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The Ruling Caste: Imperial Lives in the Victorian Raj

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My book club chose to read Gilmour's "The Ruling Caste" and we all struggled to get through it. It's a fact-filled and interesting--but not entirely readable--work that has the unmistakable stamp of thorough scholarship which must be appreciated. Because he carefully tends to the minutiae of workaday life for a Victorian-era man in the Indian Civil Service, the book gives up both gravitas and sweep.

Some luminaries of the times, like Rudyard Kipling and Lord Curzon, appear (Gilmour has written biographies of those two.) but most of the names are unknowns who kept journals or whose letters were turned over to the British archives by descendants.

These people were true Imperialists, spending their entire careers abroad and coming home to retire into obscurity: "Here were men who had governed millions of people...Yet no one in Britain seemed to care who they were or what they had been doing."

The reader may ask, "Shouldn't I be reading something more important?" Well, maybe so, but consider this: the British stamp upon India was so pervasive that, to this day, it informs the attitudes and ethics of millions of English-speaking, West-oriented Indians, from the call center clerk in Bangalore who helped you resolve that software problem last week to the cardiologist down the street in Anytown, USA.

"The Ruling Caste" by David Gilmour gives an excellent and evocative account of how British civilian officials lived their lives in the Raj (ie not the military, business people or missionaries). He covers how they were trained, their working routines, how they found wives, entertainment, sports and much else.

Many books on the history of British India focus on the big picture and the comings and goings of the senior officials in the Government and Military. Gilmour's book describes how the majority of officials lived and worked at the grassroots level of villages and districts: what exactly they did each day, how a magistrate did his job and so on.

Kipling's stories describe many of the same types of people, but of course they are fictionalised accounts which may be overly sympathetic or exaggerated in other ways. However, contemporaries in India frequently commented on their generally accurate portrayals.

Colonialism is often criticised because of our understandable repugnance of one country imposing its rule over the population of another. In principle this is fair, but criticism by historians is often taken to the extreme of refusing to accept that anything good ever came out of colonialism. This is especially unfair to the British, who did not behave with the rapacity and cruelty of other colonial powers of the day.

Gilmour's book and others like it redress the balance somewhat by describing lives of duty, sacrifice and affection for the people they ruled. Others became internationally respected for their work as historians, linguists and protectors of Indian cultural heritage. Another paid for the construction of a canal out of his own pocket - one of many similar, if less spectacular, examples of personal largesse.

Reading this book one cannot escape the feeling that there was a certain nobility and decency about the work of many officials of the Indian Civil Service, especially those working in Districts where they were in intimate contact with villagers.

District Officers were mostly young men in their twenties in charge of a District of up to a million people, with perhaps only a few other British officials - or even none at all. The opportunities for corruption, oppression or debauchery are obvious, but by and large these young men were incorruptible and behaved with great honour.

These decent lives deserve to be better known and Gilmour's book does them justice. Today, mere "celebrity" is often applauded as heroism and talent, so it is good to read about true heroes and genuinely talented people who did not court publicity but just went about their unsung work in India, often for a lifetime.

Of course they were not all hard-working saints and Gilmour gives sufficient examples to make this clear. India had its share of "bad bargains", eccentrics and mavericks and Gilmour describes their exploits with sympathy and dry humour. Some of these tales are gems.

Readers interested in how the Raj was run and the people who ran it will love this book.

I also recommend it as an antidote to contemporary celebrity worship, so we may compare the enduring, worthwhile qualities of the best of those who served the Raj, with the ephemeral appeal of many celebrities, whose fleeting reputations depend on media attention to create and sustain them.

David Gilmour has written an extremely well-researched history of the Indian Civil Service, that is of the British civil servants who administered India, the crown jewel of the British Empire, which then encompassed India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. Anyone who has any doubts that it was not, on the whole, extremely capable and incorruptible, and, all in all, a huge force for the good will not harbor them at the end of the book.

This book is written in a sort of dry, plodding and scholarly style that makes it a dream come true for anyone who needs to write a paper or otherwise consult Gilmour's research for their own work. But the same matter-of-factness and lack of narrative mean that only very few will enjoy reading this book for pleasure.

Since a very small child I have been fascinated, and somewhat obsessive, as to the role the British played in India...the days of the Raj. This fascination stemmed from the fact that my mother was a Kipling fanatic and she was reading his work to my sister and me long before we entered school, much less posses the ability to read. Be that as it may, the subject has stuck with me over the years and continues to a part of my reading and study life even to this day.

On the other hand, despite my probably misguided propensity of being enamored with the "glamour" of those days of the Raj, I have a great repugnance for the concept of Colonialism and Imperialism, which includes, to no less extent, the practices used and the propensity of European "Christian Countries," and the United States of sending Christian missionaries to "save the savages." We do not have a pretty history here. This missionary zeal was a major influence at the time and very much mucked up the waters from both a British and an Indian perspective. Personal opinion here, I know, but I have a strong feeling that this horrid obsession to dink around with the religions of other people probably caused more grief than the actual acts of Colonialism, not only in India, but in the rest of the world. But hey, that is just me...what do I know?

