About the Book
From the point of view of its multifunctionality, size, status and impact, the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is perhaps unique in the world. The perceived omnipotence and omnipresence of the IAS in all matters related to government has made its members a subject of sustained criticism, some of which has been unfounded. There is thus a need to understand the role of the IAS in terms of the changing environment in which it has had to function, as also the fact that the administrative acumen and character of individual civil servants can and has significantly influenced the pattern, orientation and productivity of the administrative system.
This volume has brought together the recollections or reminiscences of 14 officers who served or are serving in the IAS. Many of the incidents and episodes highlighted in the narratives may be seen as case studies of how the protagonists and others concerned responded leading to successful handling of the situations in some cases and failures in others. They also indicate how Indian administration has been carried out in actual practice during the last sixty odd years.
Besides a crispy introduction on careers in the IAS as well as on civil servants’ reminiscences published earlier as also in this volume, the editor has also provided highly informative sectional introductions to each of three sections. While the first two sections on ‘IAS Careers Remembered’ and ‘Remembering District Tenures’ each contain seven mini-memoirs, the last section has only one contribution on the spirit of the civil service. The book as a whole will equally interest critics, bureaucrats, researchers, teachers, trainers, social scientists, media commentators, the general reader, as well as students and would-be-administrators.
Contents
Introduction: Reminiscences of the Civil Servants at Work / Rakesh Hooja
Part I: IAS Careers RememberedSECTIONAL INTRODUCTION: Career Progression in the IAS / Rakesh Hooja
1 R.D. Thapar - Reminiscences of My Service Career
2 V.I. Rajagopal - Administration, Administered and Administrator
3 Arun Kumar - Some Recollections
4 K.K. Saxena - Memories Recollected
5 P.N. Bhandari - Experiments in Administrative Innovations
6 Inderjit Khanna - Some Reflections of a Senior Civil Servant
7 I.C. Srivastava - Memorable and Useful Experiences
Part II : Remembering District TenuresSECTIONAL INTRODUCTION: Administering a District / Rakesh Hooja
8 T.N. Chaturvedi - A Time to Remember
9 Bhupendra Hooja - A District Odyssey
10 V. Nath - District Administration in Rajasthan in the 1960s: Reminiscences of a Former Collector
11 R.S. Kumat - The Flood
12 Kusum Prasad - A Certain Turbulence
13 V.N. Bahadur - Sticking the Neck Out
14 Meenakshi Hooja - Their First Lady
Part III : Afterword: What is Desirable in the Civil ServiceSECTIONAL INTRODUCTION: IAS Espirit de Corps / Rakesh Hooja
15 Arun Kumar - The Spirit of the Civil Service
About the Author / Editor
Rakesh Hooja was Director, Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi. A former IAS officer who served both Government of India and Government of Rajasthan where his final two assignments were Additional Chief Secretary (Training)-cum-Director, HCM Rajasthan Institute of Public Administration, Jaipur and Chairman, Board of Revenue for Rajasthan. He has to his credit over 30 authored/edited books and innumerable articles, research papers, commentaries and reviews.
