Indian Civil Service ICS : In 1805 the E.I. Co. established East India College at Haileybury, London, to train nominees chosen by the Company’s directors to serve in the Company’s Indian territories. They spent two years at this college in order to continue & strengthen their general education & to learn jurisprudence, political economy & one of the Oriental languages; the test was not severe & was easily passed. The E.I. Co.’s commercial monopoly was broken in 1833 & from 1834 it was merely an agency of the Parliament. The Act of 1833 pledged that “no native of India…shall, by reason only of his religion, place of birth, descent, colour, or any of them, be disabled from holding any place, office or employment”; but E.L. Ellenborough (1790-1871), Lord Chief Justice of England, admitted when Gov.-Gen. (1842-44): “Our very existence depended upon the exclusion of the Indians from military & political power.” This admission, notes Buckland’s D.I.B., “Being disrespectful & out of control, Ellenborough was recalled by the Company’s Court of Directors in June 1844”. In 1855, the College at Haileybury was abolished after Parliament introduced Competitive Examination for recruitment to its Indian Civil Service. The Queen’s Proclamation of 1858 pledged: “…it is our further will that, so far as may be, our subjects, of whatever Race or creed be freely & impartially, to offices in our service, the duties of which they may be qualified, by their education, ability, & integrity, duly to discharge.” As blatantly false a pledge as that of the Act of 1833, as admitted by E.R.B.B. Lytton (1831-91), Viceroy-cum-Gov.-Gen. (1876-80) in 1878: “No sooner was the Act of 1833 passed, than [we] began to devise means for practically evading the fulfilment of it. [Since] every Indian, once admitted to Govt. employment…is entitled to expect & claim appointment in the fair of course of promotion to the highest posts in that service…claims & expectations [that] never can or will be fulfilled. [So] we have chosen the least straightforward course. The application to Indians of the competitive examination system as conducted in England, & the recent reduction in the age at which candidates can compete, are…deliberate & transparent subterfuges.” (See India Office above) The ICS officer or Civilian appointed by The Civil Service Commission (CSC) in London after 1858, began service as District Officer with an army of native staff, the ICS officer or Civilian appointed by was at once Collector of Revenue, Registrar of lands, Judge between landlord & tenant, Ministerial officer of Courts of Justice, Treasurer & Accountant, Administrator of District Excise, President of Local Rates Committee, Referee for all compensations, Govt. Agent in all suits it was a party to, Referee in public works, Manager of estates of minors, Civil & Police Magistrate, Criminal Judge, Head of Police, & President of Municipalities. A Govt. Commission in 1886 reported that most Civilians could not speak the local vernacular (Latin vernae = slaves) tongue, knew little & cared less about the custom, way of life, & habits of his charges. Karandikar: “Right from the start when a high-ranking world-power like England started shaping its own destiny in India, India lost her age-old detachment & isolation, & began to assume international importance…subservient…to British interests…. England’s success in 1875 in securing virtual mastery over the Suez Canal (opened in 1869), brought the far-flung British empire appreciably closer to the heart of the empire. The added confidence in the security of the empire suggested the addition of ‘Empress of India’ to the long list of Royal titles. This confidence, percolating from higher levels to the lower, degenerated in India as in other possessions (colonies) into arrogance & haughtiness. English youths coming to India as servants of the Crown, ceased to have anything in common with the generation of Elphinstone & Munroe. Imperialism, in all its unsavoury implications, came to be their watchword.” [Karandikar: 12, 16] ― The Regulations regarding the appointments to the ICS were framed by the Secretary of State ‘assisted’ by the Civil Service Commission in London. The CSC selected candidates through yearly open competitive exams (begun in 1855) held in London & its Board of ICS Studies tutored & tested them. It began by restricting an Indian Civilian’s salary to one-fifth that of a European. Then, in 1860, the age-limit for this exam was lowered from 23 to 22 & one-year probation in England, a costly affair was added. In 1866, the age was lowered to 21 & probation in England increased to two-years. In 1876 the age was 19. When Sri Aurobindo & four other Indians sat for the ICS entrance exam Regulations for the Open Competition of June 1890 set only four provisos: “British citizen; above 17 & below 19 years old; physically fit; good moral character”. Selection was “on the ground of superior proficiency in subjects within the ordinary range of English education”; none of the 17 subjects the examinee could opt for was binding; selection would be solely on total marks scored. Of the 45 selected, Sri Aurobindo & five others were under 18, rest under 19; two of them took only 6 papers, Wood & the one ranked 1st took 7, only Sri Aurobindo & the one ranked 2nd took 10 papers. The Board of ICS Studies held three examinations: Easter & Christmas in 1891 & July 1892. In the Final Exam, only two kept the same rank; Sri Aurobindo dropped 11th to 37th, Wood 22nd to 32nd, & Madgāvkar (q.v.) from 42nd to 18th; while Mahimohan in whose father Manmohan Ghose’s house Sri Aurobindo was born, rose from 45th to 16th & Yusuf from 43rd to 7th solely on Arabic, Littlewood who rose from 19th to 2nd place in the Final Exam died when coming out to India in the S.S. Roumania which capsized in October 1892 with no survivors (see Ghose, K.D.). Though Sri Aurobindo passed the Final Exam in July 1892, on the false charge that he failed the Riding Test & did not send his University Certificate to the Board, Secretary of State Kimberley rejected him. And yet, Sri Aurobindo averred in his “New Lamps for Old” in 1893-94: “with all its vices & shortcomings, one does find, as perhaps one does not find elsewhere, rare & exalted souls detached from the failings of their order, who exhibit the qualities of the race in a very striking way; not geniuses certainly, but swift & robust personalities, rhetorically powerful, direct, forcible, endowed to a surprising extent with the energy & self-confidence which are the heirlooms of their nation; men in short who give us England – & by England I mean the whole Anglo-Celtic race – on her really high & admirable side. Many of these are Irish or Caledonian; others are English gentlemen of good blood & position, trained at the great public schools, who still preserve that fine flavour of character, scholarship & power, which was once a common possession in England, but threatens under the present dispensation to become sparse or extinct. Others again are veterans of the old Anglo-Indian school, moulded in the larger traditions & sounder discipline of a strong & successful art who still keep some vestiges of the grand old Company days, still have something of a great & noble spirit, something of an adequate sense how high are the affairs they have to deal with & how serious the position they are privileged to hold.”
