Sir Sidney Wadsworth ICS A Life in History and Memory

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A Judge in Madras: Sir Sidney Wadsworth and the Indian Civil Service, 1913 - 47.

Caroline Keen

New Delhi: Harper Collins, 2021.

Sir Sidney Wadsworth, ICS retired to the Isle of Man after he retired in 1947 and spent some of his retired life writing his "memoirs" which in the classic western sense was to remain a personal record of service, reflection and memory. However, his grandson, Simon Wadsworth took upon himself the task of rescuing the manuscript from the archives and getting Caroline Keen to flesh out the life and career of Sidney Wadsworth within the broader context of both Indian History and the administrative and judicial institutions of the Madras Presidency , where Wadsworth spent his entire official career. The result is a book rich in detail and is a significant addition to the growing literature of "Colonial Life and Careers". 

Before discussing the book we must address a particularly gross and intellectually vapid trend in "Imperial" and "Post Colonial" studies. White scholars seem to think that by aligning themselves with Black Lives Matter and ranting against the excesses of colonialism they rid themselves of both the guilt of their inherited past and the privileges which their colour has bestowed by virtue of colonialism, conquest and domination. Historical analysis based on empirical evidence rooted in a methodology that foregrounds reconstruction of the past is certainly more humane and enriching than the  ideological virtue signaling as represented by Priyamvada Gopal's Insurgent Empire.

The book under review fortunately avoids this trap of sliding into the quagmire of post colonial "discourse" by remaining focused on the life and the times in which Wadsworth lived. It makes no attempt at providing a Balance Sheet for the British Empire nor does it meander into the dead dreary sand of the "Idea of India" exposition so beloved of later day imperialists. It is perhaps a given that a young man in the late nineteenth century sent to the Colonies as a covenanted officer of the Crown would carry a sense of awareness of the immense power he wielded and towards the end of his life become a tad bit embarrassed over it as he approached the twilight of his life. And this indeed was the case with Sidney Wadsworth. "He was conscious of his own importance; but that very consciousness, while it may have given rise to a certain superiority of manner, also led him to put his work first and make it the paramount interest in life" (240). 

Sidney Wadsworth was born in 1888 and died in 1976, a life long enough to see the High Noon of Empire and the fading twilight into which Britain had descended by the early 1970s. He was educated in Sorbonne, Paris and he qualified for appointment to the Indian Civil Service in 1912 and was assigned to work in the Madras Presidency.  This Presidency for some reason was considered less desirable than the other two Presidencies and the sprawling provisions and commissionaires of British India. Having learnt Tamil he arrived in Madras just before the outbreak of World War I in 1913. Wadsworth's first posting was as sub collector of Vellore where he was trained by Sir Norman Majoribanks, the Collector. As the designation implies the first responsibility of the "Collector" was revenue assessment and collection, the Jamabandhi as it was termed in English revenue parlance. World War I saw him work as an army censor and later he was the sub collector of Gudur in Nellore District. Fort Galeria built near Lake Pulicat by the VOC, the Dutch East India Company was not merely a trading post for innocent trade goods like Textiles and Rice but was also a notorious Slaving Port on the Coromandel Coast. The Dutch raided the coastal areas fr slaves whom they sent to Batavia. It is unfortunate that Caroline Keen, a trained Historian, has missed this vital fact.

After the war ended, Wadsworth was posted to the Board of Revenue. But soon he decided that he would like to serve on the Judiciary and went to London for six months in order to qualify for judicial appointment. He was admitted to the Middle Temple, the same one that Gandhi, the self styled "father of the Nation" had entered. Presiding over murder trials involving local women and medically challenged accused must have been quite instructive. As the district judge of Chingleput, Wadsworth has perforce to adjudicate disputes over water and water rights as the area was essentially irrigated by rain fed water stored in tanks and reservoirs. He succeeded in settling a serious dispute over the sharing of the Swarnamuki river waters by making the litigants agree to arbitration rather than judicial judgement and it is said that his decision is still in force in the region. After a stint  in Madura, Sidney Wadsworth was posted to Madurai and later became a Judge in the High Court of Madras. 

 As the High Court Justice he presided over the Sir Raja Annamali Chettiyar Case and several important cases. In 1947 he retired just after India became "Independent" and after the Partition of the country. 

This biography based on the personal memoirs of an ICS Officer in Madras during the years of British rule is an interesting book and an important one in that it provides us insight into the mind of an officer during the heyday of Empire.