BY DR KAUSTAV BHATTACHARYYA

‘A TALE TOLD BY AN IDIOT’ – RP ‘RON’ NORONHA – FASCINATING & GRIPPING READ

My mind reflected upon the fact that I could not manage to pen a single article on ICS (Indian Civil Service) officers despite that fact that it writ large in my imagination as a theme in my doctoral dissertation.  There is too much a close association or entanglement with the topic of ICS officers which prevented an article since my completion of Doctorate which has been nearly a decade.

Indian Civil Service or ICS was the administrative apparatus or the Civil Service structure responsible for the complete bureaucratic administration of the Indian Sub-Continent established by the British Raj.  In post-Independence India the structure and the Civil Service metamorphosed into the IAS (Indian Administrative Services).

This was true until I stumbled upon a ‘jewel’ of a fascinating memoir of an ICS officer RP Noronha titled rather mockingly and sarcastically, ‘A Tale Told by an Idiot.’  Self-mocking indeed!! The memoirs of RP Noronha(Ron) are one of the canonical references on ICS officers, a kind of ‘gold standard’ which was a sine qua non on the reading list for any piece of academic writing on the topic of ICS officers.

I recollect one of the very vivid extracts used in my thesis from the memoirs of RP Noronha where he explains what set apart these ordinary individuals as ICS officers from the rest of the populace; ‘A dedicated sense of duty born of tradition and training, independent outlook and Complete identification with the interests of the people of wherever they were sent to serv’e.  I can only humbly testify that now having read the memoirs and having listened to the junior officers who were aware of his work, that Noronha lived up to the ideals he stated for the ICS officers to the very hilt.

The title of the memoirs is inspired by the following lines from a Shakespearean play, Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5;

‘Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player
That struts and frets this hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more; it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.’

The tale told ‘full of sound and fury’ here in this case is history, personal history covering a period of 35 years rooted in the very ‘grassroots’ as experienced by Noronha as an ICS officer posted in the very heartland of India, the Central Provinces.  This life-history defined by Noronha as ‘always difficult sometimes dark, but never dull’ reveals a deep and abiding compassion for the people whom he served.  It certainly is not dull bureaucratic recollections with the tales of hunting exploits in the forests and hills of India.

The tale starts off with his dramatic sporty chevalier-styled entry into the Indian Civil Services in a ‘pleasantly casual fashion’ topping the list of Indian candidates without betraying much sweat and toil but more of an effortless smooth gliding into the hallowed portals of the prestigious ‘Twice-born’ civil servants of the British Raj.  The ICS was still a very British institution with nearly 60 percent of the total ICS headcount of 1299 being British at 759 officers with the Indian officers constituting 40 percent of the total at 540.  In the Central Provinces where Noronha was posted the number of British officers were 72 and the Indians were 37.

The depiction of the scenario with respect to the ‘transfer of power’ from the British to the Indians especially in the ICS structure as captured in the book is highly insightful and informative. There was no recruitment until the end of the War hence the last recruitment was in 1939, hence all kudos to the Indian ICS officers like Noronha who assumed responsibility within a short span of time in a hurry without any formal transfer and facilitating of change. The staffing situation was clearly not optimal and congenial for running the administrative machinery of a sub-continental entity like India.

As Noronha mentions that ‘my people interested me far more than the goings on of political high society’ which led to a love affair with the Central Provinces and its people which lasted for 35 years, nearly a lifetime.

Noronha’s very apt, accurate and moving description of the closing stages of the British Raj, the ‘last hurrah’ of the War Years (1939-1945) provides interesting insights. In the book Noronha (pictured above) describes that it was clearly evident that the Raj was on its last sojourn and the end was near.

However, Noronha reserves praises for the British officers for their ability to continue to discharge their responsibilities with a certain élan and dignified detachment in a confident manner with self-assured calm which evoked the admiration of Noronha.

His memoirs rightfully capture the Patrician world of the ‘Heartland’ Bureaucracy or the District Administration as defined in the official parlance, where a Paternalism reigned supreme with the senior IAS/ICS officers towards the junior ICS/IAS officers and fresh recruits into the Civil Services.