... of Hindustani were spoken. He had great ambitions for his sons and sent, in 1879, the three eldest to Great Britain. There Aravinda should study to prepare his entrance examination to the Indian Civil Service (ICS), the highest and highly valued position an Indian could attain under the colonial regime. At first the three brothers stayed with the family of a Congregational minister at Manchester, the... there for the rest of his life, both as a generally recognized master of the English language and as a man possessing a broad general knowledge. But Aravinda did no longer want to join the Indian Civil Service. Influenced by his father, who sent him examples of colonial misrule from the press, he began to look at the British presence in India with new eyes and joined nationalist associations of Indian... dreary paper work of the ICS administration. He was summoned three times for the horse-riding test and three times he failed to show up. He was disqualified and thereby eliminated as an ICS probationer. As luck would have it, the Maharajah of Baroda, on one of his many visits to Europe, happened to be in London. He was delighted that he could hire a trained Cambridge and ICS man, higher qualified than ...
... atheist’ and a fervent admirer of all things British. It was his ambition that his children would become the best of the best, ‘beacons to the world’. Only one career would do for them, the Indian Civil Service (ICS), that exemplary body of colonial civil servants, accessible to Indians too on condition of their passing an entrance examination. This was only practicable for those who had been studying... motherland. As later told by him, he felt the urge to work for the freedom of India already at that time. Aurobindo passed the entrance examination for the ICS brilliantly, his marks for Latin and Greek being the highest ever. To become a member of the ICS he now had to study for two years at a university. This was a well-nigh insurmountable problem, for his father could no longer send any money and Aurobindo... membership of the cricket club at Baroda 91 — and at the first riding test for the ICS he had fallen from the horse. Nevertheless, he was called three more times to prove he was an able horseman, but he preferred to roam about in the streets of London instead. Those who knew him thought his eventual rejection of the ICS a scandalous waste. But the Maharajah of Baroda, Sayaji Gaekwad, was in luck; he ...
... British civilian officer, came to be known as 'Ashe Murder Case'. It occupies a place of honor in the history of the Indian Freedom Movement. Robert W. D. E. Ashe, a member of the Indian Civil Service (ICS, also known as the 'Steel Frame' of the British Indian Government) and a tradition-bound Britisher was then the sub-collector at the small sea port town of Tuticorin (now Thoothukudi) on the... In the ordinary course this case would have been tried by the District and Sessions Judge at Tinnevelly. But in view of its political importance and the murder victim being a Britisher and an ICS Officer at that, the case was sent up to the High Court at Madras. Here a Full Bench of three judges consisting of Sir Arnold White, then Chief Justice of Madras, Mr. Justice Ayling and Mr. Justice C... revered members of the Pondicherry band who advocated and justified violence and sabotage as the rightful tools to achieve their goals. He was equally drawn to VOC who suffered immensely, a victim of the ICS despot Ashe. His drastic and Draconian measures and over-aggressive methods to put down VOC kindled bitterness, rage and hostility against him in the hearts of these spirited men. This spark soon grew ...
... letters on his life, his experience and his yoga. × Sri Aurobindo was not admitted to the Indian Civil Service because he refused to appear at the riding test which terminated the examination. × Mother... father was and so forth—pah! I don't like that sort of thing. Page 222 Yes, it's a grab-bag of odds and ends—very important letters are mixed in with all sorts of pointlessness. Take the ICS. examination, for instance—they seem to be pleading Sri Aurobindo's case! It's ridiculous. 2 Yes, I wasn't looking after anything when that was published [in 1953]. It has given me something ...
