.Indian collector:

District Collectors are officers of the Indian Administrative Service and are the most powerful government officials of the district. They are entrusted the task of handling law and order, revenue collection, taxation, the control of planning permission and the handling of natural and man-made emergencies. A collector was a crucially important colonial officer placed at the district level and entrusted with the responsibility of revenue collection and other civil duties.

n spite of many structural changes in the office of the district collector ever since its inception in 1772 by Warren Hastings, the district collector functioned as the most decisive officer of the administration throughout the British period. It was through this officer that the colonial state used to execute its commands, and maintained local control. Originally, the business term 'collector' was given to the European district officer to make other powers in Bengal feel that he was not really a ruler, but merely an officer for revenue collection which was the duty of the British East India Company as the Diwan of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. For many years the Company pretended to be the diwan, and not the sovereign of the country. But the term became so much a part of the colonial system that it was retained down to the end of British rule.

The designation "district magistrate" is used in the criminal procedure code to denote the principal magistrate of the district. The term 'collector' is derived from the land revenue laws. The designation district magistrate and collector was used during the British colonial days for districts except in the Chittagong Hill Tracts as a non-regulation district where the term deputy commissioner was used. However, after 1960, the district magistrate and collector came to be redesignated throughout the country as deputy commissioner. It is important to note that during the early years, the deputy commissioner's office was concerned with internal security and revenue administration.