bureaucracy in india

7/25/2019 Bureaucracy in India

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BUREAUCRACY IN INDIA

Bureaucracy is the executive arm of the

government. In traditional classical literatureon organs of government, one studied the

legislature, the executive and the judiciary with

bureaucracy being subsumed under the

executive (which comprises the political

establishment and the bureaucracy). Now, one

nds that bureaucracy is being treated

separately and this is indicative of its growing

importance. In this unit, we shall be focusing

on bureaucracy with special reference to India.

MEANING AND CONCEPT. !ost of you must

be familiar with the word "bureau# which means

o$ce. Bureaucracy ta%es o& from this only. In

essence, bureaucracy is an organi'ed body of

persons who deal with o$ce procedures, rules

and regulations. Bureaucracy popularly refers

to government o$cials. enerally, it should be

mentioned here that when one tal%s of the

bureaucracy, one refers to the civilian

bureaucracy also %nown as the civil services


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(the sense in which bureaucracy is treated in

this unit). his point is being mentioned

because the military also has a bureaucracyand the corporate world too has one.

Indeed,bureaucracy exists in every

organi'ation. herefore, it is important to

remain focused on the fact that in this lesson,

when we mention bureaucracy, we have the

civilian bureaucracy (civil services) in our mind.

FEATURES. Bureaucracy anywhere has

certain, well*established features. +lternatively,

an organi'ation in bureaucratic if it has these

features. ome of the better %nown features

are- (I) ierarchy (ii) /hain of command (iii)

+dherence to rules and regulations (I0)

Impersonal1faceless and apolitical (v)

2ecruitment through statutory bodies

specically created for the purpose, etc. hese

features are brie3y described below. 4e should

mention here that these features are, by and

large, not mutually exclusive but run into each

other.


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Hierarchy. 5ssentially, bureaucracy is

hierarchical. It is based on ran%. 5ach ran% or

position is subordinate to some and superior tosome other. he bottom to the top, generally,

ma%es for a pyramidal structure with the lower

ran%s concentrated at the bottom and the

higher ran%s at the top.

Chain of Comman.his feature is intimately

lin%ed with the one above. In any hierarchical

body, there is a chain of command 3owing from

the top to the bottom. Normally, the command

chain is not bro%en. o give an example from

the Indian context, in a 6epartment of the

/entral overnment in 6elhi, the chain of

command is as follows-

ecretary 7 +dditional ecretary 7 8oint

ecretary 7 6eputy ecretary 79nder

ecretary 7 ection :$cer 7 other lower

ran%s.

Aherence !o R"#e$ an Re%"#a!ion$. +

classic feature of bureaucracies all along has


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been their rigid adherence to rules and

regulations. his has, in fact, led to the

adjective ;bureaucratic< being coined for anyperson1organi'ation insisting too much on

rules, regulations and procedures.

Im&er$ona#'Face#e$$ an A&o#i!ica#. +

bureaucracy is supposed to be impersonal. his

basically means that a bureaucrat is expected

to be guided by objective (as against

subjective) considerations while following rules

and regulations in the course of implementing

various policy measures and directives. In

other words, a bureaucrat or a civil servant or a

government o$cial whatever name we choose

to call him by = is not supposed to be guided by

his personal whims and fancies, biases and

prejudices in the discharge of his o$cial duties.

+s regards the "faceless# aspect, you perhaps

are aware of the fact that any civilian

bureaucracy is subordinate to the political

executive. he political leadership is the face of


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the administration, while the bureaucracy

wor%s behind the scenes. It of course does not

always happen but that is how it has beenenvisaged.

Bureaucracy, strictly, is also supposed to be

apolitical. his basically implies that a

bureaucrat is not to have a political agenda of

his own but rather, faithfully implement the

policies of the government of the day. It also

has another and possibly more important

meaning and that is- a civil servants loyalty

and commitment should be to the constitution

of the land and not to any political party,

politician, etc.