As he mentions the anecdote of his senior Jayaratnam who cautioned him with a wink to keep his debts under check and concludes that the ‘greatest advantage the ICS had over the IAS was the possession of men like Jayaratnam.’ Although I can modestly state based on my empirical doctoral research that this legacy continued long into the post-independence years after 1947.

Ron Noronha lead a very colourful life unlike that of a drab and dry bureaucrat whereby he kept 2 horses, pair of bull terriers and went riding with the Tent Club. Noronha joined the Indian Civil Services towards the end of 1939 as Assistant Commissioner, Nagpur and his first official posting was Assistant Commissioner in Sagar district, Jabalpur Division and opted for the Central Provinces primarily because of his interest in ‘shikaar’ or hunting.  The tales of hunting bravado abound in his memoirs; the fascinating hair-raising exploits of encountering a leopard who had mauled two men and then Noronha charging a spear into the leopard’s belly instead of the chest when hunting rules dictated it should have been the chest and in turn he was saved by the skin of a teeth from being a fodder for the leopard.

His abiding love for the tribals and a deep sense of remorse for displacing them from their natural habitat through the modernity is a leitmotif through the book and as a matter of fact the longest chapter is dedicated to his work, interactions, conversations and experience with the tribals in the form of a Diary; ‘ABUJ-MARH DIARY’. Their emotions of being attached to the land which in their eyes has a ‘life of its own’ fascinated Ron Noronha which he compared to the ‘umbilical cord’ which cannot be severed with the Mother Earth.  In an All India Radio IR broadcast in 1974 Noronha mentions: ‘In spite of all our efforts, the Adivasi remains a better man than you or I’ and qualities he praises are sense of humour, identification with their community and sense of detachment. 

His work in the realm of ‘Anti-Malarial’ efforts and initiatives is truly commendable in 1944 in Bastar, which was a malaria-infested place. There is humour and wit which is ever present in his memoirs and narrates an incident where mosquitoes discovered that sitting on a DDT sprayed wall meant being perished hence once a mosquito bit someone while Noronha was watching and instead of landing on the nearest wall it flew out and then returned with a thin blade of grass and put the grass on the top of the door and sat on it.  It sounds eerie in our post-pandemic world how Noronha expresses concern that people or citizens would become less cautious and more callous when it comes to precautions concerning malaria thus leading to more episodes of these breakouts.  This is very much true in the context of the experience of public health officials across the world during the COVID crisis and it’s here one doff their hat at the ICS officers and their ingenuity and profound knowledge of Public Affairs.

Noronha reminisces and dwells on the maintenance of law-and-order challenge which he feels calls for courage and strong conviction and compares it to riding a horse and that if ‘once you let it get out of control or lose grip it bolts and the recovery process of control is difficult.’ He laments the adopting of a lackadaisical approach to law-and-order maintenance where the ‘horse has its own way’ and let in the ‘little things’ like bar-brawls, street-fights and Noronha ensured that his Division never lost control of ‘the little things’. 

A chapter dedicated to the ‘Political Masters’ is both interesting and intriguing since for many of the ICS officers used to direct authority and power over Administration based on the rule book it was novelty to report to elected Indian officials.  This interface with the Political masters in many cases led to misusing the administrative structures for political ends which led to indiscipline and inefficiency. My doctoral interview transcripts were abound with grievances and grudges against interference by elected politicians in the delivery of public service by the Civil Servants especially those of an earlier generation who had worked with the ICS officers. This is dwelt at length in his chapter ‘The Beginning of the End’.

Finally in conclusion, Noronha departs from the service with an element of ‘dash’ of the dramatis personae; refusing any extension of Service he darted off speeding away on his motorbike with the saying, ‘its time for me to go, and I will not stay in service a day longer’. In his memoirs he concludes with a quote from Horace: ‘Spondet Fortune Mutta Multis, prasetat nemini’ meaning ‘Fortune makes many promises to many and fulfills none’.