawyers, usually before the high court of the state where they would later be appointed. An average of thirty-four years later, they were SCI judges. Because appointment to a high court preceded appointment to the SCI for all except the three appointed directly from the bar, serving on a high court was a rite of passage. Thirty-four, in addition to private practice, had some experience as lawyers for the state or union governments. Illustrations of these posts are junior or senior standing counsel, government pleader, public prosecutor, and advocate general. Most of these posts were part-time and permitted simultaneous private practice, though the rules were not the same in every state.

This chapter seeks to position Clow’s experiences in colonial India against the backdrop of wider issues and trends during the period of his service. The chapter discusses Clow’s recruitment into the ICS, his marriage to Ariadne, and his life after the ICS. What is of interest here is not necessarily the events themselves but the temperament of the man and his attitude to the situations that were before him. Moreover, understanding the historical and social context of Clow’s career allows us to draw stronger conclusions when analysing the key events in the later chapters.

The introductory chapter articulates the book’s central argument about colonialism, which it defines as rule by outsiders for the benefit of outsiders, a structure that results in the extreme suppression of a majority for the vast prosperity of a minority. However, the ICS officers who administered colonial rule in India were also vulnerable to the colonial experience because colonialism is a dehumanizing experience for all those engaged with its power structures. Beyond this, the chapter provides initial information around the life and career of Sir Andrew Clow, the book’s main character. Clow was involved in the crucial events before, during, and after World War II in British-ruled India that affected the outcome of the conflict as a whole but also helped set the platform for the subsequent collapse of the age of British imperialism.

This chapter presents a cultural-historical analysis of Oscar Wilde’s aesthetic criticism, focusing on the use of imperial rhetoric in ‘The Critic as Artist’ and The Soul of Man. It explores the political implications of the Oxford classical curriculum (Greats) through an account of Benjamin Jowett’s involvement in designing the Indian Civil Service entrance examination. It is argued that Wilde’s critique of the British Empire and the intellectual culture of nineteenth-century England doubles as a critique of the imperialist objectives that defined the Greats curriculum. This analysis pinpoints the anti-imperialist strains which surface in Wilde’s critical writing by exploring how the term ‘civilized’ is deployed in his work. It also addresses how Wilde positions aesthetic consumption as an alternative model of education which enables individuals to engage with Plato’s philosophy in the home.