HISTORY. Bureaucracy in some form or the

other has existed from times immemorial. In

ancient India when monarchy was the

predominant form of government, the various

categories of courtiers constituted the

bureaucracy. !odern bureaucracy in the sense

of a body of persons being recruited through an

open public competitive examination


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conducted by an independent, statutory body

is credited to >eople#s 2epublic of /hina (>2/).

In India, ?ord /ornwallis is credited withcreating the bureaucracy, as we %now it today.

he Indian /ivil ervice (I/) was the

culmination of steps initiated by him. his

service as well as branches of colonial

bureaucracy, to start with, had Indians only in

the lower echelons. hey were, in fact,

debarred from holding higher positions. @rom

the ACDs onwards, the doors to higher ran%s

were opened for Indians and many of them

made their mar%. :ne can cite names such as

that of Netaji ubhash /handra Bose, E.>..

!enon enior, . N. Eaul among others who

distinguished themselves in the I/. ome of

them, in fact, went onto play a crucial role in

post*independent India as well. It should,

however, be always remembered that the I/

was essentially a colonial creation designed to

serve colonial ends. hough the Indians in the

I/ were occasionally sympathetic to the


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"natives# (the Indian masses), by and large they

followed the line of their colonial masters. It

was for this reason that the nationalistleadership ghting for independence from

British rule was highly critical of the role played

by the "steel frame of the British 5mpire# = the

popular name of the I/ (also %nown as the

heaven born service). 8awaharlal Nehru, in

particular, was its staunch critic.

he colonial bureaucracy in India largely

performed what are called "maintenance#

functions, vi'., maintaining law and order,

collection of taxes1revenue, etc. he concept of

developmental administration was not much

heard of then. @undamentally, the bureaucracy

was a policing1tax collecting machinery and

very far removed from being a citi'en friendly

administration. he colonial bureaucracy was

time and again employed by the British to

crush the freedom movement. his was the

broad scenario at the time of India#s

independence.


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Inia($ Ine&enence an !he

B"rea"cracy.he situation obtaining as,regards the bureaucracy in the period leading

up to India#s independence has been described

above. +fter attaining freedom from the British

rule, the major issue at hand was the type of

civilian bureaucracy the newly independent

country should haveF vi'. what %ind of

structure, method of recruitment and other

related Guestions. here was also the pric%ly

and thorny issue of the fate of the Indian

o$cers in the erstwhile I/. hese matters

were resolved the following way- despite their

criticism of the I/, the post*independent

leadership decided to let those Indian o$cers

continue in the civilian bureaucracy constituted

after +ugust AC, AHJ who still had service

years left. owever, instead of being absorbed

in the newly created Indian +dministrative

ervice (I+) = the successor to the I/ = Guite

a few of these o$cers were directly drafted


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into the other newly created /entral

overnment service, vi'., the I@ (Indian

@oreign ervice) which was to implementIndia#s non*aligned foreign policy. @or instance,

E> !enon enior and .N. Eaul joined the

foreign service and went onto render

distinguished service. 2egarding recruitment,

as before it was to be through an open

competitive examination conducted by an

independent, autonomous statutory body. his

was to be the 9nion >ublic ervice /ommission

(9>/) headGuartered in 6elhi, the country#s

capital.

STATUTORY BODIES FOR RECRUITMENT

AND OTHER RE)ATED MATTERS

The Union P"*#ic Ser+ice Commi$$ion

,UPSC-.he 9nion >ublic ervice /ommission

or the 9>/ to use its popular abbreviated form

is an autonomous body created by the

/onstitution to recruit = personnel (o$cer and

other ran%s) for the various /entral

overnment services. hus, it conducts not


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only the annual civil services examination (for

the I+, I@, I> +llied ervices roup + and B)

but also other /entral overnment servicessuch as the Indian @orest ervice, the Indian

5conomic ervice and the Indian 5ngineering

ervice. In fact, the 9>/ conducts the

recruitment of not only the civilian

bureaucracy, but also of the defence services

of the country. hus, it conducts the

examinations for the National 6efence

+cademy (N6+) and the Indian !ilitary

+cademy (I!+). he 9>/ has been conducting

the various examinations since AHJ. It is, in

fact, not only responsible for recruitment, but

also acts as an advisory body regarding all

career matters of the recruited personnel.

