Ellis, H. orcid.org/0000-0001-8571-0340 (2023) The Indian Civil Service, Classical studies, and an education in Empire, 1890-1914. Historical Journal, 66 (3). ISSN 0018-246X
Abstract
The years between 1890 and 1914 saw several prominent studies from statesmenadministrators comparing British India with the Roman Empire. These were not the selfcongratulatory comparisons of earlier decades, but serious comparative studies aimed at learning practical lessons from Rome's successes and failures. To gain a clearer picture of the significance of these analogies and how they were used, the Indian Civil Service (ICS) examination papers from the same period are analysed. It is argued that, following a move in 1892 to make the ICS a fully graduate service, the Civil Service Commissioners showed a sustained interest in asking candidates to compare India (and the wider British Empire) with the empires of Rome and Greece. Rome was considered particularly relevant for the directly ruled parts of the Empire, with a focus on provincial administration and frontier defence, while Athens was preferred for questions of colonial federation. In the final section, the spread of subjects and weighting of marks within the examination are considered. It is argued that a series of changes post-1892 were designed to favour candidates who had studied Classics at university enabling them to obtain a higher proportion of the overall marks than those specialising in other subjects.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s), 2023. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > School of Education (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 07 Feb 2023 12:51 |
Last Modified: | 19 May 2023 15:25 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1017/S0018246X23000092 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:195716 |
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