Founders of Modern Administration in Uttarakhand 1815 to 1884

Administrative history of Uttarakhand is unique in many respects. What constitutes Uttarakhand today has parts which served as a veritable crucible of innovative administrative experimentation which was carried out by the East India Company when it was faced with a sudden shortage of covenanted civil servants and the system came to be known as the Non-Regulation System. It also consists of parts, which were restored back to its erstwhile ruling dynasty after wresting it back from another foreign power. Tehri State was ruled broadly on the lines of neighbouring British Kumaon and the Commissioner doubled as the Political Agent, keeping a watch-full eye ail the time. Besides these two distinct new administrative systems the 'hybrid' part, not a deliberate one albeit, was represented by Dehra Dun and Jaunsar Bawur, whose complexity was not to be unearthed before the departure of the East India Company itself in 1858. Notwithstanding the classic Gazetteer of the Himalayan Districts of E.T. Atkinson and numerous subsequent District Gazetteers brought out so far no publication has hitherto considered all these singular administrative peculiarities of this extremely fascinating region in a single volume.