S&ecia# Pro+i$ion$ for De&ri+e

Sec!ion$. It is important to note that as

regards recruitment to bureaucratic positions in

India, there is provision for reservation of a

certain percentage of posts for deprived

sections of society. hus, from the onset of


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independence, KK.CL of post have been

reserved for cheduled /astes (/s) and

cheduled ribes (s). In addition, since theimplementation of the !andal /ommission

recommendations, an additional KJL of posts

have been reserved for the :ther Bac%ward

/astes (:B/s). +lso, the various state

governments have their own state*wise Guotas

for government jobs. ome of the outhern

Indian tates = Earnata%a and amil Nadu for

instance = have always had very high Guotas

for which there have been historical and socio*

political reasons.

Con!ro+er$y o+er !he Po#icy of

Re$er+a!ion.he policy of reservation which

is based on the principle of a$rmative action

has been controversial from the beginning.

4hile it has always found favour with the

sections for whom it is meant, the others have

not been too well disposed towards it. 4hile

this section some how reconciled itself towards


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reservation for the cheduled /astes an

cheduled ribes, it found it di$cult to accept a

similar treatment to the :B/s after theannouncement of the !andal /ommission

recommendations. his is because it was felt

that the :B/s really do not have a history of

religion*sanctioned social oppression the way

/s and s and especially, the /s have.

here is merit in this argument, but as of today

the recommendations have come to stay and

the possibility of a change in the status Guo in

extremely remote, if not impossible. In fact,

since government jobs are increasingly being

reduced in the wa%e of globalisation, there has

been now tal% of reserving jobs in the

private1corporate sector for the marginalised

sections of society. his demand, though not

concretised as yet, has further widened the

split between those beneted by reservation

and those outside the reserved slot.

S!a!e P"*#ic Ser+ice Commi$$ion$

,SPSC$-. :ur point regarding the recruitment


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of the Indian Bureaucracy will not be complete

without a reference to the tate >ublic ervice

/ommissions. +s the very nomenclatureindicates, a state public service commission is

responsible for recruitment to government

service at the state level. In terms of

organisation and functioning, tate >ublic

ervice /ommissions correspond to the 9>/

at the central level. owever, in terms of

credibility, a wide gulf exists between the tate

>ublic ervice /ommissions and the 9>/. In

recent times, a lot of tate >ublic ervice

/ommissions have come under a cloud for

their partisan, biased and politicised

functioning. It, certainly, is a fact that the

members of tate >ublic ervice /ommissions

are, generally, political appointees and

therefore, susceptible to extraneous pressures.

+fter having examined aspects li%e

recruitment, etc., we can go to an overview of

the bureaucracy in India after independence up

to the era of globalisation. he


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postglobalisation era has been treated

separately for obvious reasons.

POSTINDEPENDENCE BUREAUCRACY

UPTO THE COMMENCEMENT OF

G)OBA)ISATION

Bureaucracy after independence set about

implementing the agenda of its political

masters (as it is supposed to do). @ollowing

achievement of Independence, the /ongress

headed by prime minister 8awaharlal Nehru

assumed the reigns of power. he /ongress

>arty was broadly committed to democratic

socialism, secularism and non*alignment (in its

foreign policy). he bureaucracy set about

implementing this. ince the country was a

fresh, newly independent nation free after

centuries of colonial rule, initially there was a

lot of enthusiasm amongst the political

leadership as well as the bureaucracy

regarding nation*building. Barring some blac%

sheep in their ran%s, the bureaucrats, by and


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large, exhibited high standards of professional

and personal conduct. :f course, even then as

now, they had "Burra ahib# attitude but rarelywere they accused of professional and personal

misconduct (unli%e now). hough

professionally, the desire to get ahead was

there, the desire for personal aggrandisement

was rare.

