Greek, Latin and the Indian Civil Service

Abstract

The whole question of the future of the East is full of interest, and is, perhaps, the greatest political question in the world.(Benjamin Jowett)… a corps of men specially selected, brought up in a rigour of bodily hardship to which no other modern people have subjected their ruling class, trained by cold baths, cricket, and the history of Greece and Rome …(Philip Mason)In his essay ‘Comparativism and references to Rome in British imperial attitudes to India’, Javed Majeed shows how Greek and Latin figured prominently in the examinations for the Indian Civil Service, the prestigious administrative body that David Lloyd George called ‘the steel frame’. Greek and Latin were not just used to attract and shape a class of ruling ‘gentlemen’, but were also part of a complex structure of attitude and practice designed ‘to preserve the ICS as a monopoly of European officers’. Majeed's insightful essay sheds light on the role of ICS examinations and on the function of Classics in colonial contexts, although it is mainly about comparative approaches to the British and Roman empires.

Efficiency and counter-revolution: connecting university and civil service reform in the 1850s

“…men should undergo a thorough training in classical studies at the English universities before departing for India. 43 It might well be argued that the responsibilities entrusted to an Indian civil servant were much greater than those with which a clerk in the home service was invested.…”

Greek Love, Orientalism and Race: Intersections in Classical Reception

“…132 and 134 for more on Jowett's support of Sorabji. See also Vasunia (2005). 13 For statistics of colonial and foreign students, see Deslandes (1998) 59.…”

“… 4 See Vasunia (2005) for a fascinating account of the relationship between a Victorian Classical education and the Indian civil service. Interestingly, Edmund Richardson (2007) has recently shown that Jowett's patronage was not always so advantageous for obtaining an imperial post. …”

Tirocinium Imperii: Public School Education in the Victorian Era, the Classical Curriculum, and the British Imperial Ethos

“…In short, this was a system of patronage, and it remained in the hands of about fifty or sixty interconnected and commercial families and landed groups in Scotland and the south-east of England. 171 Although students had to complete further studies in such subjects as political economy and Indian languages, they were still only considered for the Indian Civil Service on the basis of an initial nomination. 172 Tensions among efforts at good government, challenges to traditional systems of patronage, and the persistent need for more and able men to govern the empire eventually sparked controversy over the means of recruitment to the Indian Civil Service.…”