Indian Civil Servants
The chapter explores a case study of the 1829 prosecution by the young Charles Trevelyan of Sir Edward Colebrooke, the East India Company’s Resident in Delhi, as a means to illustrate many of the themes covered by the book. The case highlights the distinction between gifts and bribes; social norms that blurred definitions of corruption; the overlap between public and private interests; the reliance of Britons on native agents who could themselves be seen as corrupt; the ‘systems’ of corruption that grew up around powerful officers; the politics of anti-corruption; the role of the press in exposing or vindicating corruption allegations; and the ways in which corruption could be gendered and racialised. Trevelyan went on to help write a report in 1854 which is often seen as the blueprint for the modern civil service, and the interaction of Indian and British affairs is an important theme of the book.