S!a!e A$$em*#y E#ec!ion$/ A

0a!er$he.he year AHMJ to be precise

mar%ed a watershed in Indian >olitics and

administration. his was the year in which the

/ongress >arty#s hegemonic hold over India#s

politics was bro%en. It lost power for the rst

time in several assembly elections to the non*

right anti* /ongress forces basically put

together by the late >rime !inister /haudhary

/haran ingh. his had a tremendous impact

on national politics and on the society. It was

recognised by the political class as well as the

common citi'enry that the all powerful

/ongress >arty which had spearheaded India#s


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ght against colonial rule could be defeated. It

was not possible earlier. he recognition of this

fact had far reaching implication for India#spolitics, society and administration. he impact

of AHMJ can be felt in the times that we are

passing through now.

he support base of the political forces that

had dealt a massive electoral and

psychological blow to the /ongress and which

was largely consolidated by /haran ingh

comprised, essentially, the :ther Bac%ward

/astes. hese forces got a lip after the AHMJ

elections. heir fairly impressive representation

in the bureaucracy today, an o&shoot of the

!andal /ommission 2ecommendations, can be

traced bac% to the watershed elections of

AHMJ. Indeed, the setting up of the !andal

/ommission itself which in the last decade has

a&ected India#s polity so decisively was a

recognition of the growing power of socio*

political forces unleashed in the wa%e of the

AHMJ 0idhan abha elections.


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Ch"rnin% 0i!hin !he Con%re$$ Par!y.here

was a great churning within the /ongress itself.

he then prime minister Indira andhi whoever since assuming power in AHMM had been

facing a tough time from the old guard (the

yndicate) within the /ongress found her

position further wea%ened. o reclaim her

position as well as that of her party, she then

undertoo% a series of steps that were to

overwhelmingly change India#s political

landscape as well as the world of civilian

bureaucracy. he /ongress >arty split in AHMH

with the yndicate getting marginalised. he

party#s o$cial nominee in the presidential

elections N. anjeeva 2eddy was defeated after

!rs. andhi herself put her weight behind 0.0.

iri. + series of populist radical measures

endearing Indira andhi to the Indian ?eft, such

as the nationalisation of ban%s and the

abolition of privy purses of the Indian princes

followed which helped !rs. andhi and her

party to become popular once again. ?ater on,


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in AHJA, her slogan of "aribi atao# and

victory in the Indo*>a% war helped the

/ongress under !rs. andhi to win the ?o%abha elections by a landslide margin. hus,

the wheel had come full circle. owever, the

intervening four years led to new ideas such as

the one of a committed bureaucracy emerging.

The Iea of a Commi!!e B"rea"cracy.he

idea most fundamentally, entailed that a

bureaucrat should be hundred percent

committed to the policies and programmes of

the political party in power. By extension, this

also implied full commitment to the individual

politicians holding power. + bureaucrat was not

to be guided by any other consideration. his

development was, essentially, a conseGuence

of the belief in the /ongress circles that the

electoral debacle the party had su&ered in

AHMJ was in no small measure due to the fact

that the civil bureaucracy had not faithfully

delivered on the party#s programmes, thus

alienating the voters from the party. 4hatever


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may be the merits of this argumentF the idea of

a committed bureaucracy gathered momentum

and eventually, became a part and parcel ofIndian public administration.

his had very far reaching and basically

negative conseGuences. :nce the idea gained

legitimacy, bureaucrats began currying favours

from their political masters. >lum postings were

o&ered to those who did the bidding of their

political bosses, while those who insisted on

following an independent line based on

professional opinion were punished.

>unishment too% the form of arbitrary

transfers, postings to insignicant departments

and in some cases, even suspension from

service. + system of rewards and punishments

got institutionalised in due course of time with

civil servants being rewarded and punished on

the basis of their loyalty and commitment to

politicians or parties and not on the basis of

their professional performance. +s indicated

above, over a period of time, the politician*


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bureaucrat nexus grew into a powerful force

immensely benetting both the parties, but

spelling a blow to the concept of developmentand citi'en friendly administration. his was, in

fact, the "politici'ation of the bureaucracy#

about which we hear so much laments now.

