The Experiment of Governance
Without going into too many more details, it is safe to say, the early attempts by the EICo to establish some form of management and revenue administration failed, stumbling again on the problems of corruption.

“…the Company had to first employ one Mohammad Reza Khan, a former officer of the Nawab as its Naib Divan (deputy), knowing full well that without assistance from those who had been administering until recently, they would gain no success in their new ventures. Reza Khan, in turn, appointed his deputies and a host of local loyalists as tehsildars and revenue officials for the collection of revenue. To keep a check on the new activities, the Company appointed a Resident at Murshidabad. The Naib Divan Reza Khan’s functions were supervised by a Select Committee appointed by the Company in Calcutta with Verelst as its President. The Divani arrangement that the Company had entered into with the Mughal emperor stipulated that a sum of Rs 26 lakhs would be paid to the Mughal emperor, and an additional amount of Rs 53 lakhs would be the annual share of the Nazim for his personal expenses and for the upkeep of the Nizamat. The revenue collected above this sum, totalling Rs 79 lakh, would be the Company’s profit.” (Mathew 2020)

The foreseeable flaw in this plan, of course, was the Naib Dewan and his staff, who liberally lined their own pockets and did so on the backs of the peasantry, who were plundered out of their very existence. Indian officials and their own agents were as unscrupulous as the free traders had been, and the Select Committee, realising that this system would rapidly ensure there was no profit, decided to send out English officers, one in charge of each district, to oversee the people whom the company had trusted.

The New Supervisors
Harry Verelst was entrusted to bring about this change – and he had some clear ideas of what he wanted. In his directions to his new civil servants, he had this to say:

Amongst the chief effects which are hoped for from your residence in that province, and which
ought to employ and never wander from your attention, are to convince the Ryot that you will
stand between him and the hand of oppression; that you will be his refuge and the redresser of
his wrongs, that honest and direct applications to you will never fail producing speedy and
equitable decisions; and that after supplying the legal due of Government, he may be secure in the
enjoyment of the remainder; and finally to teach him a veneration and affection for the humane
maxims of our Government.

The exploring and eradicating numberless oppressions which are as grievous to the poor
as they are injurious to the Government; the displaying of these national principles of honour,
faith, rectitude and humanity which should ever characterise the name of an Englishman; the
impressing the lowest individual with these ideas, and raising the heart of the Ryot from oppression
and despondency to joy, are the valuable benefits which must result to our nation from a prudent
and wise behaviour.

Versed as you are in the language, depend on none where you yourself can possibly hear and
determine. Let access to you be easy, and be careful of the conduct of your dependents. Aim at
no undue influence yourself, and check it in all others. Great share of integrity, disinterestedness,
assiduity and watchfulness is necessary not only for your guidance, but as an example to all
others; for your activity and advice will be in vain unless confirmed by example. Carefully avoid all
interested views by commerce or otherwise in the province whilst on service… for though ever so
fair and honest, it will awaken the attention of the designing…You have before a large field to
establish a national and private character.

Following the horrific famine in Bengal of 1770 and was directly caused, among other matters, by the impossibly high taxes imposed on the already suffering people, the EICo revoked the rights of the Naib Diwani in 1772, and they sent out a Committee of Circuit under the leadership of Warren Hastings to settle the question of land revenue over the next 5 years working closely together with the zamindars. Under Hastings, the district officer was created. They were to carry the voices of the people to the government. Interestingly enough, the early district officers were barely given any real authority. They remained fettered by the government, and they were severely restrained in what they could actually do. In part, the EICo did not trust the men it appointed. They did nothing, however, to curtail the excesses of those who were sitting in their lofty towers in Calcutta and Murshidabad. For them, shaking the pagoda tree continued without check.

Over the next decades, different systems were tried out and succeeded or failed in varying degrees. It was only after the departure of Hastings that a new system was thought out, and recognisable districts were formed. These geographically distinct areas comprising of all the various Parganas and divisions would be run by the collector – and he as chief administrator would now have full responsibility to maintain it. He was lord of all he surveyed and all he did not – and he was expected to do so with energy, justice and economy. Under his hat, he also had the positions of civil judge and magistrate. Not that this lasted very long. In 1793, Lord Cornwallis put an end to this unfettered power.
Under him, the collector was relegated to managing revenue; an appointed magistrate would now take care of everything else. Yet the actual burden still weighed on the collector, and he was answerable for everything within his district, even as far as the actions of those subordinates who worked for him. It did not, however, stop the rampant self-enrichment still practised by the collectors who continued to practice private trade. Cornwallis’ solution was to pay them – the EICo would give them some salary, while the rest they could earn by commission at the rate of 1% of all revenue collections. Cornwallis went one step further -he set up criminal courts with defined and enforceable laws, thus sweeping away arbitrary justice. Until 1859, when the collector and the district magistrate were once again merged into one position, a much wider spectrum of administration would come into effect.

