ASPIRING FOR THE INDIAN POLITICAL SERVICE – A

CASE STUDY OF A FAILED ATTEMPT

By Major General Syed Ali Hamid and Hamid Hussain
            
Syed Shahid Hamid was commissioned from Sandhurst in 1933 and
joined 3rd Cavalry, a recently Indianised regiment in which he spent six
years. The second half of this was not easy as he did not get along with the
second-in-command who was subsequently promoted to command the
regiment. Since there were no vacancies for Indian officers in the other two
Indianised cavalry regiments, Shahid sought an entry onto the hallowed
ranks of the Indian Political Service (IPS).
The genesis of the IPS lay in a department created in 1783 by the
East India Company for conducting ‘secret and political business’. It had
three branches; secret, political and foreign. Since Persian was the
language of diplomatic correspondence in those early days, the head of the
department was known as the ‘Persian Secretary’, and members of the
department were generally referred to as Political Officers, or colloquially
as ‘politicals’. Its primary responsibility was dealing with the Princely States
through British Residents appointed from the Department. It also housed
the officers of British India’s diplomatic service i.e. its emissaries to the
countries surrounding India and the Trucial States in the Gulf. Some
famous names in the history of the Middle East served as Political Officers
including Sir Percy Coxs who masterminded the British policy in this region
during the First World War.
The Department was controlled by the Viceroy and when the North
West Frontier Province (NWFP) was separated from the Punjab in 1901, to
ensure that the new Province was directly under his control Lord Curzon
decided that the officers who had chosen to make their careers in the
frontier districts of Balochistan and the NWFP were also from this
department. They were designated as Political Agents (PAs) and amongst
the notables were captains of the Frontier like Sir Roose Keppel who spoke
fluent Pushto and authored a book on the language, Olaf Caroe, the last
British Governor of the NWFP and Sir Rupert Hay the Chief Commissioner
in Balochistan from 1943–46. The term continues to be applied for the
administrators of the Agencies in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
The IPS went through a number of changes in its designation. In
1843, the name was changed to Foreign Department. In 1914, the
department was reorganized as the Foreign and Political Department, with
two separate secretaries: the Political Wing dealt with the princely states
and other Asian kingdoms, while the Foreign Department a forerunner of
the Foreign Service of both Pakistan and India, focused on engagement
with the European powers. In 1937, the title was changed to Indian Political
Service. There were no set rules governing its affairs and jurisdiction. They
evolved over two centuries and there were a number of anomalies. For
example till 1884, in spite of possessing a large territory, Kashmir was not
under the IPS.  The Maharaja resisted the appointment of a Resident and
had the support of the Empress and Secretary of State for India. Only when
the Maharaja was on his death bed in 1884, that a Resident was forced on
the state.  In contrast, the small Malakand tribal agency right from the
beginning had direct political relations with the central government unlike all
other tribal agencies.  In the early phase of the expansion of the East India
Company, traders were also dealing with political and military affairs.
When the company rule stabilized, most states were in direct political
relations with the provincial and not central government e.g. the western
Indian states were with the Bombay government, Cochin with Madras,
Manipur with Assam and Cooch Behar with Bengal.  Tiny states had
another intermediary link and managed by local collectors of neighboring
districts. In fact, Bombay had a fairly large political department (almost all
recruited from military), and even the Aden protectorate was under its
control. However, in the re-organization of 1924 some of the charge was
centralized and in 1927, the Punjab states came under the the central
government.  
Half to two thirds of the Politicals were recruited from the army
because there was a larger number to select from and they cost less. The
NWF Province was an exception and more than two thirds were from the
Punjab ICS cadre. A small number were also recruited for the IPS from the
police service and medical service. The cadre had about 150 officers who