B"rea"cra! 1 Po#i!ician 1 B"$ine$$man

Ne2"$. + parallel = though not always =

development was the addition of the

businessman to the unholy combine of the

politician and the civil servant. In the

democratic socialist or the Nehruvian ocialist

to be more correct, framewor% of development

that India followed after independence,

government permission or license was reGuired

for every small and big thing necessary for

setting up a business. he discretionary power

rested with the bureaucrat who could grant the

license against favours granted by the

concerned businessman or alternatively,

withhold the permission on the concerned

party#s refusal to please the government


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o$cial. 0ery often, the bureaucrat and the

political boss to whom he reported shared in

the spoils, as the ultimate sanctioning authoritywas the politician. his was the genesis of the

notorious "?icence*>ermit*uota 2aj# which in

about KD*OD years from independence

completely derailed India#s socialist pattern of

development. he planning process, the mixed

economy, all got o& trac% because of the

immensely powerful and corrupt troi%a of the

o$cer*politician*businessman often

contemptuously described as the ;Babu*Neta*

Bania# syndrome.

he ine&ective and ine$cient mixed economy

brought about by the license*permit*Guota raj

coupled with the politicisation of the

bureaucracy remained the contexts of India#s

civilian bureaucracy till the onset of

globalisation. he globalisation era going bac%

to the AHHDs mar%ed another watershed in the

world of Indian bureaucracy, just as the AHMJ


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elections had done. It is to this that we turn our

attention now.

INDIAN BUREAUCRACY IN THE ERA OFG)OBA)ISATION.he era of globalisation

worldwide commenced about one and a half

decades bac%F sometime around the mid to the

late AHDs. 4hat is accepted, generally, as

globalisation today is actually the spread of the

process of liberalisation of the economy on a

global scale. By liberalisation of the economy is

meant freeing a national economy from

governmental control and letting it run as per

the mar%et forces. It is against this denitional

context that we have discussed the

bureaucracy in this section.

In India (as indeed in many other countries), it

was increasingly felt that the democratic

socialist model of development had failed to

deliver the goods. :f course, it is debatable

whether there was something intrinsically

wrong with the democratic socialist framewor%

or it had gone wrong as regards the


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implementation part. 4hatever may be the

truth, the fact was that liberalisation of the

economy entailing a slac%ening, if not totalelimination, of governmental regulation over

the economy gained currency. his process was

of course actively encouraged by the 9

in3uenced bodies such as the I!@

(International !onetary @und) and the 4orld

Ban%.

:nce liberalisation of the economy was

accepted, changes in the bureaucracy were

inevitable. In India (as elsewhere) in the last

more than ten years, there has been a

slac%ening of governmental rules and

regulations, which certainly has been a

welcome development. 4e may mention here

that in this unit, we are not debating the merits

and demerits of globalisation. In this unit, we

are only concerned with the impact of

globalisation on the bureaucracy and that too

in the Indian context.


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+s already mentioned, in the era of

globalisation or alternatively, 5conomic

2eforms, there has been a doing away of theplethora of government rules and to this

extent, the developmental process has been

speeded up. owever, it is still not clear if it

has brought down corruption arising from the

acts of commission and omission of the

Bureaucrat = >olitician*Businessman combine.

5ven as the process of economic reforms

conseGuent to liberalisation has been on, there

have been consistent reports of India

continuing to be amongst the most corrupt

countries of the world. his naturally raises

Guestions about the very rationale of

liberalising the economy. Be that as it may, the

process of liberalisation is currently very much

on in the country.

A!!i!"e of !he B"rea"cracy.ubseGuent to

the structural adjustment of the economy

conseGuent to liberalisation, there have been

perceptible shifts in the attitude of the


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bureaucracy. 4hen liberalisation rst

commenced, a lot of bureaucrats were openly

hostile to it as they obviously felt that in aregime of slac%ening governmental control, the

Guantum of power wielded by them as well as

their importance would come down. his has

indeed happened. he "redeeming# feature in

that over the years, some bureaucrats have

seen the writing on the wall, and become

"facilitators# rather than obstructers of

development. he Indian media in the last few

years has carried Guite a few lead stories on

the personal initiatives of the post*HDs

bureaucrats in the domain of citi'en friendly

administration. + lot of the comparatively

younger bureaucrats have grown up in the

new, liberalising India and are, therefore, more

amenable to the new ideas of development.

owever, in so far as corruption is concerned,

as we have already stated above, it is di$cult

to say whether it has gone down, up or

remained at the pre*economic reforms level.


