Stalin had once mused as to how so few Britishers had managed to rule a country of three hundred million. The answer was not in force of arms or even the machinations of divide et impera. It was the dead hand clutched at the throat of every native via the Indian Civil Service that had brought the country to heel. With forms required in triplicate for matters as simple as recording the death of a water buffalo, was it any wonder that generations of bewildered Indians had found themselves entrapped by the so-called steel frame underpinning Britain’s colonial enterprise?