Enough of where I am coming from though...

A fascinating question, one that will probably never be fully answered to every individuals satisfaction, is that over the years, how were fewer than 100,000 British subjects at any one time, able to manage and control and empire of well over 300 million people? It certainly was not through force of arms (although, that was an aspect which needs to be considered), the numbers simply do not work out here, in particular when you consider that militarily the British were really not all that powerful military wise at that time. No, there had to be other reasons. David Gilmour, via this rather detailed and extensive study of the British Civil Service, attempts to answer that and other questions, as far as they can be answered.

Now readers take note at this time. This is NOT an ethnic study of the various indigenous peoples of the part of the world this historic epic took place. The author fully admits this (If you bother to read the preface to the book), for a book of this size and depth, very little is examined as to the religious customs, politics, social customs, etc. of the Indian people. The only time the author delves into these areas is when they had a direct influence on British decision making, and even then, the author tries to examine these issues through the eyes of the English and not the people they ruled for so many years. Studies such as this are left for others to ponder, research and write about. Goodness knows that since the 1970s there has been enough written in this area to satisfy most, if not all.

What I enjoyed and appreciated about this work was that the author did address, to great extent, the day by day lives of the British people living and working in India during the Imperialistic era. This not only includes the men who did the ruling, but also their families. Social lives, private lives, means of coping and British traditions are examined at length. No fictionalized accounts such as we find is works such as A Passage to India are found here. This for me was quite refreshing as the author was quite frank in his assessments.

Much of this work is taken from private correspondence from many, many individual who were there at the time; individuals who did the work, who ruled this vast and diversified area of the world. Times were quite different then, attitudes were different, social placing was different. The author attempts to pick through these differences and in most cases, tries to view the situation at hand through they eyes of those involved.

I like detailed books. Few bits of information no matter how mundane bore me. I will say though that I can see how some might find this work a bit tedious at times. The author does indeed, as has been pointed out, have a rather flat writing style and more or less goes over the top at times with is details. We have quite a lot of space devoted to such things as who begat who and who they begat when it comes to multi-generational families involved. This is about as dry as reading the book of Genesis. I found myself several times thinking "who cares."

How the machine of the of the Civil Service ran, how members of this service coped, the red tape, the harsh living and transportation conditions, family concerns...it is all here. It should be noted that as to the question as to weather or not the Colonial experience was good or bad for India, the author obviously comes down on the side that yes, there were evils about, but his sympathies most certainly are with the British, although it must be noted that the author is in many ways sympathetic to the plight of the Indian people too. Personally, I rather ignored this aspect and more or less considered the source. That questions, and questions of that sort have been argued back and forth for years and I suspect they will be for years into the future. A book such as this is unlikely to change any minds when it comes to that score.

All in all, this was a fascinating read; a read that required a bit of patience from time to time, but well worth the slug through it.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

This is an account of the Indian Civil Service under the Raj. It provides a mixture of structural analysis and anecdotal accounts of specific individuals. The author makes a good case that the Civilians in the service were hard working and genuinely interested in providing a good and just administration. They were notably incorruptible. They served as a tiny, isolated elite in a vast sub-continent.

The seeds of their fall were always present. They wanted to help India and to raise an educated forward-looking Indian middle class. But how could that class, raised to respect justice and democracy, not ultimately reject its mentors?

The book is occasionally slow, but generally moves along well and carries it weight.

I found this book fascinating but as noted in one of the editorials it lacks a central theme that makes the book disconnected - more a collection of different events. It is fascinating to get into the daily lives of ICS officers of those days and draw a parallel with today's IAS/IPS officers of India (not much has changed!). I, myself, being grown up in that kind of environment, probably makes me a little biased towards this book.

This is smoothly written, trivia-dense book. Gilmour is not a historian but a man of letters of no very high caliber. Furthermore he has chosen to write an apologia for a class of official who wrote thousands of pages on themselves and several of whose works can be found on Google books. You will learn much more by reading John Beames's posthumously published memoirs, Frederick J. Shore's somewhat dyspeptic _Notes on Indian Affairs_ or at the tail-end of British rule - Carritt's _A Mole in the Crown_. The last-named was a member of the Communist Party in the 1930s who got into the ICS and advanced the interests of the Communist International in India. The book is unique. The episode also shows how desperate the ICS was to recruit true-born Englishmen in the 1930s when despite high unemployment they could not get enough white boys to apply. And that brings me to Gilmour's unfair dismissal (on p.xvii) of the historian who first brought this and other facts into print: Bradford Spangenberg.His book _British Bureaucracy in India: Status, Policy and the I.C.S. in the Late 19th Century_ (1976)

This book is a careful and well-documented study of the problems in recruitment and management reported by the recruiters - the Civil Service Commissioners - as well as the employers such as the Secretary of State for India and the Viceroy. There is more than enough evidence from sourcessuch as unpublished government records and the many petitions and protests by different groups of civil servants. Spangenberg tellingly contrasts the publicly laudatory with the privately disparaging remarks about the Civil Service made by Viceroys such as Curzon. Or indeed private letters containing assessments such as the following from Lord George Hamilton, Secretary of State to Viceroy Curzon in 1902:

"I cannot but help feeling the truth of the contention that just now India is exploited for the benefit of the Civil Service, and that the statutory rights which they have obtained from long possession of a monopoly of Government in India, and the increasing difficulty of in any way ousting them from their position, or of stirring them up to the activity and the interest in the governed shown by their predecessors ..." (cited in Spangenberg p.2)

So said the wife of a British Civil Servant shortly after their arrival in India.