... of the Government were he allowed to join the ICS. Little did they realise that, by his other activities later, he would cause the Government far greater injury. So you see that the truth behind his rejecting the ICS was his love for the motherland. But let us remember that it was not a small matter to have thrown away a glittering prize like the ICS at his age, for he was not even twenty-one at... Sri Aurobindo had to study other subjects for his ICS probationership. These included Law and Jurisprudence, Political Economy, Indian History and some Sanskrit. He had also to show a knowledge of his mother tongue, Bengali (which he did not know at all), and learn a little Hindustani because Dr. K.D. Ghose, delighted at his son's success in the ICS examination, had arranged with the help of Sir Henry... his Life of Sri Aurobindo, has also given us an enjoyable anecdote which goes back to these days. When Sri Aurobindo started learning Bengali for his ICS probationership, his teacher at Cambridge was a certain Mr. Towers, a retired member of the ICS. He was called 'Pandit Towers' perhaps because his knowledge of Bengali did not go beyond Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. Once Sri Aurobindo took a passage ...
... part in determining the authorities to exclude him for the Indian Civil Service; the failure in the riding test was only the occasion, for in some other cases an opportunity was given for remedying this defect in India itself." Page 217 Thus both Sri Aurobindo and Chittaranjan Das were 'excluded' from the Indian Civil Service, as was S. N. Bannerjee, by the British Government —exclusions... was elected and became a Member of Parliament, but in the process "I headed the list of the unsuccessful," as C. R. Das averred. Chittaranjan Das had gone to London in 1890 to study for the Indian Civil Service, and was turned down as a result of his protest. A. A. Ghose followed closely all public questions and Page 216 began to keep a finger on the pulse of politics. It was... n of 1890, was No. 23 in the First Periodical Examination, No. 19 in the Second Periodical and No. 37 in the final last August." That quite shows A. A. Ghose's flagging interest in the Indian Civil Service. "I appeared for the I.C.S.," replied Sri Aurobindo to a Gujarati doctor-disciple, Dr. Manilal, in December 1938, "because my father wanted it and I was too young to understand. Later I ...
... archangels, is known as Michaelmas and falls on 29 September. Oxford, Cambridge and other universities in England have a Michaelmas term. Dr. K. D. Ghose wanted his son to go in for the Indian Civil Service. So, while waiting to go up to Cambridge, Ara joined the I.C.S. Class organized by St. Paul's School —which had no official recognition from the I.C.S. — for a group of senior boys who were... 'good.' This was the period when the adolescent was living in the difficult conditions of the Kensington Club. Thus Sri Aurobindo became, at one and the same time, a probationer for the Indian Civil Service and a Scholar at Cambridge. He was doing his 'duty' as a son. Page 187 During the two years, from October 1890 to October 1892, when A. A. Ghose was at King's, his quarters ...
... At any rate the brothers could no longer afford their old apartment at St. Stephen's Avenue. Sir Henry Cotton 2 was 1.Members of the Indian Civil Service (I.C.S.). 2.Cotton, Sir Henry John Stedman (1845-1915): entered the Indian Civil Service in 1867, rose to be the Chief Secretary in Bengal in 1891, the Home Secretary to the Government of India in 1896 and the Chief Commisioner of Assam ...
... Paul's, Sri Aurobindo prepared to sit for the ICS entrance examination which was held annually in London. After a good deal of pressure, the authorities had agreed to allow Indians of the required age and qualifications to take the examination, but they had to sit in open competition with the British candidates and succeed in a very stiff examination. The ICS career, with its immense prestige, power and... scoring record marks in Latin and Greek. In our talks with Sri Aurobindo in later years one of us made the comment that the ICS examination was regarded as an unusually difficult one to pass, but Sri Aurobindo merely said, did not find it so.' As a probationer in the ICS Sri Aurobindo was now entitled to a stipend of £150 a year. The period of probation was for two years which he could spend at... April 1889. Then he had the good fortune to find a landlady who was, in his own words, 'an angel', for she did not ask for her dues for months together. Afterwards he settled all the arrears from his ICS stipend. Amidst these trials, Sri Aurobindo continued with his extensive studies. Now and then the poet in him would seek expression and he would work on a poem in Greek, Latin or English. Sri Aurobindo's ...
... time secretary of the Indian Majlis at Cambridge he delivered many revolutionary speeches which, as he afterwards learnt, had their part in determining the authorities to exclude him from the Indian Civil Service; the failure in the riding test was only the occasion, for in some other cases an opportunity was given for remedying this defect in India itself. [Aurobindo's writing a poem on Parnell ...
... Right Hon the Earl of Kimberley Secretary of State for India. 6 Burlington Rd Bayswater W Monday. Nov. 21. 1892 May it please your Lordship I was selected as a probationer for the Indian Civil Service in 1890, and after the two years probation required have been rejected on the ground that I failed to attend the Examination in Riding. I humbly petition your Lordship that a farther con ...
... Act (1858) was passed; this act abolished the East India Company and vested all power with Queen Victoria. From that time onwards, it was the British Government that governed India through the Indian Civil Service. However, the British were not the first Western power to come to India. They had to contend with the Portuguese and the French. The arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th century marked... natural and inevitable product of forces already at work in the country; it would have emerged soon enough, Hume or no Hume." Hume, who was the son of a radical politician, entered the Indian Civil Service in Bengal in 1849. After serving as magistrate in the district of Etawah at the time of the Indian Mutiny of 1857, he was assigned to the board of revenue in the North-Western Provinces. From ...
