The Modern Review/Volume 38/Number 2/The Mysore Civil Service Without the Steel Frame

The Mysore Civil Service Without “The Steel Frame”

Mr. W. P. Barton, retiring British Resident in Mysore, said at the state banquet given to him by the Maharaja:—

’I take this opportunity of paying a tribute of esteem to the Mysore Civil Service. It is inspired throughout by His Highness’s example and ideals of service. Its esprit de corps and its traditions would do credit to any service in the world. Speaking as an Englishman, I am proud that one of their ideals has been to maintain the standard of the British Commission from which they took over responsibility 44 years ago. They have loyally supported the policy of the Mysore Government in associating the people of the State more closely with the administration. The success of representative institutions depends very largely on an efficient Civil Service and I think the people of Mysore may safely rely on their Civil Service to help them in the path of progress.’

As the Mysore Civil Service has been so highly praised by a British officer of high rank, though it is not held together and stiffened by a British element constituting the “steel frame”, it is difficult to see why in British-ruled India, the steel frame should be considered indispensable. Mysoreans are not different from their brethren in British-ruled India, nor have they been under British training longer than the latter.