BUREAUCRACY AND SOCIETY: The IAS at Work

From the point of view of its multifunctionality, size, status and impact, the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is perhaps unique in the world. The perceived omnipotence and omnipresence of the IAS in all matters related to government has made its members a subject of sustained criticism, some of which has been unfounded. There is thus a need to understand the role of the IAS in terms of the changing environment in which it has had to function, as also the fact that the administrative acumen and character of individual civil servants can and has significantly influenced the pattern, orientation and productivity of the administrative system.

This volume has brought together the recollections or reminiscences of 14 officers who served or are serving in the IAS. Many of the incidents and episodes highlighted in the narratives may be seen as case studies of how the protagonists and others concerned responded leading to successful handling of the situations in some cases and failures in others. They also indicate how Indian administration has been carried out in actual practice during the last sixty odd years.

Besides a crispy introduction on careers in the IAS as well as on civil servants’ reminiscences published earlier as also in this volume, the editor has also provided highly informative sectional introductions to each of three sections. While the first two sections on ‘IAS Careers Remembered’ and ‘Remembering District Tenures’ each contain seven mini-memoirs, the last section has only one contribution on the spirit of the civil service. The book as a whole will equally interest critics, bureaucrats, researchers, teachers, trainers, social scientists, media commentators, the general reader, as well as students and would-be-administrators.

Rakesh Hooja is a PhD in Social Sciences who continues to serve in the IAS since 1974. Having held important positions in both Government of India and Government of Rajasthan, he is presently Chairman, Board of Revenue for Rajasthan, Ajmer. Prior to this, he was Additional Chief Secretary (Development) and Development Commissioner and Additional Chief Secretary (Training) and Director, HCM Rajasthan State Institute of Public Administration, Jaipur. Earlier for almost seven years he worked as Joint Secretary in the Department of Jammu & Kashmir Affairs in the Union Home Ministry.

Besides working as an able administrator, he has authored/edited 27 books, a number of monographs and almost 390 articles, research papers and reviews on various aspects of development, administration, planning, water and land management, governance especially at state and district levels, civil service and administrative reforms, participatory approaches in irrigated as well as arid areas, administrative theory, federalism, training, and Panchayati Raj. Two of his books have won him state government awards for meritorious writing. The Second Administrative Reforms Commission of India has acknowledged his contribution to some of its reports, as has Government of India’s IAS induction training review committee.