Indian Civil Service (British India)

The Indian Civil Service (ICS) for part of the 19th century officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the élite higher civil service of the British Empire in British India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947.

Its members ruled more than 300 million Indians and were ultimately responsible for overseeing all government activity in the 250 districts that comprised British India. They were appointed under Section XXXII of the Government of India Act 1858, enacted by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The ICS was headed by the Secretary of State for India, a member of the British cabinet.

At first almost all the top thousand members of the ICS, known as "Civilians", were British, and had been educated in the best British schools. By 1905, five per cent were from Bengal. In 1947 there were 322 Indians and 688 British members; most of the latter left at the time of partition and independence.

Until the 1930s the Indians in the service were very few and were not given high posts by the British. Wainwright notes that by the mid-1880s, "the basis of racial discrimination in the sub-continent had solidified". At the time of the birth of India and Pakistan in 1947, the outgoing Government of India's ICS was divided between India and Pakistan. Although these are now organised differently, the contemporary Civil Services of India and the Pakistan Civil Service are both descended from the old Indian Civil Service.

Historians often rate the ICS, together with the railway system, the legal system, and the Indian Army, as among the most important legacies of British rule in India.

From 1858, after the demise of the East India Company's rule in India, the British civil service took on its administrative responsibilities. The change in governance came about due to the Indian Rebellion of 1857, which came close to toppling British rule in the country.

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