Architects of Global India

'Nehru's First Recruits' by Kallol Bhattacherjee traces the evolution of India's Foreign Service while documenting Nehru's influence on its early recruits. The book explores diverse entrants, gives historical contexts and recognises India's growing global engagement

- Sanjeev Chopra

If Sardar Patel is the patron saint of the IAS, with respect to the diplomatic corps, the same sobriquet has to be applied for Nehru. For the record, while the first batch of the IAS was recruited even before Independence, the first formal recruitment to the IFS took place a year later through the common civil services examination conducted by the Federal (now Union) Public Service Commission. From the correspondence between the undersecretaries in the External Affairs and the Home Ministry, the tensions between these two stalwarts on how the recruitment should be made come to the fore - for while the Home department was very firm that, but for certain exceptions, the general norm for recruitment had to be followed in the case of the IFS as well. However, we know from the memoirs of civil servants of that era that Nehru would personally interview the toppers of the Civil Services exam to check the suitability of those whom he felt should represent India abroad. All this and much more comes to light in Kallol Bhattacherjee's excellent book Nehru's First Recruits: The History of the IFS, published by HarperCollins last year.