Professional Documents
Culture Documents
(https://www.insightsonindia.com/)
New Articles
INSIGHTS (HTTPS://WWW.INSIGHTSONINDIA.COM) > NEW ARTICLES (HTTPS://WWW.INSIGHTSONINDIA.COM/NEW-ARTICLES/) >
26 Comments (https://www.insightsonindia.com/2013/06/19/5-books-every-serious-ias-aspirant-and-bureaucrats-must-
read/#disqus_thread)
Every serious IAS aspirant must know beforehand what awaits him once he enters the ‘system’.
Almost ever year, a retired bureaucrat or a diplomat pens an autobiography recollecting all the
bad old memories and present them to the reader in the hope that his experiences might shed
some light on the working of the ‘system’ he was part of.
https://www.insightsonindia.com/2013/06/19/5-books-every-serious-ias-aspirant-and-bureaucrats-must-read/ 1/18
6/12/2019 5 Books Every Serious IAS Aspirant And Bureaucrats Must Read - INSIGHTS
I found following books worth reading for their honest re ection about the working of the
‘system’. Hope you will enjoy reading them.
(http://www. ipkart.com/bureaucrazy-gets-crazier-ias-unmasked/p/itmd9y9djszkuqty?
pid=9789322008086&a d=vinaykumar1)
(http://www. ipkart.com/bureaucrazy-gets-crazier-ias-unmasked/p/itmd9y9djszkuqty?
pid=9789322008086&a d=vinaykumar1)
This is an intimate, inside look at the state of the Indian Administrative Service
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Administrative_Service), with nothing held back. It lays
bare the activities of the modern mandarins behind bolted portals, describing how they crawl
up the greasepole of success, manipulating in-laws and outlaws with equal felicity.
Bureaucrazy was rst published in 1993. Its rst edition was sold out in 30 days. It was
translated into Hindi and Punjabi under the title Afsarshahi Benaqab. Over the years there has
been a clamour for Bureaucrazy 2. This is a revised and updated edition of the original with 15
new chapters in addition to the 31 of the rst edition.
-&_r=KZAKktr0yiOpZmOEheSxmA--&ref=c4219269- 4c-4901-8e7a-
c880596e67c8&a d=vinaykumar1) was born on 10 November 1941 in Srinagar, Kashmir. He
joined the IAS in 1964 and was allotted to the Himachal Pradesh cadre. He held important
posts in the state, including Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Finance Secretary, Education
Secretary and Personnel Secretary. He also spent fteen years at the centre and held the posts
of Member Secretary, Fifth Central Pay Commission, Secretary Civil Aviation and Secretary
Human Resource Development.
(http://www. ipkart.com/honest-always-stand-alone/p/itmdyv5d74kncyaz?
pid=9788189738716&a d=vinaykumar1)
(http://www. ipkart.com/honest-always-stand-alone/p/itmdyv5d74kncyaz?
pid=9788189738716&a d=vinaykumar1)
Candid and outspoken, CG Somiah shares his experiences as an Indian Administrative O cer
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Administrative_Service), from his rst posting to Orissa as
Assistant Collector to the more heady days of ghting terrorism in Punjab, keeping an eye on
the country as Home Secretary and Central Vigilance Commissioner and, nally, a six-year
tenure as Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
His e orts to stem corruption resulted in a loss of promotion for two years. His colleagues
were upset about his plight and some of them were of the view that it was not prudent to defy
corrupt politicians who can harm one’s career.
https://www.insightsonindia.com/2013/06/19/5-books-every-serious-ias-aspirant-and-bureaucrats-must-read/ 3/18
6/12/2019 5 Books Every Serious IAS Aspirant And Bureaucrats Must Read - INSIGHTS
Somiah, however, heartily disagreed with them. Speaking straight from the heart, Somiah’s
narrative is well-knit and crisply put together. It takes us back to the exciting days of Rajiv
Gandhi’s prime ministership and gives us a glimpse into the discussions that took place at the
highest political level. As its title suggests, The Honest Always Stand Alone marks the journey of
a man who always upheld the truth.
(http://www. ipkart.com/service-state-ias-reconsidered/p/itmczzkqr5vukccg?
pid=9780670083817&a d=vinaykumar1g)
(http://www. ipkart.com/service-state-ias-reconsidered/p/itmczzkqr5vukccg?
pid=9780670083817&a d=vinaykumar1)
This re ective and luminous memoir is not only a portrait of a lifetime’s service to the state; it is
also a timely and persuasive argument for a system of governance that has had a critical
impact on India since Independence.
shown%5D=on&selmitem=All+Categories&otracker=start&vertical=all&_l=DQuDYLtAVLJCq%20B
-&_r=KZAKktr0yiOpZmOEheSxmA--&ref=814c2575-f10b-46fa-b448-
8d4d15a1e8ef&a d=vinaykumar1)was educated in Mumbai and Delhi and joined the Indian
Administrative Service (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Administrative_Service) in 1960,
retiring from it after thirty-six years. He served in various capacities both in the government of
West Bengal, the state to which he was assigned, and in the Government of India.
