Study sources K, L and M and use your own knowledge. How far do you agree with the view that the Indian Civil Service constituted the "steel framework" for British rule in India?

The term "steel framework" implies both a solid foundation upon which something may be built, and a rigid structure that is unwilling or incapable to succomb to needs of flexibility. The Indian Civil Service may be described as both such connotations and an exploration of sources K, L and M may provide evidence both for and against such an argument.

The Indian Civil Service was indeed a solid "steel framework" in how its structure provided roots across the whole of India and penetrated every sectar of Indian society from Princes to local officials. Such branching from the core of the British Empire, the Queen, and delegation of power to well educated and experienced men throughout numerous councils arguably provided a strong position from which the Raj could rule. Its strength may be shown by how limited numbers of British officials managed to rule a vast country, as portrayed by source M, "The British in India numbered scarcely 200,000". Source M is a modern source, 2001, therefore looking back in hindsight through the perception of a historian, whose quotation of facts and statistics may be presumed reliable. With just 200,000 people ruling a country of millions it seems then highly logical to assume the Indian Civil Service as indeed a highly efficient "steel framework".

However, this strength and efficiency is merely presumed and both sources L and M suggest outwardly that such strength relied upon a mere illusion, "[T]he Kiplingesque notion that the average British district officer was a pretty capable chap" (Source M). Source L is entitiled "The Imperial Imagination" which aptly sums up the crux of the argument, speaking from experience it states "Our life in India, our very work more or less, rests on illusion". This suggests that the illusion of a "steel framework" merely marked the notion that the British had bitten off more than they could chew and although they may mantain a superior ideology of paternalism, "Infallible and invulnerable", their superior air was not enough to contain a vast and indeed unruly country. Source L does however to some extent blame the British's superior air on the reactions of the Indian people to the British. For instance it states "They, the millions, made us believe we had a divine mission" and "They saw the head of the Queen-Empress on the rupee and worshipped it" which questions the sources accuracy greatly as from the beginning of the Raj the Indian people had resented the British. The Indian Mutiny of 1857 for example shocked the British and portrayed how out of touch the rulers were with the ruled and this source merely exaggerates how warped the British perspective was and indeed how ignorant and inflexible the Indian Civil Service had become.

This inflexibility may also refer to the idea that as a "steel framework" the Indian Civil Service was just in fact a rigid and unchanging organisation portraying old fashioned British beliefs that India was merely "The Jewel in Britain's crown". Source K particularly highlights the unadapting nature of the Civil Service, "They think the present the best, and improvement or reform sends a cold shiver down their spine". This source was published in 1962 twenty years on from the end of the Raj, so again in hindsight but seemingly from a personal perspective of the Civil Service that may provide more detailed understanding of its inner workings. The source also sheds light on the fact that it was certain individuals who sparked the development of "Education, Irrigation, Police, Railways" and not the Service as a whole. The Morley-Minto reforms of 1908 are a representation of this as it in the General Elections of 1906 the Liberal Democrats came to power, bringing a wholly different perspective to India than the old-fashioned ideologies of the Conservatives. It took these two individuals, John Morley and Lord Minto, to understand and comprehend that the growing number of western-educated Indians in the Babu caste should be harnessed into a productive step towards self-rule rather than left to grow resentful. With the Indian Councils Act of 1909 Indians were beginning to be incorporated in the system but it seems useful to point out that this had taken 50 years since the beginning of the Raj and still was a pretty pitiful offering. And yet administrators within the Civil Service still remained hesitant, believing this was too much at once.

It seems then that the Indian Civil Service did provide the "steel framework" for British rule in India in every essence of the phrase. Indeed it was a particularly effective structure in penetrating every section of Indian society and allowing a small minority to rule a vast majority with some efficiency. It also however portrayed the rigidity and inflexibility of British rule and ideology as a whole as source K so poignantly highlighted, showing that progress to the supposed goal of swaraj (self rule) was hindered by the British's inability to relinquish their, questionably, tight grip on the shiniest victim of their paternalistic empire. I think the most important idea, raised by sources M and L, however is this idea of illusion and the unbreakable "steel framework" acting as a symbol of British superiority whilst in reality there was no justification beneath such an air.