covenanted servant

English

Noun

covenanted servant (plural covenanted servants)

(British India) A member of the regular civil service of India.

Usage notes

Members of this service originally entered into a formal covenant with the British East India Company, and later with the Secretary of State for India. Many other classes of servants went to India under a variety of contracts and covenants, but this term generally did not refer to them.

Further reading

Henry Yule, A[rthur] C[oke] Burnell (1903) “covenanted servant”, in William Crooke, editor, Hobson-Jobson […] , London: John Murray, […].

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