4) Untouchables: My Family’s Triumphant Escape from India’s Caste System – Narendra Jadhav
(http://www. ipkart.com/untouchables-my-family-s-triumphant-escape-india-s-caste-
system/p/itmczzbfdrnfum3s?pid=9780520252639&a d=vinaykumar1)
(http://www. ipkart.com/untouchables-my-family-s-triumphant-escape-india-s-caste-
system/p/itmczzbfdrnfum3s?pid=9780520252639&a d=vinaykumar1)
(http://www. ipkart.com/untouchables-my-family-s-triumphant-escape-india-s-caste-
system/p/itmczzbfdrnfum3s?pid=9780520252639&a d=vinaykumar1)
Every sixth human being in the world today is an Indian, and every sixth Indian is an
untouchable. For thousands of years the untouchables, or Dalits, the people at the bottom of
the Hindu caste system, have been treated as subhuman.
In this remarkable book, at last giving voice to India’s voiceless, Narendra Jadhav
(http://www. ipkart.com/all-categories/pr?
sid=search. ipkart.com&q=narendra+jadhav&autosuggest%5Bas%5D=o &autosuggest%5Bas-
submittype%5D=entered&autosuggest%5Bas-grouprank%5D=0&autosuggest%5Bas-
https://www.insightsonindia.com/2013/06/19/5-books-every-serious-ias-aspirant-and-bureaucrats-must-read/ 5/18
6/12/2019 5 Books Every Serious IAS Aspirant And Bureaucrats Must Read - INSIGHTS
overallrank%5D=0&autosuggest%5Borig-query%5D=&autosuggest%5Bas-
shown%5D=on&selmitem=All+Categories&otracker=start&vertical=all&_l=DQuDYLtAVLJCq%20B
-&_r=KZAKktr0yiOpZmOEheSxmA--&ref=21e01f5a-5bc3-4252-9131-
6ed2fc422949#jumpTo=0|7&a d=vinaykumar1)tells the awe-inspiring story of his family’s
struggle for equality and justice in India. Based on his father’s diaries and family stories, Jadhav
(http://www. ipkart.com/all-categories/pr?
sid=search. ipkart.com&q=narendra+jadhav&autosuggest%5Bas%5D=o &autosuggest%5Bas-
submittype%5D=entered&autosuggest%5Bas-grouprank%5D=0&autosuggest%5Bas-
overallrank%5D=0&autosuggest%5Borig-query%5D=&autosuggest%5Bas-
shown%5D=on&selmitem=All+Categories&otracker=start&vertical=all&_l=DQuDYLtAVLJCq%20B
-&_r=KZAKktr0yiOpZmOEheSxmA--&ref=21e01f5a-5bc3-4252-9131-
6ed2fc422949#jumpTo=0|7&a d=vinaykumar1) has written the triumphant story of his
parents’ their great love, unwavering courage, and eventual victory in the struggle to free
themselves and their children from the caste system.
He vividly brings his parents’ world to light and un inchingly documents the lives of
untouchables – the hunger, the cruel humiliations, the perpetual fear, and the brutal abuse.
Untouchables (http://www. ipkart.com/untouchables-my-family-s-triumphant-escape-india-s-
caste-system/p/itmczzbfdrnfum3s?pid=9780520252639&ref=eecc2141-ca29-4ca1-a4e3-
b8711a046387&srno=t_2&otracker=from-
search&query=narendra%20jadhav&a d=vinaykumar1) is an eye-opening work that gives
readers insight into the lives of India’s 165 million Dalits, whose struggle for equality continues
even today.
https://www.insightsonindia.com/2013/06/19/5-books-every-serious-ias-aspirant-and-bureaucrats-must-read/ 6/18
6/12/2019 5 Books Every Serious IAS Aspirant And Bureaucrats Must Read - INSIGHTS
(http://www. ipkart.com/outsider-everywhere-revelations-insider/p/itmd8wasytxjd5bd?
pid=9789322008048&a d=vinaykumar1)
(http://www. ipkart.com/outsider-everywhere-revelations-insider/p/itmd8wasytxjd5bd?
pid=9789322008048&a d=vinaykumar1)
Autobiographies of civil servants generally make for banal reading. These are either exercises
in self-glori cation or attempts at ponti cation.
This is an autobiography with a di erence. M.K. Kaw, the author of Bureaucrazy fame is known
for his style imbued with humour and pen dipped in satire. Here he takes a look at his own life,
starting with a zany essay on why he is called Kaw, which means crow in Kashmiri. In one of the
chapters, he refers to the phenomenon which led some of his younger colleagues to revel in
the appellation Kawboy.