It would take men of exceptional zeal and intelligence to make this system work, and many would succeed in making names for themselves – not as ruthless, corrupt individuals but as men of vision and ability. It was a civilian named Herbert Edwardes who wrote the legal code for the Punjab in 1849, translated it into Persian and single-handedly administered it under the very watchful eyes of Henry Lawrence, the first Resident of the Punjab. They were men ” around whom the old commercial traditions did not cling, who had not graduated in chicanery, or grown grey in fraud and corruption, and who brought to their work not only a sounder intelligence but purer moral perceptions and a higher sense of what they owed to the people of the soil.” (Kaye, 1853) Although there was still much work to be done, the foundations for the civil service had been laid in India, which was now held accountable for its actions.

District administration was not, of course, solely on one man alone. He would have under him a bevvy of subordinates – a head clerk, judicial assistant, revenue assistant, records keeper, copying clerks, payment clerk, receipt clerk, pension clerk, personal ledger clerk, special clerk, money tester, readers (or peshkars), judicial ahlmad (superintendent) and then even further down the line, the lowly copiers whose only duty was to copy every single report, paper and chit in the office sometimes in many copies; under him, would be record keepers, arrangers, bundle lifters who were charged with the very physical job of lugging the files from shelves and back again, then came weeders – literally menial clerks who “weeded out” records of lesser or short-term importance. Attached to any such office would be a host of peons, orderlies, bhistis and sweepers.
He would also have a sub-divisional officer who would have beneath him a tehsil, taluk or township, and these could comprise several hundred villages in one or two even further sub-divisions. Known as a tehsildar, he would have an overview of everything within his area – the physical collection of revenue and keeping the peace being but two of his myriad duties. Nor was the hierarchy by far complete – every village itself would be presided over by village accountants, record keepers and their very own headmen.

In this system, each officer was obliged to report to the one above him all the way up to the District Officer, who had to assess the performance of all his officers. He would go on extended tours of his district in which he would be able to see for himself how his territory fared, from the zamindar to the ryot. And he would rely on what can only be described as “a small army of non-official collaborators” (Matthew) – people who would be rewarded with titles such as rai, sardar and khan sahib for their cooperation and the information they provided. An energetic District Officer could very quickly become a popular one.

“The District Officer (certainly in Madras) is essentially head of the district. He is not only responsible for the collection of land revenue, by far, the largest source of provincial revenue, nor only the chief magistrate who, though he may not try many cases himself, has to review the judgements and sentences of all the subordinate magistrates in the district, but he is also head of all the other district administrative departments.
The District Officer, in fact with the jurisdiction greater both in area and population than the larger English counties, does the work undertaken in England by the Chief Constable and by the County and District Councils in addition to his revenue and magisterial work.”
(Hunt & Harrison, 1980, p. 91)

In 1857, we have already met some of the civil officers from those who died at their posts and others who fled. We will meet others who at the risk of incurring governmental wrath would remain at their posts to do what was right for the people they had been charged with administering. To them, the functioning of Empire was more than an endeavour on a piece of paper and it would give rise to a civil service that endures in India to this day.

Powers, Duties and Responsibilities District Magistrate/Collector

The functions and responsibilities of the District Magistrate Collector may be classified as follows:

Collector
District Magistrate
Deputy Commissioner

Duties and responsibilities of a Collector are as follows:

Land assessment
Land acquisition
Collection of land revenue, maintenance of land records, land reforms, consolidation of holdings etc
Collection of income tax dues, excise duties, irrigation dues etc.
Distribution of agricultural loans
Disaster management during natural calamities
Management during riots or external aggression


Following are the duties and responsibilities of a District Magistrate:

Maintenance of law and order
Supervision of the police and jails
Supervision of subordinate Executive magistracy
Hearing cases under the preventive section of the Criminal Procedure Code
Supervision of jails and certification of execution of capital sentences
To submit the annual criminal report to the government

It is interesting to note, one officer would be led to say his day only ended when there was nothing left to do.