The administrative steel frame of the Indian Civil Service (ICS) was first praised by British Prime Minister David Lloyd George in the House of Commons, where he lauded it as the firm backbone of British rule in the subcontinent. Years later, on the eve of Partition, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel echoed that tribute, calling the Service the very foundation of governance in free India. Yet, what was once celebrated as the finest instrument of administration has, in the decades since independence, been allowed by both India and Pakistan to corrode in the rust of political expediency, mediocrity and moral decay.

The subcontinent has been a laboratory of diverse administrative experiments. The Mughal, the Sikh and the British each devised a system in keeping with their own genius and historical needs. The Mughals ruled as emperors; the British as rational administrators; and Ranjit Singh as a vigilant monarch with a keen sense of pragmatism. In all three models, order, authority and discipline remained the central pillars. The tragedy of post-colonial South Asia lies in its inability to sustain even a fraction of those virtues.

The Mughal administrative structure was a synthesis of Persian refinement and Indian pragmatism. Akbar's genius lay in harmonising autocracy with an astonishing sense of justice. The empire was divided into subahs, governed by subahdars, with a revenue system perfected under Raja Todar Mal. Merit was rewarded through the mansabdari hierarchy, and the........

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