Indian Administration Research Articles

Ethos of Planning and Plan Administration in India

Ethos of Planning and Plan Administration in India

Tutelage, Resistance and Co‐optation in Canadian Indian Administration*

L'administration des affaires indiennes par l'état canadien a longtemps suivi une politique de tutelle coercitive visant à accomplir la transformation sociale, économique et culturelle des peuples autochtones et de leurs communautés. En se basant sur l'idée que les autochtones étaient incapables de gérer leurs propres affaires, les autorités fédérales ont imposé des bureaucraties visant à assurer le contrôle de presque tous les aspects de leur vie, de l'éducation des enfants à la gestion des ressources matérielles. Ce système de tutelle étatique a engendré de vastes et profonds mouvements de résistance chez les peuples visés. Toutefois, certains aspects des politiques de l'état fédéral n'ayant pas été uniformément rejetés par l'ensemble de la population autochtone, l'on est en droit de se demander si une acceptation passive ou même une collaboration de la part de certains autochtones aurait un effet néfaste, direct ou indirect, sur l'avancement social des Premieres Nations. En s'appuyant sur une étude de cas, cet article examine un projet unique en son genre, celui du recyclage de l'ancien pensionnat d'une réserve indienne, et met en lumière les méthodes de manipulation et d'incitation à la collaboration qui ont été employées par les autorités fédérales pour convaincre les autochtones d'abandonner le projet. L'auteur se penche également sur l'enjeu théorique et ethnographique pour l'anthropologue, et celui, politique, pour les autochtones, dans la mesure où les incitations à la collaboration peuvent être interprétées dans le cadre d'un rapport tutelle‐resistance entre les Premières Nations et l'état fédéral.The administration of Indian affairs by the Canadian state has embodied a form of coercive tutelage designed to effect the social, economic and cultural transformation of aboriginal peoples and their communities. Working from the premise that aboriginal peoples did not know what was in their own best interests, federal officials imposed bureaucratic systems that sought to regulate almost every aspect of Indians' lives, from the rearing of children to the management of material resources. This system of state tutelage in turn generated deep and widespread resistance from aboriginal communities, which frequently served to frustrate the realization of the federal government's objectives. Nevertheless, not all aspects of federal Indian administration have been uniformly resisted by all aboriginal communities or by all members of given communities. This raises the question of whether instances of non‐resistance or even of active co‐operation on the part of some aboriginal people with certain government policies, initiatives or procedures comprise acts or habits of co‐optation that directly or indirectly compromise the attainment of social justice for the greater aboriginal population. This essay employs a case study to examine the circumstances under which a unique aboriginal initiative to transform a former Indian residential school has been undermined by co‐optative state processes. The essay considers what is at stake theoretically and ethnographically for anthropologists and politically for aboriginal communities if co‐optation is operationally defined as an associated element of relations of tutelage and resistance.

Welfare Administration in India: A Critical Evaluation

Welfare Administration in India: A Critical Evaluation

Criminal Justice Administration in India: Emerging Trends and Futuristic Introspection

Criminal Justice Administration in India: Emerging Trends and Futuristic Introspection

Health Care Policy and Administration in India

Health Care Policy and Administration in India

Fifty Years of Indian Administration—Retrospects and Prospects

Fifty Years of Indian Administration—Retrospects and Prospects

Colonial care: medical attendance among the Mikmaq in Nova Scotia.

In Nova Scotia before Confederation, medical care for native peoples formed an integral part of the fledgling Indian administration. As the colonial authorities became more involved in all aspects of native life, an opportunity for self-advancement was presented to doctors. Practioners among the Mikmaq came from the emerging medical elite. This article argues that their service to the Mikmaq was part of a broader and widespread reform effort. Doctors not only delivered care to the Mikmaq, but they also served the needs of a colonial administration actively seeking to settle natives in reserve communities. The activities of doctors, however, did not go uncontested. This study illustrates the complex interaction among the native administration, the Mikmaq population, and a medical community struggling to organize.

Re-Inventing Public Administration in India: The Challenge of Liberalisation

Re-Inventing Public Administration in India: The Challenge of Liberalisation

Colonialism and Professionalism: A German Forester in India

Abstract Professional German foresters played an important role in shaping the course of forest management in India during the last century. It is to Sir Dietrich Brandis that the credit for the introduction of scientific methods of management is given. Brandis introduced seriousness and professionalism into Indian forest administration. But in general for Brandis German forestry served as a model for the establishment of systematic forest management in India. When the above is viewed in the light of the further fact that in Brandis' time the knowledge of tropical forests was extremely limited in Germany, a number of problematic issues emerge. The paper explores Brandis' relation with the British government. From the evidence available, it appears that Brandis often felt constrained by the 'narrow mindedness' and the 'prejudice and ignorance' of the government. It is argued that the systematic forestry introduced in India by Brandis was along the lines of forestry developed in very different social and ecological conditions, and that its development was greatly constrained by colonial interests.

What is the Indian "Problem": Tutelage and Resistance in Canadian Indian Administration.

What is the Indian "Problem": Tutelage and Resistance in Canadian Indian Administration.

Changing Ethics in Indian Administration

Changing Ethics in Indian Administration

Is the State in India Particularistic?

Summary Hans Blomkvist, ‘Is the State in India particularistic?’, Forum for Development Studies, 1995:2, pp. 285–308. Is it meaningful and illuminating to describe the state in India as ‘particularistic’ or ‘soft’? In two recent works my earlier studies (1988, 1992) of the Indian state have been questioned; explicitly by Ella Ghosh (1994) in relation to administration in Rajasthan, and implicitly by Cedric Pugh (1990) in relation to housing in India and Madras. Adhering to Harry Eckstein's call for cumulativeness, the article discusses the arguments against the ‘particularistic state’ by closely scrutinising the empirical evidence. Four important kinds of evidence—macro-studies of Indian economy and politics, Indian opinion polls, the character of housing politics in Madras, and micro-studies of politics in Madras—all give support to my argument that the state and public administration in India is best understood as ‘particularistic’. The discussion is also related to new research on policy implementation and ‘rent-seeking’, showing that this institutional pattern is found in many other Third World settings as well.

Public Administration in India: Evolution, Change, and Reform

(1994). Public Administration in India: Evolution, Change, and Reform. Asian Journal of Public Administration: Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 249-259.

Reorganisation of Judicial Administration in India

Reorganisation of Judicial Administration in India

John Stuart Mill and India

Beginning as a junior clerk in 1823, John Stuart Mill spent thirty-five years as a colonial administrator in India House, the London headquarters of the East India Company, which dominated the Indian subcontinent. In his Autobiography, Mill paid scant attention to his long imperial career, and following his lead, later commentators have concluded that Indian administration was insignificant for Mill's intellectual development. Rejecting the long-accepted interpretation, this book suggests that important parallels exist between Mill's development as a thinker and his neglected India House career.

Public Administration in India: Immediate Reform Agenda

Public Administration in India: Immediate Reform Agenda

Anti-Public Administration in India

Anti-Public Administration in India

Indian Administration and Problems of Rights and Social Justice

Indian Administration and Problems of Rights and Social Justice

Administration of Justice in Indian Administration—Role of Committees and Commissions

Administration of Justice in Indian Administration—Role of Committees and Commissions

Expatriate management: lessons from the British in India

In this paper, lessons for the study of expatriate management are drawn from the period of British administration in India. It uses ‘the past to study the present’ and puts into sharp focus the key issues which confront human resource management researchers and practitioners dealing with expatriate management today. These issues are seen as essentially the same and cover such areas as selection, training, adjustment, appraisal, reward and re-entry.