23 A detour to a side theme: English colonial administration

The mentioned item is a practical item that is currently practised in India. In government offices, members of the public are deliberately made to mingle and mix and deal and make ‘humble’ request to the government peons and clerks. The problem here is that the government peons and clerks are lowly in the official hierarchy. There are many verbal barriers kept in position to demark their lowliness, when they have to interact with their superior ‘officers’.

This was an item that was not allowed in the British-India. British-India was actually not the whole of the subcontinent. What is generally understood as British-India actually consisted to two entirely different administrative systems.

One was the English administered areas, which was the actual British-India. In this location, the officer classes, both the native-British as well as the natives of the location, were good in English. The administration was conducted in English. The members of the public were to deal directly with the officers in the office. The officers would give the public requests to the concerned clerks. The clerks will process them and give them back to the officers. The officers would give the processed files back to the person who submitted the request on the specified date. If any clerk was absent, the officer himself will the finish the file and give it back on the mentioned date.

The other administrative system was in the various kingdoms. Even though they all recreated their administrative systems in direct imitation of the English administrative systems in British-India, the administration was in the native feudal languages. The members of the public had to meet and cajole the various clerks and peons. The clerks and peons had to be extended due ‘respect’ and homage in the form of bribes and other articles as their due rights. This processing by the lowly persons would degrade not only that specific person, but all members of the public. In their innate codes, they would end up with a numerical value that proclaims that they are subordinate to the government peons and clerks.

There is much to be mentioned with regard to this. However, I cannot take it up here, as the conversation would move to another location. Yet, I must mention that as of now, the whole of India as well Pakistan and Bangladesh has this latter kind of public administration. The other higher stature-to–the-citizen administration has totally vanished.