The text is peppered with half-remembered lines of a childhood poem celebrating the exploits
of Natha Singh, a truck driver of Delhi. He has not omitted to reproduce in its unexpurgated
virility a naughty limerick he composed at a party about his chief secretarys non-performing
member.
There are revelations about the exploits of politicians and bureaucrats, as seen from the
perspective of a poet who got trapped in the topsy-turvy world of bumbledom.
Kaw has manfully resisted the temptation to deliver high-sounding sermons at hapless juniors
in the service. He has instead concluded with tongue-in-cheek aphorisms camou aged as
pearls of wisdom.
https://www.insightsonindia.com/2013/06/19/5-books-every-serious-ias-aspirant-and-bureaucrats-must-read/ 7/18
6/12/2019 5 Books Every Serious IAS Aspirant And Bureaucrats Must Read - INSIGHTS
Latest Additions
6) The Insiders View: Memoirs of a Public Servant (http://www. ipkart.com/insiders-view-
memoirs-public-servant/p/itmdcpd2aphd5sv2?pid=9780670085859&a d=vinaykumar1)
(http://www. ipkart.com/insiders-view-memoirs-public-servant/p/itmdcpd2aphd5sv2?
pid=9780670085859&a d=vinaykumar1)
(http://www. ipkart.com/insiders-view-memoirs-public-servant/p/itmdcpd2aphd5sv2?
pid=9780670085859&a d=vinaykumar1)
In this illuminating memoir Javid Chowdhury shares his varied experiences over four decades
in the IAS: the years in training, when he imbibed the services ethos and values; his initiation
into the rural universe as the District Development O cer and the District Magistrate; and
further on, to his handling of the infamous Bank Securities and Jain Hawala scams as Director
of Enforcement and Union Revenue Secretary.
With a light pen, Chowdhury describes the changing social pro le and attitudes of entrants to
the higher civil services; the nepotism, in many garbs, that he encountered as Establishment
O cer; and the stranger than ction tortuous investigations of crimes. He also o ers his
nuanced re ections on the dubious legacy Gujarat acquired as a result of the communal
carnage in 2002.
https://www.insightsonindia.com/2013/06/19/5-books-every-serious-ias-aspirant-and-bureaucrats-must-read/ 8/18
6/12/2019 5 Books Every Serious IAS Aspirant And Bureaucrats Must Read - INSIGHTS
(http://www. ipkart.com/pyramid-virgin-dreams/p/itmdytpwkfz6cdzd?
pid=9788129117441&a d=vinaykumar1)
(http://www. ipkart.com/pyramid-virgin-dreams/p/itmdytpwkfz6cdzd?
pid=9788129117441&a d=vinaykumar1)
Eight-year-old Kartikeya Kukreja solemnly swears to become an IAS o cer after accompanying
an illegal poaching expedition to obtain a partridge and blackbuck for his father’s boss’s
supper.
Kartikeya eventually discovers the secret of his father’s fawning subordinates as they attempt
to scramble their way up the civil service pyramid, and himself experiences a similar hilarious
predicament.
https://www.insightsonindia.com/2013/06/19/5-books-every-serious-ias-aspirant-and-bureaucrats-must-read/ 9/18
6/12/2019 5 Books Every Serious IAS Aspirant And Bureaucrats Must Read - INSIGHTS
A refreshingly original rendition of the slippery life in the Indian bureaucracy, Pyramid of Virgin
Dreams, replete with comic imagery, portrays, with humour and intelligence, an India that is
both farcical and full of hope.
(http://www. ipkart.com/no-minister-memoirs-civil-servant-hb-mahesh-prasad-english-
macmillian-india-ltd-new-delhi-hardcover-edition-1st-1st/p/itmczyxuvhvjtxzv?
pid=9780230636477&a d=vinaykumar1)
(http://www. ipkart.com/no-minister-memoirs-civil-servant-hb-mahesh-prasad-english-
macmillian-india-ltd-new-delhi-hardcover-edition-1st-1st/p/itmczyxuvhvjtxzv?
pid=9780230636477&a d=vinaykumar1)
The bard wrote: ‘The course of true love never ran smooth’. The same is true of this book. It is
the memoirs of a civil servant who followed the path of rectitude. This is an interesting
autobiographical account full of anecdotes and the author’s personal observations on the
bureaucracy, politics and life. It covers a fascinating period in India’s political and administrative
fabric and gives us insights into the working of the civil services. As Mahesh Prasad observes,
‘The career of a civil servant which may appear to be glittering to outsiders is an eternal
struggle’. As he says, there are those who are happy saying ‘Yes, Minister’, and so reap the
bene ts that come their way. Those who dare to oppose the Minister have to face the
consequences. Dealing with the steel frame, it unveils the seeping in of corruption and inequity
in the bureaucracy. The book is replete with self- deprecating humour and bon mots and is well
worth a read.