... ever saw a young man of high character and modest bearing, who was liked by all who knew him. He was, of course, also a student of Sanskrit, and having passed his Entrance Examination for the Indian Civil Service, as well as for Part I of the Classical Tripos. In the latter he secured a First Class at the end of his second year, a highly creditable success." It was no mean achievement, we ought... Let us not forget that given his pecuniary circumstances, A. A. Ghose could not afford to engage a tutor. Let us not forget either that he was at the same time a probationary candidate for the Indian Civil Service. He had therefore not only to fulfil the obligations of the Classical Scholarship —which he did surpassingly well — but also to study all the subjects which a future administrator of India had ...
... Class. August Passes the Indian Civil Service final examination. October Leaves Cambridge. Takes lodgings at 6, Burlington Road, London. In London, takes part in the formation of a secret society called the "Lotus and Dagger". Has first "pre-yogic" experience, the mental experience of the Atman. November Disqualified for the Indian Civil Service due to his failure to take the... returning from Hastings takes lodgings at 128, Cromwell Road, London. 1889 December Passes Matriculation from St. Paul's. 1890 July Admitted as a probationer to the Indian Civil Service. October 11 Admitted on a scholarship to King's College, Cambridge. While at Cambridge, joins the Indian Majlis, a student group; makes speeches advocating Indian freedom. ...
... and inevitable product of forces already at work in the country; it would have emerged soon enough, Hume or no Hume.' Allan Octavian Hume, who was the son of a radical politician, entered the Indian civil service in Bengal in 1849. After serving as magistrate in the district of Etawah at the time of the Indian Mutiny of 1857, he was assigned to the board of revenue in the North-Western Provinces. From... administrative and military expenditure between India and England. Dadabhai's efforts were rewarded in 1866 when the Secretary of State for India agreed to appoint 9 Indians out of 60 to the Indian Civil Service (I.C.S.) by nomination. As the years passed, Dadabhai grew more and more disillusioned with the 'fair-minded' British. After spending years collecting statistics, Dadabhai propounded... including widow remarriage and the raising of the age of marriage of girls. Born on 19 November 1848, Surendranath Banerjea had his early education in Calcutta. He appeared for the Indian Civil Service Examination in London and started his career in 1871 as an Assistant Magistrate. He was dismissed from the service on a flimsy charge. He went back to England and prepared himself for his future ...
... August Passes the Indian Civil Service final examination. October Leaves Cambridge. Takes lodgings at 6, Burlington Road, London. In London, takes part in the formation of a secret society called the "Lotus and Dagger". Has first "pre-yogic" experience, the mental experience of the Atman. November Disqualified for the Indian Civil Service due to his failure to take... After returning from Hastings takes lodgings at 128, Cromwell Road, London. 1889 — December Passes matriculation from St. Paul's. 1890—July Admitted as a probationer to the Indian Civil Service. October 11 Admitted on a scholarship to King's College, Cambridge. While at Cambridge, joins the Indian Majlis, a student group; makes speeches advocating Indian freedom. ...
... in [1884] 1 and in 1890 went from it with a senior classical scholarship to King's College, Cambridge, where he studied for two years. In 1890 he passed also the open competition for the Indian Civil Service, but at the end of two years of probation failed to present himself at the riding examination and was disqualified for the Service. At this time the Gaekwar of Baroda was in London. Aurobindo... sufficiently to read Goethe and Dante in the original tongues. (He passed the Tripos in Cambridge in the first division and obtained record marks in Greek and Latin in the examination for the Indian Civil Service.) [ Sri Aurobindo's note; see pages 12-13 . ] × This "Life Sketch" was written in 1930 and ...
... He was a brilliant scholar Page 12 in Greek and Latin, | passed the Tripos in Cambridge in the first division, obtained record marks in Greek and Latin in the examination for the Indian Civil Service |. He had learned French from his childhood in Manchester and studied for himself Italian and German sufficiently to read Dante and Goethe in the original tongue." 2 I have left the detail ...
... Cambridge, and as a member and for some time secretary of the Indian Majlis at Cambridge he delivered many revolutionary speeches." Dr. Ghosh wished that Sri Aurobindo should go in for the Indian Civil Service. In deference to his father's wish, Sri Aurobindo got admitted as a candidate for the I.C.S. even while he was at St. Paul's. He took up the Classics and some Page 9 other... chance for passing in the riding test was, of course, the fact that his revolutionary speeches at the Indian Majlis "had their part in determining the authorities to exclude him from the Indian Civil Service...." "Among the Indians in London he and his brothers formed a part of a small revolutionary group who rebelled habitually against the leadership of Dadabhai Naoroji and his moderate... society was stillborn and its members dispersed without meeting Page 10 again...." 6 Sri Aurobindo, however, kept to his vow. To renounce the rosy prospects of the Indian Civil Service must have been considered an uncommon sacrifice by many, but to Sri Aurobindo it was a great relief, even though he was hard put to it to make both ends meet. He now began looking for a job ...
