ON Nov 3 this year, Aitchison College, Lahore, will celebrate its 140th birthday. It has outlived the former Indian Civil Service which lasted 87 years (1858-1947), and is almost twice the age of the ICS’ successor, the Pakistan Civil Service.

In many ways, the path and purpose of Aitchison College have run parallel to both, in that it has produced generations of pre- and post-independence leadership.

At the time of independence, in August 1947, there were 980 ICS officers. They comprised 468 British and 512 Indian locals. Of the latter, 352 were Hindus and 101 Muslims. The remainder were a smattering of other faiths. The first Indian to be admitted to the ICS was Satyendranath Tagore, in 1863.

Until the 1950s, the ICS remained a misogynist preserve, as Aitchison College is even today. The first woman to be admitted into the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) was Anna Rajam Malhotra, who joined its 1951 batch. Initially, the Union Public Service Commission Board after her viva voce interview tried to discourage her from joining the IAS. It offered her the Foreign Service and Cen­tral Services, because these were ‘more suitable for women’. She resisted their blandishments, and in........

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