132

The distinction has lost much of its meaning
at the present time, as, on the one hand, a portion
of the Indian civil service is now thrown open to
natives of India and the East under statutory provisions
 which dispense alike with the competition
and the covenant; while, on the other hand, arrangements
 have now been made for recruiting the
establishment of civil engineers, and the superior
grades of the educational, forest, and telegraph
departments, by competition or otherwise, and after
special training in England. These gentlemen
are, many of them, drafted into the services referred
to under covenants. As distinguished from the
military service, all servants of the government
belong to the civil service; but these servants
enter the service under different conditions, and
belong to different departments. Applying the
term “civil service” in a narrower sense, it
excludes all the scientific and special departments
and services, and designates those servants who
are employed in the civil administration, whether
judicial or executive, and who belong to the
superior or gazetted grades. The term * Indian
civil service” is used in even a narrower sense
still, however, and designates only the covenanted
civilians admitted after competition in England.

The Indian civil service, using the phrase in
the narrowest sense, will be first referred to.
With a few exceptions, all superior posts in the