... V. P. Menon who hailed from the erstwhile princely state of Cochin, now in Kerala, was the son of a school headmaster in Kerala. Menon began as a clerk in the Indian Civil Service, but was never a member of the Indian Civil Service. Working assiduously hard, Menon rose through the ranks to become the highest serving Indian officer in British India. In 1946, he was appointed Political Reforms ...
... answer? His answer is that Srijut Aurobindo Ghose Page 666 is a coward and had not courage to ride a horse and that he would never have been a patriot if he had not failed in the Indian Civil Service. Even if that be true,—and we can hardly blame the Principal of the Metropolitan College for judging others by his own standard of courage and patriotism—we do not see how it helps his case ...
... August 15, 1872. At the age of seven, he was taken with his two elder brothers to England for education, and he lived there for fourteen years. In 1890 he passed the open competition for the Indian Civil Service, but as he had no intention of accepting service under the Government, he failed to appear at the riding examination and was disqualified. At this time the Gaekwar of Baroda was in London. Aurobindo ...
... such an occurrence is almost a regular feature at each decisive turn of the upward spiral of his life. We see the rising curve suddenly moving downwards when he threw away a glittering career in the ICS and retired into an unpretentious State job in Baroda. Having risen high in the Baroda Service and acted as the Principal of the Baroda College, he gave up that affluent position of security and prestige ...
... high). He passed his ICS (unlike Aurobindo Ghose who chose to fail). But even when in England (1896-1899) Charu had already a foot in the revolutionary movement. He and a group of young men had pledged themselves to work for the freedom of their country and had, for this end, contacted some Irish revolutionaries. He continued such revolutionary activities even after joining the ICS. He was also implicated... even as a teacher in our school was a legendary figure. Later when I learned more about him, the legend only grew. There are we may say two legends — one as C. C. Dutt, Charu Dutt of the old cadre of ICS of the Raj, and the other as Dadoo of the Ashram after he settled here in 1940. I will take up the latter legend first. He taught History to us youngsters in our old school. His teaching methods ...
... of a friend we have made in the Club." During his last year of study at St. Paul's, Aurobindo was a member of the "I. C .S. Class". This was a group of senior boys who were working for the Indian Civil Service examination. He passed the I. C .S. test, obtaining eleventh place and securing very high marks in classics. It may be noted that Benoybhushan also took the test but did not pass. Towards... time its secretary. He advocated the cause of Indian freedom in the "Majlis" in very strong language, and it is very likely that reports of his revolutionary speeches might have reached the Indian Civil Service Commissioners at Whitehall, and might have had something to do with their final decision to reject him from the I. C .S. A photograph of the room which Aurobindo occupied as a scholar at... secretary of the Indian Majlis at Cambridge he delivered many revolutionary speeches which, as he afterwards learnt, had their part in determining the authorities to exclude him from the Indian Civil Service; the failure in the riding test was only the occasion, for in some other cases an opportunity was given for remedying this defect in India itself."¹ That the decision to liberate ...
... protection of any rules and regulations, and so the police did with us just as they pleased. A dish and a cup were all the utensils that were allowed to each of us. This cup was like a member of the Indian Civil Service, intended to serve any and every purpose. It was meant for use in the water-closet, in the bath, and at meals, on which last occasion it was to serve a dual function, being used for holding ...
... was the eldest son in a cultured Punjabi family. His original name was Yudhishthira, his remaining four brothers got names of the other four Pandavas—Arjun, Bhima, Nakul and Sahadeo. Nakul became an ICS officer and occupied a high post in the Government of India. The family status and contacts in high Government circles came handy to Indra Sen's daughter and her associates in the quarrel of the Auroville ...
... education and had almost no contact with Indian culture. While studying at Cambridge in his last two years in England, however, he began to learn Bengali and Sanskrit as a candidate for the Indian Civil Service. After his return to India, he continued his study of these languages on his own until he could not only read, but write in them. In the present volume, his writings in Bengali and those in ...
... of high treason. ‘The Alipore Bomb Trial, as it became known, was “the first state trial of any magnitude in India.”’ 11 The judge was C.E. Beachcroft, ICS, a classmate of Aurobindo’s at Cambridge. (In the entrance examination of their ICS class Beachcroft had come second to Aurobindo in Greek; ironically, in the final examination, Beachcroft had done better than Aurobindo in Bengali.) After ...
... Commissioner even, the highest position that an Indian could achieve. So he had to appear at an examination for that purpose, it was called – those glittering letters to Indian eyes: I.C.S. (Indian Civil Service). Now here was the very first deliberate choice of his own, the first radical turn he took – to cut himself away from the normally developing past. He turned away from that line of growth and ...
... present object in addressing you is to endeavour to arouse your good will on behalf of Mr. A. A. Ghose, who has been rejected by the Civil Service Commissioners as a probationary candidate for the Indian Civil Service. I went this morning to the office of the Commission, where I was confidentially informed of the circumstances of the case (which did not materially differ from the story he had already told ...