When author Gilmore first mentioned to his friends that he was contemplating writing a book on the Civil Service I wonder if they looked at him with stunned incomprehension. I mean who wants to read a book on the life of Civil Servants? Well I, for one, got pretty engrossed in reading the results of his inspiration. I admit that before I picked up this book I was a bit uncertain about reading it. After all aren't civil servants people who sit in cubicles with tons of paper to process and file away? Well I found out that members of the Indian Civil Service (ICS) were the folks who ruled India. Called "Civilians" they oversaw the governance of India, collected tax revenues, kept the Maharajahs of the princely states (those areas not directly governed by Britain) from ruining their domains, served as magistrates and judges, and generally just kept things running.

It was a harsh, unpleasant climate for the Brits working there. When a new group of Civilians arrived in India you could expect one third of them to be dead within twenty years. They frequently became ill with cholera, typhoid, or malaria, and in some instances they were killed by tigers or cheetahs. But look at the bright side: after 8 years of service they were given a two year furlough back to England.

Gilmour describes them all: the ambitious, the lazy, the renegades, the sportsmen and the scholars. The British put a lot of emphasis on sportsmanship. If you wanted to join the ICS it helped if you were good at cricket and polo. After all if you were sent to supervise a princely state you had to be able to play polo with the Maharajah.

Some reviewers found this book to be a bit dry. Considering the subject matter I think the author produced a tremendously interesting book. The only thing I found that could be classified as dry were some seemingly unending examples of a topic. For instance when retirement was discussed we learned that Smythe went to Folkstone, Blythe went to Southampton and worked as a shopkeeper, etc. These folks have all sunk into historical oblivion, and the reader won't remember any of them once finished with the book. It was amusing to read, though, how many of them returned to England and became world class bores, telling India stories to everyone that they bumped into.

The book focuses on the nineteenth century. The only aspect of the life that could have been discussed more would be the relations between Civilians and the Indians. The Indians, being very class conscious would, on occasion, unconsciously insult a Civilian. Invited to dinner at an Indian home the host would shake the Civilian's hand, and then immediately plunge his hands into a bowl of water and wash them. After the Civilian left the plates and eating utensils that he used were discarded in the trash.

Gilmour is not very judgmental about the British Raj. He says, for instance, that famine duty brought out the best in the Civilians. They were energetic in helping the hungry Indians. He does not mention that within the first three years of the new national government of India formed in 1947 three huge dams were constructed by the Indians to eliminate floods, provide power, and insure sufficient water for irrigation farming. The British never seemed to consider doing something like that.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of India, and the Raj. I'd even consider it mandatory for such readers. It covers an aspect of British/Indian life that you will not find in any other book (that I know of anyway).

At the outset let me say that The Ruling Caste is a valuable book for those serious about learning some of the ins and outs of the system and personalities that ruled India in the Victorian era: academics and the merely interested. Author Gilmour has consulted a tremendous number of sources both official and personal and the sheer volume of his research adds considerable value to his study. In addition the book is extremely readable. Though it may not necessarily be a page turner for the average reader, Gilmour's facility with language combined with thorough research reminds me of--dare I say--many of the books by Bill Bryson. (That's praise.)

Nevertheless I have some quibbles. While the book contains a tremendous amount of information, one all too often feels that the author isn't trying to make any important points. Yes, life in India was difficult, separation from home was keenly felt, there were some awesome achievements by stellar personalities, the responsibilities were tremendous, and when it was all over and people went "Home" they too often found themselves misfits and griped that nobody really cared about what they had done. None of these points is terribly new or revealing. Moreover, when the author chooses to tread on tricky ground--tackling the question of whether or not the Anglo-Indians in the Indian Civil Service were racists--he tends to drop the ball. I was disappointed to read that because low opinions about some of the people they ruled were not based on physical characteristics, but rather reflected a belief that British civilization was of a higher order than Indian civilization, those who held such views should not be considered racist. In fact, it doesn't make those people heroes, either. Ethnocentric stereotypes, whether based on physical characteristics or cultural traits, are just plain wrong and deserve condemnation, not a gloss. Finally, putting characters such as Arthur Travers Crawford in a section about "black sheep" trivializes the serious effects of their wrongdoing on others whose lives they affected.

In sum, this isn't necessarily a book for all specialists. If the non-specialists can deal with some of the weak points, it's a tome worth a read.

A wonderful peek into the long-ago lives of British civil servants who kept the empire going in far-away India.

If you're a member of a military family or a corporate trailing spouse with more than a few miles on the odometer, expect to resonate with sympathy. The Empire is long gone, but the problems of work and relocation are timeless.