Sir E. Charles K. Ollivant was a senior member of the Indian Civil Service who made a mark in his dealings with two notable politicians.

Ollivant had arrived in India in 1881. By 1892, he was Political Agent in Rajkot and had a notable disagreement with Mohandas Gandhi who was then a young barrister. The incident resulted in Gandhi being pushed out of the room, and ill-feeling was apparently a factor in his departure for South Africa in 1893.

By 1899, Ollivant had been knighted as a KCIE

Order of the Indian Empire

The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1878. The Order includes members of three classes:#Knight Grand Commander #Knight Commander #Companion...

. In 1901, he was serving as a judicial

Judiciary

The judiciary is the system of courts that interprets and applies the law in the name of the state. The judiciary also provides a mechanism for the resolution of disputes...

 member of the Bombay provincial government

Government

Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...

. It was Ollivant who offered to hire Jinnah at 1,500 rupee

Rupee

The rupee is the common name for the monetary unit of account in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Mauritius, Seychelles, Maldives, and formerly in Burma, and Afghanistan. Historically, the first currency called "rupee" was introduced in the 16th century...

s per month

Month

A month is a unit of time, used with calendars, which was first used and invented in Mesopotamia, as a natural period related to the motion of the Moon; month and Moon are cognates. The traditional concept arose with the cycle of moon phases; such months are synodic months and last approximately...

 and was notably turned down.

Ollivant is also known to have been a director of the Bombay, Baroda, and Central India Railway

Bombay, Baroda, and Central India Railway

The Bombay, Baroda, and Central India Railway was a company incorporated in 1855 to undertake the task of constructing a railway line between Bombay and Vadodara in India. BB&CI completed the work in 1864...

.