... shifted to various departments until towards the end of 1895 he joined the Dewan's office or the Secretariat where he remained for the next few years. It seemed to be the same kind of work as in the ICS — files, office-work, touring etc. —then why Baroda? In explaining this Sri Aurobindo told us: 'True, but with a difference. Baroda was a native State under a native ruler. You did not have to be all... and studying the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Upanishads, Gita, Kalidasa's plays and other Sanskrit works. He learnt the language all by himself — no doubt the start he had made in England for his ICS studies as well as his proficiency in Greek and Latin were a help in acquiring another classical language, but so great a mastery did he gain over Sanskrit that he was later able to make a deep study... studies. Moreover, Sri Aurobindo had now the opportunity of giving expression to his creative talents. His official duties were not onerous and he could hardly have had the same scope if he had joined the ICS. He once observed quizzically: 'I wonder what would have happened to me if I had joined the Civil Service. I think they would have chucked me for insubordination and arrears of work.' The amount of ...
... took place you can see how careful and controlled Sri Aurobindo was in replying to questions and to the provocations to which he was subjected. He knew enough about law, which he had studied for his ICS examinations, not to be trapped. Despite pressure, he refused to make any statements and stood on his rights. From the beginning the Government were bent on harassing Sri Aurobindo as much as they could... do is to give you a few of its main features and highlights. It is a remarkable coincidence that the case should have come up for hearing in the court of Judge Beachcroft. He was a member of the ICS and had passed his preliminary examination in the same year as Sri Aurobindo, 1890. Sri Aurobindo had then secured a higher position than he in the examination. Thereafter both were scholars at Cambridge... Cambridge — Sri Aurobindo at King's College and Beachcroft at Clare College. Their paths must have met many times, particularly when they were taking the intermediate and final examinations for the ICS. Certainly they knew each other but they were not close friends; otherwise, Beachcroft might well have declined to try the case. But the fact that he knew Sri Aurobindo and was fully familiar with his background ...
... through the Indian Civil Service. This was an exclusive cadre of service with immense prestige and authority. Recruitment was made through an open examination held once a year in London. In theory, Indians could become members of this service but the rules were so framed that until 1870 only sixteen Indians had ever attempted the examination and only one had been able to get into the ICS. So you can ...
... in armed rebellion against the colonial overlords. Subhash Chandra Bose, a Bengali, was born in 1897; he followed an education similar to that of Sri Aurobindo, also renounced joining the Indian Civil Service, and became one of the top men of the Indian National Congress. When he could not see eye to eye with Mohandas K Gandhi, he founded his own Forward Block. In his resistance against the British ...
... was recognised for his mastery of the English language. Also, Cambridge made him into a classical scholar. Yet he did not become what his father wanted him to be: a member of the prestigious Indian Civil Service (I.C.S.), five thousand of whom ruled over three hundred million Indians. Having gradually turned into an opponent of the British colonial regime, Aravinda deliberately failed the horse-riding ...
... foundation was taken, among others, by a retired English Civilian, Allan Octovian Hume whom, on his death, the Congress designated as its 'father and founder.' A.O. Hume (1829-1912) entered the Indian Civil Service in Bengal in 1849 and retired in 1882. Hume had a motive for organizing the Congress. His scheme was "to save the Indian youths from the influence of Spiritual teachers" who had been secretly ...
... Club. 25 During his last two years at St. Paul's, besides successfully competing for a Senior Classical Scholarship of £80 per year, Sri Aurobindo also registered as a candidate for the Indian Civil Service examination, relying mainly on his proficiency in the classics. He couldn't afford — and he didn't need — any coach, but he Page 32 passed the examination in July 1890, securing... the "Lotus and Dagger", and even of his revolutionary bent of mind. As Sri Aurobindo recorded later, these must have had their part "in determining the authorities to exclude him from the Indian Civil Service; the failure in the riding test was only the occasion, for in some other cases an opportunity was given for remedying this defect in India itself'. 41 Sri Aurobindo had left Cambridge ...
... Queen Victoria, Empress of India. With a relatively small army, mainly consisting of Indian sepoys commanded by British officers, and a still smaller but greatly capable administration, the Indian Civil Service, they ran the huge subcontinent. They were directly in charge of the patchwork of British territories and indirectly, through their Regents, of the hundreds of tiny to quite large kingdoms ruled... something, but to be beacons to the world. To give them a chance of achieving that aim, he had to provide them with a Western education. The summit that could be reached in Indian society was the Indian Civil Service (I.C.S.), the corps of about five thousand well-trained, well-paid and highly respected functionaries running India. The I.C.S. was accessible to ‘natives’ too, but only with considerable difficulty... took on a double load of work, on the one hand the study of the normal school curriculum, on the other the preparations for the examination that might launch him on a successful career in the Indian Civil Service. Speaking in July 1890, Headmaster Walker was full of praise for the almost eighteen-year-old Aravinda A. Ghose. He is reported to have said that of all the boys who had passed through his hands ...