were predominantly British. Native ICS and army officers came very late on
the IPS scene and till the 1930s, only a small number served in subordinate
positions. The most robust resistance to Indianization of IPS came from
Indians. When the British consulted princes about Indianization of IPS, all
princes with the exception of Maharaja of Gwalior were against it. Their
argument was their relations were with Crown and not Indian government
therefore British officers were the most appropriate intermediaries. In fact,
Khan of Kalat was so suspicious of fellow Muslims in 1947, that he had a
British advisor D.Y. Fell; a former Political as his foreign minister to
negotiate with newly created state of Pakistan. When the IPS was
Indianized, there was strong pro-Muslim bias. At Independence, of the 124
serving in the department, the 17 Indians consisted of twelve Muslims, four
Hindus and one Sikh. Many of these officers held important posts and
probably were more qualified for important positions within the Government
of Pakistan. However, the arrival of more educated and suave Muslim ICS
officers from provinces in India (with no knowledge or experience about
Frontier affairs), resulted in rapid eclipse of this class.
The Indian who served with the IPS were well respected by the
British, had more power than other native posts in British administered
India and were very effective as most were familiar with local dynamics and
spoke local languages. Amongst the early Natives who served in the IPS
probably the most famous was Sahabzada Abdul Qayyum Khan. There
was also Sharbat Khan Afridi (father of Lieutenant General Muhammad
Yousuf, Quli Khan the father of Lieutenant General Habibullah and
grandfather of Lieutenant General Ali Quli Khan), Mir Shams Shah and
Lehna Singh. Another towering personality was Rai Bahadur Hitu Ram who
had served as secretary to Robert Sandeman.  Later in his career he would
preside over the Shahi Jirga where strong willed Baluchi sardars would pay
due respects to this Hindu from Dera Ghazi Khan. Those from the IPS
cadre were held in awe and referred to as ‘The Twice Born’, a progression
of the terminology sometimes used in respect of members of the ICS who
were known as ‘The Heaven-Born’. Those jealous of its stature referred to
the IPS cadre as ‘civil servants who didn't want to work and soldiers who
didn't want to fight’. There was also a division within the IPS cadre. In the
words of Sir Harcourt Butler, Foreign Secretary to the Government of India
in 1907, there were ‘lean and keen men on the frontier and fat and good
natured in the states.’
            Shahid Hamid applied for the IPS in early 1937 through the
Headquarters Deccan District when he was commanding a detachment of
3rd Cavalry in Allahabad. Unfortunately, the regiment did not inform him
that the he should correspond directly with the Foreign and Political
Department. His subsequent application to the right quarters drew a
response in August 1937 from the Department’s office in Simla, the
summer capital of British India. He was informed that the selection for that
year had already been made but that he would come up for consideration
the following year. By now Captain Iftikhar Khan (‘Ifty’ to his friends) had
been appointed as the first Indian adjutant of the regiment. In a private
letter to Shahid he regretted that due to “the regimental officer’s slackness”
his chances of getting into the IPS had been ruined for that year. Following
Independence, Iftikhar was being groomed to be the first Pakistani C-in-C
but sadly died in an air crash in 1949.
 In December 1937, Shahid was informed that the interviews for 1938
would be either conducted at Delhi ‘at the end of the Delhi Season’, or
during the Simla Season in August and he was advised to correspond with
the Under Secretary, Captain P.C. Hailey for necessary particulars. Hailey
too was a Political who in 1933 had served as the Escort Commanding
Officer in Gyantse, Tibet. Shahid persisted for an early interview and wrote
directly to Sir Bertrand Glancy, the head of the Political Department. Glancy
was a good representative of his generation and a “Heaven Born’ from the
Punjab ICS cadre and served as Governor of Punjab during the Second
Word War, he was. Shahid persistence paid off and he was informed by
Hailey that Glancy was prepared to meet him in the first week of February
1938 but then there is a break in the correspondence followed by another
letter from Hailey in July 1938 stating that no final selection has been
made. In October came the disappointing news from Hailey that he had not
