In response to a notice circulated by the government, I applied for selection to the Indian Political Service. This Service, mostly recruited from members of the ICS and the Army, administered the North-West and North-East Frontiers of (undivided) India, manned the British Residencies in the princely states and also the British Legations in Kabul, Kathmandu and a Residency in the Persian Gulf. The vast majority of its members was British, there being only a handful of Indians of whom the senior most was Mr. K.P.S. Menon (senior), a very distinguished and brilliant member of the ICS and later independent India’s first Foreign Secretary.

I was in due course asked to appear before a Selection Board in New Delhi and was due to return to Bihar but was advised to wait and was given a letter, asking me to appear before Lord Wavell, Vice-Roy of India .

The viceroys of India probably lived in greater splendour than their sovereigns, the Emperors of India. Certainly, they enjoyed immense power and authority and I, a junior Civil Servant of scarcely four years standing, had least expected to be ushered into his presence. No sooner than I entered his room, he stood up, shook my hand and bade me take my seat before he sat. He was soft-spoken and gentle, exuding warmth and friendliness. At this distance of time, I do not recall our conversation but I was throughout at ease and left, as I came in, him standing, shaking hands and bidding me good-bye (I mention this in some detail because of my very different experience in subsequent years with some so-called VIPs of India).

I returned to my post in Bihar and was then transferred to Bhubaneswar in Orissa. I was making preparations to leave, when one evening an urgent letter arrived by safe hand from my Deputy Commissioner in Muzaffarpur to say that I had been selected to the Indian Political Service and should quickly report for duty in the Foreign and Political Department of the Government of India in New Delhi.

I joined duty there in August 1946, as Under-Secretary dealing with the affairs of Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and the North-East Frontier. The foreign and political department was directly under the Viceroy and it dealt with not only the Maharajas and their states, but also with the affairs of the North-West and North-East Frontiers. These frontiers were parts of India and should have been the responsibility of the Home Ministry. Eventually, after our independence, the North-West Frontier ceased to be our concern and the North-East Frontier (NEF) was in due course transferred to the Home Ministry.

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