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SOME CONTRO3ERSIES'PROB)EMS

ASSOCIATED 0ITH THE BUREAUCRACY.

he Indian Bureaucracy has had some

continuing problems1controversies associated

with it from the very beginning. It may be

mentioned that these problems are to be found

in bureaucracies worldwide.

Mini$!er 3er$"$ Ci+i# Ser+an!$.he inter*

relationship between the political (ministers)

and the permanent (government o$cials)

executive in India (as elsewhere) has been

complex, to say the least. o a great extent,

this is because of the inherent nature of the

relationship between the ministers and the civil

servants. In any form of government and more

so in a democracy, such as India#s, the civil

servants are subordinate to the ministers.

owever, this is not always the case. 4here

the minister is ignorant and incompetent, the

o$cers under him have a eld day doing

exactly as they please with the minister unable


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to do a thing. :n the other hand, when the

minister is powerful the o$cers are generally

too willing to do the minister#s biddingF often incontravention of all rules and regulations.

+lso, as we have already pointed out, ministers

and bureaucrats in India have often enjoyed a

highly mutually benecial relationship based

on a Guid pro Guo basisF i.e. a relationship

based on mutual exchange of favours. he net

result of all this has been a highly politici'ed

bureaucracy and this fact, has not changed

much even in the post*globalisation era.

Genera#i$!$ 3er$"$ S&ecia#i$!$.his again is

a controversy that has plagued the

bureaucracies the world over. 5ach country has

tried to nd its own solution to the problem. In

India, the genesis of the problem can be traced

bac% to the days of ?ord /ornwallis who is

credited with laying the foundation of the civil

services in India. he Britishers needed 5nglish

%nowing Indians and general awareness to man

the lower ran%s of the bureaucracy. No


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specialist %nowledge was reGuired. his set the

precedent for Indians from the pure stream of

+rts and umanities and later on ciences and/ommerce (though not to the same extent)

ma%ing it to the civil services. >rofessionals

and pecialists (medicos, engineers, etc.) very

rarely thought of a career in the bureaucracy.

owever, this has changed over the years. +s

governance has become more complex, need

has been felt of "candidates with a more

specialised bac%ground. his is because civil

servants with a generalist bac%ground have

increasingly been found uneGual to the tas%.

he recruiting bodies such as the 9>/ have

also been encouraging aspirants with a

specialist bac%ground, vi'., medicos, engineers,

lawyers, chartered accountants, etc.

he controversy is mainly centred on the fact

that one school of opinion holds that a person

with a general bac%ground (especially in

umanities1ocial ciences) is better suited for

the tas% of civil administration as s1he can ta%e


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an overall, macro view of the tas%s and the

issues at hand. he other school, however,

holds that in the present globalised era with alot of emphasis on I.. (information technology)

and on issues of economic and commercial

signicance, a speciali'ed bac%ground is more

conducive to e&ective and productive

administration. he solution perhaps lies in

e&ecting a grand mix of the two approaches

and in India, this has been attempted. @or

instance, the department of science and

technology has often been headed by

professional scientists rather than career

bureaucrats, even though one has to mention

that the bureaucrats have resented this.

Unerre&re$en!a!ion of !he

Minori!ie$.he minorities, especially, the

!uslims*India#s largest minority = have often

complained of their poor representation in the

country#s premier civil services such as the I+

and the I>. owever, there is no hard core

evidence to support that this has been


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deliberately the case. >oor levels of education

and motivation have been a major cause.

olutions such as a separate Guota for theminorities have been suggested, but it reGuires

a consensus amongst the political class.

bureaucracy in india

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