The idea of competition: Contextualising the debate over changing methods of recruitment in the Indian civil service during company rule

Abstract

Public examinations were one of the great initiatives of the nineteenth-century Englishmen. The idea of a competitive examination, which was first implemented in the Indian civil service during East India Company rule, was shaped in post-industrial Britain by liberal-utilitarian thinkers like Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham, J. S. Mill, and others. The idea of competition, initially implemented in the field of economics, soon came to be applied to administration and governance. Studies on the Indian Civil Service have mainly focussed on its administrative and bureaucratic development. However, the historiography is silent about the role of English liberal-utilitarians, political-economists, and parliamentarians in applying the idea of competition to public services. In this context, this article tries to understand the concept of competition, as well as the ideological background and parliamentary debates behind the introduction of competitive examinations, and their impact on the socio-educational structure of colonial India during the three stages of foundation (1757–813), discourse (1814–53) and institutionalisation (1854 onwards).