History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c96.s2.5

v7.c96.s2.5

The army of the Government of India was for over a century entirely officered by the British. There were in the 20th century about 7000 officers (lieutenants, captains, majors, colonels) among whom not one Indian held the King’s commission till after the first world war. Then a few were sent every year for training to England The examination for entry in the Indian civil²⁶³⁵ Service (the ‘Steel frame’ of the Indian administration, as one great British Prime Minister was pleased to call it) was held in England (in spite of a Resolution of the House of Commons that the examination for appointment to the Indian Civil Services in 1893 should be held simultaneously in India and England). Only a few Indians in the last quarter of the 19th century could go to England and qualify for entry in that heaven-born service. District officers such as Collectors, District Judges, Police Superintendents, Medical officers (of the Indian Medical Service) were almost all British. Almost all Professors in colleges and the head masters of even some secondary schools were Englishmen. All the books to be used in schools were prescribed by the Head of the Department of Public Instruction in the several provinces, all of whom were Westerners. Even primary education was being given only to a small fraction of the children of school-going age, even in 1947 when the British left. The elements of colonial rule by Britain and the policies pursued by the British rulers are emphasized here solely as warnings to present warring elements in our country that if they pursue their quarrels to bitter ends the nation may again be plunged into a miserable state by invasions from powerful and hostile neighbours.