BUREAUCRACY AND SOCIETY: The IAS at Work

From the point of view of its multifunctionality, size, status and impact, the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is perhaps unique in the world. The perceived omnipotence and omnipresence of the IAS in all matters related to government has made its members a subject of sustained criticism, some of which has been unfounded. There is thus a need to understand the role of the IAS in terms of the changing environment in which it has had to function, as also the fact that the administrative acumen and character of individual civil servants can and has significantly influenced the pattern, orientation and productivity of the administrative system.

This volume has brought together the recollections or reminiscences of 14 officers who served or are serving in the IAS. Many of the incidents and episodes highlighted in the narratives may be seen as case studies of how the protagonists and others concerned responded leading to successful handling of the situations in some cases and failures in others. They also indicate how Indian administration has been carried out in actual practice during the last sixty odd years.

Besides a crispy introduction on careers in the IAS as well as on civil servants’ reminiscences published earlier as also in this volume, the editor has also provided highly informative sectional introductions to each of three sections. While the first two sections on ‘IAS Careers Remembered’ and ‘Remembering District Tenures’ each contain seven mini-memoirs, the last section has only one contribution on the spirit of the civil service. The book as a whole will equally interest critics, bureaucrats, researchers, teachers, trainers, social scientists, media commentators, the general reader, as well as students and would-be-administrators.