Catalogue description Civil Lists

This series includes all the issues of civil lists of the Government of India and of the provincial governments. The civil lists were issued at varying intervals, but the predominant pattern is a system of quarterly issues which was cut back to half-yearly publication in the early 1930s and further reduced to an annual list during the Second World War. Coverage is usually restricted to gazetted officers in the main series of lists, but there are a few supplementary lists of subordinate services and also some fuller departmental establishment lists which include non-gazetted appointments, in particular the Telegraph, Indo-European Telegraph, Public Works and Railwaysdepartments. The first two include signalling staff and linesmen and the latter "artificers and mechanics" from 1874. The information provided generally includes date of birth and of appointment, length of service and salary. There are also usually lists of casualties by death or retirement since the previous issue and of holders of honours and titles. An index in the handlist in the Reading Room shows in which civil list and for what period the officers of the main subordinate departments will be found.

A complete record of appointments of gazetted officers will be found in the Histories of Services series (V/12)