n the lobby of the Indian Institute of Public Administration in New Delhi hang portraits of three iconic figures in the history of Indian self-rule. The first two you could probably guess: Gandhi and Nehru. The third is Paul H. Appleby, one-time dean of the Maxwell School.

India gained its independence from Britain in 1947 and moved quickly to build a Western-style democratic government, attempting to escape the comfortable paternalism of the Commonwealth while encouraging citizen equality (despite the age-old caste tradition). In 1952, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the Ford Foundation conspired to engage an American expert on public administration, to provide assessment and substantiation for the reforms.

The expert they chose was Appleby, former New Deal administrator and, since 1947, dean of the Maxwell School. He proved ideal for the task, not only because of his scholarly credentials—he’d written such broadly focused books as Big Democracy and Morality and Administration—but also due to a rare mix of curiosity, empathy, cordiality, and candor. Appleby entered the world of Indian government, developed a sweeping understanding and appreciation of its peculiarities, gained the trust of dozens of officials, and then (where necessary) criticized bluntly. “I came to the conclusion, and expressed it, that the government of India is one of [a] dozen or so of the most advanced democracies,” he wrote in a brief report home. “It is the most exciting and most appealing place I know in the world today, and one of the most important. The drive toward betterment of the condition of the masses is deeply determined, intelligent, and unselfish.”

His first visit, six months long, resulted in a 30,000-word report that laid out basic structures for improving governance—creation of an Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), for example—and generally encouraging governmental decentralization.  The “Appleby Report” became a roadmap for Indian reform, immediately implemented. He then made a three-month follow-up visit in early 1954, reporting remarkable citizen commitment to progress, rapid growth in the public infrastructure, and a disturbing reluctance by Parliament to cede authority to smaller, local agencies.

His role in Nehru’s reforms made Appleby a visiting champion—a de Tocqueville—of Indian democracy; the Appleby Report is referenced today, still, as a primer in Indian governance. This past March, the IIPA (the institute whose creation Appleby recommended) turned 50 years old; of two book-length commemorative volumes issued on that occasion, one is devoted entirely to him. Among streets bounding the IIPA is the recently renamed Paul H. Appleby Marg.

And, in the what-goes-around-comes-around department, Mitchel Wallerstein, current dean of Maxwell, recently signed a letter of understanding with the IIPA, setting the stage for an exchange of research and faculty, joint seminars and symposia, and cooperative education between Maxwell and the institute a Maxwell dean once helped to create. One wonders whether even Paul Appleby could have foreseen this as an effect of his work in India.            

—Dana Cooke

This article appeared in the Spring 2004 print edition of Maxwell Perspective; © 2004 Maxwell School of Syracuse University. To request a copy, e-mail dlcooke@maxwell.syr.edu.