Frederick John Shore was the son of a former Governor General of India, John Shore.  He and his father were both hard working, honest, and ambitious.  However, unlike his father, Shore was very impatient.  He saw corruption around him and the Indian people being crushed by the money hungry English.  He worked to help them out in his daily work and by writing articles detailing the faults of the British government in India.  His work also influenced the other Indian civil servants of the time.

 

     Shore's was not enthusiastic about India when he first arrived and had little good to say about it.  Generally, the British during this time period looked down upon Indians.  Shore says in his writings that the British came to India with a preconceived notion of inferiority.  This was reinforced by what they see when they came in contact with Indian servants.  These servants would steal from their masters, just as a fast food worker might take some food at work without paying.  They felt justified in what they were doing because they had so little and their employer had so much.  They were successful in giving themselves a bad reputation.  Another way in which British came to see the Indians in a bad light is when "their first introduction to official business initiates them at once to the worst and most depraved, in the characters of criminals, witnesses, and official subordinates" (Rebel 134).  Shore was likely to have been impressioned by those around him to see the Indians as bad.  He had the opportunity to see life in the rural parts of India and was able to see that the British stereotype of Indians was far from true.

 

     Shore saw the Indians as a good people and worked hard to improve the parts of India in which he was in charge.  He felt strongly committed to India and used his ambition to move up quickly in the Indian civil service.  He was able to reach respectable position in Indian government.  Later in his life he had no choice but to stay in India for the rest of his career.  In India, he was well known and had a powerful position in the government, however the chance of obtaining a comparable position in England would have been minuscule.  Shore decided to continue his work in India, because the Indians needed someone who was honest and willing to work for them.

     He was moved to Dehra Doon to be a joint magistrate.  Here he saw the evils of British rule.  He worked closely with the people and came to see the British occupation from their perspective.  He saw how the villagers had been extorted by passing troops.  There were deserted villages and uncultivated land.  He cut into the empire's share the profits by helping to rebuild the Dehra Doon.  For example, he rebuilt a necessary well at great expense without permission from his superiors.

 

     Shore believed that Indians had moral values.  The British on the other hand saw them as liars.  He believed they lied to the British to protect themselves.  Shore said "They have for ages been subject to despotism, to foreign aggression, and internal commotions; the mode in which they have been governed is one that causes them to be in a struggle against truth, and obliges them to be vicious in their self defense" (Rebel 33).  They lied to British, but they were not so treacherous at home.  All of the bad elements of Indian society had parallels at home in England.  The British were hypocrites to criticize the Indians.  They said that they were spreading the glories of the British society when in truth they were making money at great cost to the Indian people.  

 

     Shore made sure that the Indian people did not go without an advocate.  He published his criticisms of the government under "A friend to India."  He wrote articles about such things as the evils of British rule, the good qualities of the Indian people, the legal system, and much more.  His ideas were contrary to that of his contemporaries, however, if he was challenged he would tell them to go check for themselves.  Contemporaries such as Munro, Malcolm and Ephinstone may have read and been influenced by Shore's writings.

 

     Munro had some ideas that were similar to those of Shore.  He believed that civil servants should know the language of the people with whom they deal, the land revenues were too high, and that collectors should be paid well to avoid corruption.  However,  Shore did not like Munro's Rotwari settlement.  Munro's plan got rid of the middle man, such as the chief of the village or the zamindar.  These people lived with the villagers and collected revenue.  The zamindar was flexible in the rent that he expected from the villagers.  He did not expect them to pay rent when there was a natural disaster that prevented them from growing their crops.  The zamindars was removed because the British wanted to keep the money that they made.  This was ineffective because was nobody on the spot to see the problems of the people.  The collectors expected the money no matter what problems the cultivators had or they would lose their land.  This caused actual revenue collection to drop.

 

     Shore believed that under this system the farmer was taxed too high and had no incentive to make his land more profitable.  Any additional money he made would have to go to the government anyway.  Shore believed that the villagers should be able to select their own collector who would be sensitive to their needs.  Under this method, the cultivator would work harder to make money for himself and the government.

 

     Another civil servant like Shore was Charles Metcalfe. He felt that it was his duty to render the Indians justice.  He believed  that the cultivator should be proprietor and the Zamindar the collector.  Metcalfe also thought that the wars in India should be stopped because they served no purpose.  All of these ideas were shared by Shore.  Under this policy, Metcalfe was able to raise the revenues by 400%.

 

     Shore was not impressed by Indian culture and felt that they needed to be ruled by the British in his early years.  His ideas changed when had the chance to live the Indian people and see how they suffered under the oppressive rule of the British.  He felt that since his people had done this damage to the Indians that he should help them.  This writer became an advocate for the indian people.  He published articles which revealed the problems of the government and possible solutions to these problems.  His colleagues probably came into contact with his ideas and may have been influenced by them.  Shore's writings brought the misery to the attention of the British if they had listened to him maybe the Indian mutiny could have been avoided. 

 

     His ambition did not subside during his career in India.  For example in the summary of Shore's writings in The Rebel Bureaucrat, the author says that Shore would forgo seeing his aging parents or risk his health to gain a promotion (Rebel 49).

 

 

 

 

 

Rajesh Patel

#577257

History 282

Professor Barrier

 

 

An Analysis of A Rebel Bureaucrat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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