Service To The Nation

P. Sabanayagam was selected to the first batch of the Indian Administrative Service at the dawn of Indian Independence after a career in the Defence Services during World War II. He witnessed and participated in the change of the old guard from the British regime to the birth of the fledgeling nation called India. Service to the Nation chronicles the distinguished service of an individual for whom good governance was sine qua non with good administration, a requisite foundation for nation-building. The memoir documents his contribution in various walks of government, spanning 33 years and his personal anecdotes. A ringside view revealing the working styles, political acumen and political compulsions of historical figures such as Rajaji, Kamaraj, Kalaignar Karunanidhi, Indira Gandhi, Morarji Desai, Lal Bahadur Shastri amongst others. The biography is an insightful guide for anyone serving government or for a perspective of the inner workings of the administrative machinery. Starting his service as Sub-collector, Pollachi and thereafter Tellicherry, he held a number of important positions in the State and Center. Among them were Private Secretary to Chief Minister C.Rajagopalachari, Collector (Salem), Director of Industries and Commerce, Chief Controller of Imports and Exports, Joint Secretary Cabinet Secretariat & Steel, Chairman (Tamil Nadu Electricity Board), Chief Secretary (Government of Tamil Nadu), Secretary Education and Culture (Government of India) and Chairman of various Commissions constituted by Government. His contribution to governance is chronicled in this memoir. Post-retirement he continues to actively engage himself in contributing to society in the fields of education, industry and various religious endeavours.

With reference to India.

The Book Is An Innovative Analysis Of Social Service And Philanthropic Efforts In Late Colonial India In The Context Of Broader Social, Cultural And Political Developments. The Book Also Demonstration How Organizations Such As The Servants Of India Society Contributed To The Emergence Of A Vibrant Network Of Associations And The Invigoration Of India`S Public Life.

Traces the philosophy behind Woodrow Wilson's 1913 decision to institute de facto segregation in government employment, cutting short careers of Black civil servants who already had high-status jobs and closing those high-status jobs to new Black aspirants.

Military service in Bolivia has long been compulsory for young men. This service plays an important role in defining identity, citizenship, masculinity, state formation, and civil-military relations in twentieth-century Bolivia. The project of obligatory military service originated as part of an attempt to restrict the power of indigenous communities after the 1899 civil war. During the following century, administrations (from oligarchic to revolutionary) expressed faith in the power of the barracks to assimilate, shape, and educate the population. Drawing on a body of internal military records never before used by scholars, Elizabeth Shesko argues that conscription evolved into a pact between the state and society. It not only was imposed from above but was also embraced from below because it provided a space for Bolivians across divides of education, ethnicity, and social class to negotiate their relationships with each other and with the state. Shesko contends that state formation built around military service has been characterized in Bolivia by multiple layers of negotiation and accommodation. The resulting nation-state was and is still hierarchical and divided by profound differences, but it never was simply an assimilatory project. It instead reflected a dialectical process to define the state and its relationships.