... and clearer intimation of his destined part in coming great world movements. 1890 With a scholarship from St. Paul's, left for Cambridge. Passed the Indian Civil Service Examination, but after the probationary period, did not turn up for the final riding test; for this and for anti-government speeches in England, was debarred from service. 1890-92 ...
... February 1919. Sri Aurobindo wrote this letter after Mrinalini's death from influenza in December 1918. Letters Written as a Probationer in the Indian Civil Service, 1892 . Sri Aurobindo passed the open examination for the Indian Civil Service (I.C.S.) in 1890. He completed his course work successfully, but was rejected in 1892 after failing to take advantage of the last chance offered him... Matters, 1890 - 1926 The letters in this part have been arranged by the editors in five subsections: (1) Family Letters, 1890 - 1919; (2) Letters Written as a Probationer in the Indian Civil Service, 1892; (3) Letters Written While Employed in the Princely State of Baroda, 1895 - 1906; (4) Letters and Telegrams to Political and Professional Associates, 1906 - 1926; (5) Open Letters and... Another letter written by Sri Aurobindo as secretary to the Maharaja during the Kashmir tour. To R. C. Dutt. 30 July 1904 . Romesh Chunder Dutt (1848 - 1909) was an officer in the Indian Civil Service from 1871 to 1897. He rose to the position of Divisional Commissioner of Orissa, the highest post in the British administration yet held by an Indian. A few years after Dutt retired from the ...
... and of modern Europe. He was a brilliant scholar in Greek and Latin, [passed the Tripos in Cam bridge in the first division, obtained record marks in Greek and Latin in the examination for the Indian Civil Service.] He had learned French from his childhood in Manchester and studied for himself Italian and German sufficiently to read Dante and Goethe in the original tongue." I have left the detail ...
... from his seventh to his twenty-first year and be- cause of an in-born ability as linguist which made him score record marks in Greek and Latin in the open examination held in London for the Indian Civil Service and easily master French as well as be fairly at home in Italian and German — Indian pedants, spurred by the perversity we may pin down by turning a Tennysonian tag negative as "We needs ...
... external world was pulling. And my father, in spite of being an old associate, added to this unnatural thirst, by tempting me with prospects of sending me to England to become a member of the Indian Civil Service. I could not gauge the full import, but it was a fascination indeed. In the meantime I left my studies and started working under Chandulal in the newly begun construction of Golconde, where ...
... 229(fn), 230, 239, 242 sympathy for, 225 Holland,226 honesty, 112·113 humanitarianism, 59, 80, 112, 196 humanity, see under man/mankind hunger strike, 145 , 168 , 171 I I. C .S. (Indian Civil Service), 223 idealism, 194, 196,246 imperialism, 24, 202, 226 India, her assimilation of other cultures, 86, 178,179,248 as Bharata Shakti, 139 as Bhawani Bharati, 15 her decline degeneration ...
... object in addressing you is to endeavour to arouse your good will on behalf of Mr A. A. Ghose, who has been rejected by the Civil Service Commissioners as a probationary candidate for the Indian Civil Service. I went this morning to the office of the Commission, where I was confidentially informed of the circumstances of the case (which did not materially differ from the story he had already... Kimberley, Secretary of State for India. 6 Burlington Rd. Bayswater W. Monday. Nov. 21.1892 May it please your Lordship I was selected as a probationer for the Indian Civil Service in 1890, and after the two years probation required, have been rejected on the ground that I failed to attend the Examination in Riding. I humbly petition your Lordship that a further... account of the Riding Examination. It may be well to enquire of Mr William Chawner, Emmanuel College, Cambridge, (who in June last succeeded Sir Roland Wilson as Secretary to the Board of Indian Civil Service Studies at Cambridge) how Mr Ghose conducted himself at the University previous to his Final Examination. This suggestion is made because Mr Ghose has not produced the necessary University ...
... 30ff; time of privation, 31; Senior Classical Scholarship, 31; holidays with Manmohan, 32ff; success in ICS examinations, 33; at King's College, 33ff; Oscar Browning on, 33-34; member of Indian Majlis and 'Lotus & Dagger', 34,37,183,281; 'Riding Test', 36ff; rejection from ICS, 37; appointment in Baroda, 37; songs to Myrtilla, 38ff, 71; on Parnell, 42; on Goethe, 42; at Apollo Bunder, 46, ...
... becomes living and the mind develops in joy. Page 32 In order to increase the suppleness and comprehensiveness of his mind, one should see not only that he studies many varied *ics, but above all that a single subject is approached in various ways, so that the child understands in a practical manner that there are many ways effacing the same intellectual problem, of considering ...
... richly the best of the European culture, he returned to India in 1893 with a burning aspiration to work for the liberation of India from the foreign rule. While in England, Sri Aurobindo passed the ICS examination, and yet he felt no call for it, and so he got himself disqualified by remaining absent from the riding test. The Gaekwar of Baroda happened to be there at that time, and Sri Aurobindo accepted ...