https://www.insightsonindia.com/2013/06/19/5-books-every-serious-ias-aspirant-and-bureaucrats-must-read/ 10/18
6/12/2019 5 Books Every Serious IAS Aspirant And Bureaucrats Must Read - INSIGHTS
9) And What Remains in the End : The Memoirs of an Unrepentant Civil Servant
(http://www. ipkart.com/remains-end-memoirs-unrepentant-civil-
servant/p/itmdgt9jbnxqkyen?pid=9788129123732&a d=vinaykumar1)
(http://www. ipkart.com/remains-end-memoirs-unrepentant-civil-
servant/p/itmdgt9jbnxqkyen?pid=9788129123732&a d=vinaykumar1)
(http://www. ipkart.com/remains-end-memoirs-unrepentant-civil-
servant/p/itmdgt9jbnxqkyen?pid=9788129123732&a d=vinaykumar1)
https://www.insightsonindia.com/2013/06/19/5-books-every-serious-ias-aspirant-and-bureaucrats-must-read/ 11/18
6/12/2019 5 Books Every Serious IAS Aspirant And Bureaucrats Must Read - INSIGHTS
In And What Remains In The End: The Memoirs Of An Unrepentant Civil Servant, author Robin
Gupta provides readers with the socio-historical and economic developments that have
occurred in India over the last four decades. Gupta’s memoir provides a rich account about a
country that is progressive and the people who have dedicated themselves to serving India. It
is a sensitive, historical, and philosophical account, of India’s growth as a nation, and the major
role played by Indian civil servants in advancing it.
Robin Gupta is an author and retired civil servant. He was born in 1948 in Delhi. Gupta brie y
served with the Indian Police Service before becoming an Indian Administrative Service o cer
in 1974. As an IAS o cer, he received challenging assignments which required him to travel
across the country. Gupta was also posted as a commissioner on seven di erent occasions,
which is a record in Indian civil service history. Gupta’s nal posting was in the Government of
Punjab, where he was a nancial commissioner.
Download Chrome
Browser
Google
Install O ine, Device-based Group
Policies & More. Deploy Chrome MSI
OPEN
books (https://www.insightsonindia.com/tag/books/)
bureaucracy (https://www.insightsonindia.com/tag/bureaucracy/)
Share:
https://www.insightsonindia.com/2013/06/19/5-books-every-serious-ias-aspirant-and-bureaucrats-must-read/ 12/18
6/12/2019 5 Books Every Serious IAS Aspirant And Bureaucrats Must Read - INSIGHTS
Sponsored Links
Indians born before 1967 are now eligible to test hearing aids
Hearing Aid Trial
End Of Season Sale. Flat 80% Off on Portable Speaker Sale Ends Tonight!
Wireless Speaker
Play this Game for 1 Minute and see why everyone is addicted
Desert Order
26 Comments INSIGHTS
1 Login
LOG IN WITH
OR SIGN UP WITH DISQUS ?
Name
Excellent account of a civil service officer's functions, a collection of good case studies helpful for
mains paper 4 and dispensing duties boldly after getting selected.
hats off to a civil servant who belongs to dwindling group of retired officers receiving a clean chit
for his service...
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›
https://www.insightsonindia.com/2013/06/19/5-books-every-serious-ias-aspirant-and-bureaucrats-must-read/ 14/18
6/12/2019 5 Books Every Serious IAS Aspirant And Bureaucrats Must Read - INSIGHTS
Thanks for appreciating this blog. I wish I could help you, but I am not from Hindi region so
can't help you much.
Trust those sites only if you can learn about them by friends or people who have taken
those courses already. It is better to do self study. all the best.
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›
Sponsored Links
Indians born before 1967 are now eligible to test hearing aids
Hearing Aid Trial
ABOUT
End Of Season Sale. Flat 80% Off on Portable Speaker Sale Ends Tonight!
Wireless Speaker
Today, Insights is synonymous with UPSC civil services exam preparation. Insights has
rede ned the way preparation is done in UPSC civil service exam
३ िदनों म पेट का मोटापा गायब हो जायेगा! िविध िलख
Nutrition
POPULAR COURSES
TOPPERS
This 'Game
IAS EXAM of Thrones' Game Is Getting Very Popular In India
GUIDE
Game of Thrones - Official Game
BOOKS
CONTACT
support@insightsias.com
(mailto:support@insights
https://www.insightsonindia.com/2013/06/19/5-books-every-serious-ias-aspirant-and-bureaucrats-must-read/ 17/18
6/12/2019 5 Books Every Serious IAS Aspirant And Bureaucrats Must Read - INSIGHTS
https://www.insightsonindia.com/2013/06/19/5-books-every-serious-ias-aspirant-and-bureaucrats-must-read/ 18/18