Indian Civil Service Association

(Incorporating the Indian Police (UK) Association)

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Mr M.M. Sen ICS (Bengal 1943) 1919 - 2019

Mr. Monishi Mohan Sen, ICS, passed away yesterday on 23rd October 2019. He was close to 100 years old and was born on 14th December 1919. He belonged to the 1943 ICS batch, which was the last ICS batch ever recruited. This batch was fully recruited and trained in India, and had only Indian ICS officers as members.

Some other well-known members of the 1943 ICS batch were the late Mr. N. K. Mukharji, ICS, last ICS Cabinet Secretary and the late Mr. Agha Shahi, ICS, former Foreign Minister of Pakistan.

Mr. Sen belonged to the Bengal/West Bengal cadre of the ICS, and from the late 1950s spent his time in Delhi where he was Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, for over a decade, in both Defence and Defence Production departments, the Chief Controller of Imports and Exports, and the Secretary of the Department of Defence Production till his retirement. After his retirement, he chaired the commission developing plans and building the second bridge over the Hooghly river in Calcutta.

Mr. Sen belonged to a distinguished Brahmo family of Calcutta. His father Mr. Bhupati Mohan Sen was a Cambridge graduate, and a member of the Indian Educational Service (IES), who became the first Indian principal of Presidency College, Calcutta, a post he held for 12 years.

The late Principal B M. Sen, who had received the Padma Bhushan award, lived long enough to see not only his son join the ICS but also be one of the last members to retire from the ICS after having been a Secretary to the Government of India.

With Mr. Sen's departure, there is only one ICS officer in the world alive, and that is Mr. V. M. M. Nair, ICS, of the 1942 batch.

Mr. V. M. M. Nair, ICS (Bihar and Orissa: 1942) will celebrate his 100 birthday on 8th October 2019.


Mr. Nair is now India’s senior-most civil servant and the doyen of the civil services in India.

Ambassador Nair belongs to the 1942 batch of the Indian Civil Service and was selected in 1946 for the Foreign and Political department of the Government of India, by then Viceroy Field Marshal Wavell.

Mr. Nair is also the only surviving member of the Indian Political Service and, after independence, went into the Indian Foreign Service, and served in and headed India’s missions for over two decades in Egypt, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Norway, Poland, Morocco (accredited to Tunisia as well), and Spain.

The 1942 ICS batch is unique, as it was the last ICS batch recruited in UK. It was the smallest UK batch of the ICS ever recruited. It had only 2 recruits from the UK, both Indian candidates, and no UK (European) members.

There were other 1942 ICS members recruited in India, such as the late Mr. K. Balachandran ICS (Assam), a former Secretary to the President of India, Mr. Nair’s brother-in-law.

Mr. Nair was one of 2 such UK recruits, and the other recruit Mr. Chandra Prakash Gupta, ICS (UP) quit the ICS prematurely in the late 1960s after having been the Establishment Officer to the Government of India.

A unique coincidence is that both Mr. Nair and Mr. Gupta were born on the same day. Nothing is known about Mr. Gupta, though his birth centenary is approaching as well.

Mr. Nair, MA (Madras), MA (Oxon.), MA (Cantab.), Bar-at-Law, is one of very few Indians to have belonged to three superior services: ICS, pre-1947 IPS (Political) & post-1947 IFS (Foreign).

He belongs to an illustrious family, and his father Chettur Karunakaran Nair was a District Superintendent of Police in pre-independence Madras Presidency, an uncle Sir Chettur Madhavan Nair (a son-in-law of Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair) was a member of the Privy Council, another uncle Diwan Bahadur Chettur Govindar Nair was Law Secretary of Orissa before independence, and an uncle Chettur Krishnan Nair was Public Prosecutor in Madurai before independence.

Mr. Nair resides in New Delhi, together with his wife.

Further details of Mr. Nair’s life and career can be found at his personal website: www.vmmnair.com

(Author Sumit Majumdar - September 2019)