Who among the following created the office of the District Collector in India?

Concept

In Company-era administrative history, an institution should be identified by the measure that established it, not by later reforms affecting the same institution.

Creation, later reorganization, and subsequent review by a commission are distinct historical actions.

Application

Under Warren Hastings's revenue plan of 1772, Bengal was divided into districts and European officers called Collectors were placed in charge of district land-revenue administration.

This measure is the basis for crediting Warren Hastings with creating the office of the District Collector in India.

Contrast

• Lord Cornwallis's later administration is associated with the Permanent Settlement of 1793 and judicial and civil-service reorganization.

• The Royal Commission on Decentralisation was appointed in the twentieth century to examine administrative devolution and local government.

• Sir Charles Metcalfe served in the early nineteenth century and is especially associated with liberalizing the Indian press in 1835.

Cross-check

The 1772 revenue arrangement predates these later reforms and inquiries, so the historically credited creator is Warren Hastings.