wl-3428-Debating Bureaucratic Apathy: Institutional Decay and IAS Story in India

Recent newspaper articles by prominent former IAS officers titled have tried to bring to our notice the necessity of administrative reforms (Subbarao 2022; Gupta 2022). They argue that the twin factors of political interference and internal incentives are the major reason which has stymied Indian bureaucracy. Though partially valid, this cannot be the sole cause for its structural inefficacy and failure. Instead of reducing the system’s malaise to the interferences of politicians, an intense introspection on the structural causes, such as the temptation for joining the service, role of caste patronage networks, colonial legacy needs to be undertaken. Hence, beyond continuity and change, there is a dire need to theorise the inherent pathology of the steel framework of India. If the troika of impersonality, neutrality, and rationality are theoretically considered as the hallmark of an ideal bureaucracy, shouldn’t a thorough evaluation of Indian bureaucracy be done on these standards? What happens to its Weberian features when it traverses into newer settings where hierarchy and segmented authority forms the default norm? Has bureaucracy been able to shed off its colonial hangover and gone through a notional change that is consistent with modern democratic sensibilities? It is around these questions that this article is structured. While most in India decry the public sector and its inefficiencies and yet, given a chance, almost every Indian parent would want their ward to be part of the system. What explains this irony and how does it help in shedding light on the nature of social psyche in India is what we also try to tap into. Finally, the article makes a strong case for institutionalising certain ethical codes as a more meaningful way of talking about bureaucratic reforms.