Presidencies and provinces of British India Presidencies and provinces of British India The Provinces of India, earlier Presidencies of India and still earlier, Presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in the subcontinent. Collectively, they were called British India. In one form or another, they existed between 1612 and 1947, conventionally divided into three historical periods: In 1608, Mughal authorities allowed the English East India Company to establish a small trading settlement at Surat (now in the state of Gujarat), and this became the company's first headquarters town. It was followed in 1611 by a permanent factory at Machilipatnam on the Coromandel Coast, and
Indian Civil Service (British India) Indian Civil Service (British India) The Indian Civil Service (ICS), for part of the 19th century officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the elite higher civil service of the British Empire in British India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled more than 300 million people in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Burma (then comprising British Raj). They were ultimately responsible for overseeing all government activity in the 250 districts that comprised British India. They were appointed under Section XXXII of the Government of India Act 1858, enacted by the Parliament of the