been selected. A letter of condolence from a certain Azizuddin Ahmed
gives a surprising reason for his rejection that ‘apparently … they (the
British) give preference to Punjabis’ (sic). Shahid Hamid was from a
Talukdar family of the United Provinces.
While this may have been the case in the late 1930s, in the previous
15-20 years, most of the Muslim officers selected for the IPS were either
Pathans of from aristocratic families. Amongst the Pathans was Abdul
Rahim Khan, Guides Cavalry, the son of Khan Bahadur Abdul Ghafoor
Khan who was elected to the provincial assembly in 1932. After
Independence, Rahim Khan served as Pakistan’s first representative to the
UN in 1947-48. Like Rahim Khan, Sahibzada Muhammad Khurshid, 1/14th
Punjab Regiment was also from the Mardan District and was the first
Pakistani Governor of NWFP. From the Hindko speaking Syed family of
Peshawar was Agha Syed Bad Shah (known as A.S.B. Shah) who also
joined 1/14th Punjab. He was fluent in seven languages; Urdu, English,
Hindi, Pushtu, Punjabi, Persian & Arabic and served as Pakistan’s
ambassador to Kabul. Members of aristocratic families who entered the
ranks of ‘Twice Born’ included Mirza Osman Ali Baig, 7th Light Cavalry,
who was from Hyderabad Deccan and the son of Sir Abbas Ali Baig a
decedent of the Chughtais who accompanied Emperor Babur to India in
1526. He subsequently served as foreign secretary of Pakistan. Finally but
not the least was Iskander Mirza, the first Indian (and Muslim) to be
commissioned from Sandhurst who ultimately served as the President of
Pakistan.  He was from the family of the Nawab of Bengal and transferred
to the IPS after serving for four years in Poona Horse. Mirza and Rahim
appeared together in the 1928 exam and received very high marks beating
the British officers.
If Shahid Hamid had cleared the interview, he would have spent 18
months in civil training in Punjab or the United Province.  In addition, he
would have had to appear in an Indian Civil Service departmental
examination before attempting the exam for the IPS. On the other hand,
candidates selected from the Civil Service appeared in the IPS examination
after six months. After that, all IPS officers were on probation for three
years. On the Frontier this time was spent in a frontier district and in the
States as a personal secretary to Resident. In spite of being lessor in
number than entrants from the army, the ICS cadre held most of the senior
positions of political and foreign secretaries. The reason was that while
Army officer retired at the age of 55, officers of the ICS officer retired after
35 years of service. This gave them an edge of three to five years. Army
officers were posted to the IPS on secondment and as compensation they
could be awarded an honorary rank on retirement. The highest rank was
that of colonel and usually given to resident of a large and important state
like Hyderabad. Sikandar Mirza and Abdur Rahim became honorary
lieutenant colonels and A.S.B. Shah an honorary major.
In 1939, Shahid managed to get out of the regiment by being
seconded to the Royal Indian Army Service Corps. He tried once again for
the IPS but his efforts came to a dead end by a letter from the Political
Department informing him that fresh applications by officers who have been
rejected were not entertained and further on account of the war, there was
to be no recruitment in the IPS. The Almighty had his own plans for Shahid
who after serving in Burma where he was badly injured, attended the Staff
Course at Quetta, returned as a member of the Directing Staff and his final
assignment before Independence was the most coveted post for a
lieutenant colonel in the British India Army i.e. Private Secretary to
Commander-in-Chief India. He served in the Pakistan Army and retired as
a major general in 1959.  

About the Authors

Dr. Hamid Hussain is a journalist and historian of great repute whose
specialty is the Armies of Pakistan and India and their predecessor, the
British India Army. He is the author of numerous quality articles on the
above and International Affairs. Maj Gen Syed Ali Hamid (retired) is a
recognized scholar who specializes on the military history of the sub-
continent from the period of British India till the present. He is the author of
two books Forged in the Furnace of Battle - the war history of his regiment
in the 1971 War and and At the Forward Edge of Battle - the History of the
Pakistan Armored Corps which is a major study compiled over 4 years. The
authors are grateful to Brigadier Yasub Dogar for his valuable comments
on the draft which have been incorporated.