... 150 rupees a month. His guru, Sri Aurobindo, had never given much importance to money. To Him, ideals in life were the most important. Of His own accord He had given up the opportunity of joining the ICS. Embracing that same ideal whole-heartedly he took up the life of a college professor in a mufossil college. However, during the Second World War, when the Japanese bombed Chittagong, this college ...
... in London. His interest in the Irish liberation movement under Parnell s, perhaps, a reflection of Sri Aurobindo's increasing concern with the situation in India. And his rejection from the Indian Civil Service - partly manoeuvred "y himself and partly provoked by his political activities at Cambridge - opened the way for him to engage in politics, first covertly and later openly, after his return ...
... s name. An account of Dr. K .D. Ghose's death by Brajendranath De published in 1954 is reproduced here: "Dr. Ghose believed up to the very end, that his son had been admitted into the Indian Civil Service, and was in fact coming out. He, in fact, took a month's leave to go and meet him in Bombay and bring him back in triumph, but he could not get any definite news as to when he was coming out... for some in the Vahivatdar's office and in the Secretariat. Permanent work was finally given to him in the Baroda College. ¹ Brajendranath De, "Reminiscences of an Indian Member of the Indian Civil Service", The Calcutta Review, Vol. 132, No. 3 (September 1954), p. 181. ² Sri Aurobindo On Himself ( Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1972), P 98 Page 37 (1) "Aurobindo ...
... K. Roy, who at one time had tried to entice him into becoming an Ashramite. Subhash C. Bose was a Bengali who, like Sri Aurobindo, had studied at Cambridge University as a candidate for the Indian Civil Service. He had, however, submitted his resignation before being enlisted and entered nationalist politics under the aegis of C.R. Das, the lawyer-turned-politician who had defended Sri Aurobindo in ...
... India. Subhash Chandra Bose, though born in the old Oriya town of Cuttack, was a Bengali. He also, like Sri Aurobindo some thirty years earlier, had studied at Cambridge University for the Indian Civil Service, but he had submitted his resignation before being enlisted. His mentor was Chittaranjan Das, the barrister who had defended Sri Aurobindo in the Alipore Bomb Affair. By now C.R. Das himself ...
... inferred from his letter (referred to in the previous chapter) of that date to his brother-in-law Jogendra, Dr. Krishnadhan was feeling almost certain that his son Aurobindo would be entering the Indian Civil Service and making his mark as a brilliant administrator. Sometime later information seems to have reached Krishnadhan of Sri Aurobindo's failure to get into the Service and of the Baroda appointment ...
... reading?” Like a little boy, he would show father the lessons he was preparing. Every evening, father used to give him some new things to read. At that time Chhoto-kaka was preparing for the Indian Civil Service exam. At the same time, father’s attention was focused on the Mother’s and Sri Aurobindo’s Feet. Even now I can almost hear his calling out every night with all his heart, “Sri Aurobindo... ...
... became very fond of English literature and began to think as an Englishman thought. The Bengalees were the first to send their sons to England for their education and to compete for the I.C.S. (Indian Civil Service) and the I.M.S. (Indian Medical Service). They with the Parsees were the first to qualify for the English Bar. In England they lived in an atmosphere of freedom. With freedom in drinking and... so weak of body and so simple in dress and bearing.... It is a dispensation of benign Providence that persons like Aravinda have been drawn to the national work.... His failure 151 in the Indian Civil Service examination was a blessing in disguise.... His erudition, sattwic temperament, religious mind, and self- sacrifice.... He writes from divine inspiration, sattwic intelligence, and unshakable... simply an idea of Barin. He had travelled among the hills trying to find a suitable place but caught hill-fever and had to abandon his search and return to Baroda...." 193 C.C. Dutt of the Indian Civil Service relates in one of his Bengali books that he had been to the Ashram of one Keshavanandaji, a Hathayogi, who was conducting a training centre for young men. Some- thing of the Bhavani Mandir ...
... Bengali. His education as a child started under English nuns at the Lorcto Convent in Darjceling and continued in England from the age of seven to his twenty-first year. Until he trained for the Indian Civil Service during his term at Cambridge he knew no Indian tongue. He heard and spoke English through the most formative period of his youth and up to the end of his life one could mistake his pronunciation ...
... claim to be atheists. We have not yet gone beyond the patriarchal image of the Divinity and are thus unable to recognize the divine work in the acoustic and visual games made possible by electron 7 ics, even though the refining of consciousness which they imply is a mark of a divine process. Where consciousness is expanded in whatever manner it may be, where, regardless of how little, it becomes capable ...
... Beachcroft I.C.S. who tried him at Alipore and who had been head of Rugby and had also won a scholarship at Cambridge. Both won honours at the University, and at the final examination for The Indian Civil Service Arabindo, the prisoner, beat Beachcroft the Judge in Greek!... "...to me it appeared a matter for regret that a man of Aravindo's calibre should have been ejected from the Civil Service ...
... blacklist. Nonetheless, he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree, only to fail to attend the graduation ceremony, as if that were enough of that. In the same casual way, he took the celebrated Indian Civil Service examination, which would have opened the doors of the government of India to him among the ranks of the British administrators; he passed brilliantly, but neglected to appear for the horsemanship ...
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