This is the first volume of the selected writings of Allan Octavian Hume, the founder of the Indian National Congress. It focuses on Hume's years in district administration in what was then the North Western Provinces. What lends special interest to this early phase of his life was that some eleven years of it were spent continuously in one district, Etawah. From these documents Hume emerges as a committed reformer in the British liberal utilitarian mode, but one who was very sensitive to local Indian opinion.

Volume editor: Edward C. Moulton