Analyzing Indian Police : How it came to be what it came to be?
“Indian Policing directly reflects the changes of Indian Society — influenced by empires, reshaped by democracy, and now infused with technology.”
Every country - small or large - needs a conducive and secure environment to develop and prosper. A country bogged down with a hostile internal or belligerent external environment is going to spend its valuable resources in fighting those issues, which leads to the wastage of time as well as important resources. Therefore, security forces play an important role in providing a favorable environment to the country.
The internal environment of a country is made favourable by maintaining law & order, investigating crimes, catching the culprits, bringing them to justice and protecting persons and their properties from commission of unlawful acts. These things have been done by the Police since time immemorial.
Police and policing has been a crucial part of society since ancient times. It has been through multiple changes as and when needed by the times and the society that it served. In this blog we are going to look into the changes in Indian Police and its policing and how it came to be what it is today.
Policing in Ancient and Medieval Times
Ancient time Policing
In ancient times, we find several references to crimes being known to vedic people in Atharva Veda and Rig veda, however, most prominently the criminal justice system finds its 1st mention in Kautilya’s Arthshastra (310 BC). The positions mentioned in the arthashastra such as Dharmamahamatras, Rajukkas etc acted as the agents of the king and proceeded to enforce the law of the land.
Following this, the criminal justice system was the topic of great curiosity for the travellers such as Fa Xian and Megasthenes, among others and they wrote about it in their scriptures portraying a largely peaceful society and lenient as well as decentralized criminal justice system of Gupta Empire (5th Century CE). They mentioned Dandikas, Nagar Shresthi and others. This structure of the criminal justice system continued further for 500 years and was overhauled in the medieval period.
Medieval Time Policing
The medieval time for empires in the Indian Subcontinent was of intense aggression and conquests. The subcontinent was rife with continuous military occupation and unsettled civic administration. Furthermore, the invasion of muslim conquerors brought the infusion of religion in the administration of the areas under their dominion. The criminal justice system in India found itself to be administered on the lines of religious sermons and was heavily based upon the Holy Quran. Punishments were very harsh and Muhtasibs, Muqaddams were the ranks of the officials in charge of the criminal justice system and administration.
It can be allegedly pointed out that due to the harsh punishments in the society, police functionaries received the scorn of the society and were hated as much as they were feared. This scorn may have continued and is still present in today’s society.
Towards the fag-end of the medieval history, the most important position in the political administration was sultan and other important positions being as follows:
- Faujdar - Head of criminal justice system
- Kotwal - Magistrate and head of police
- Chaukidar - Sole responsible for village administration
One can still find some mentions of these ranks and names in several local languages in India, for example Faujdari court is the name of criminal courts in Maharashtra and other states, even though there is no position in the criminal justice system named Faujdar.
Indian Policing in Modern Society
British Indian Society & Its Policing
It was the 18th century, when the Indian subcontinent slowly and gradually found itself subdued under a new and foreign rule of Britishers. They found their foothold after the Battle of Plassey (1757) and dug deep into the subcontinent after the Battle of Buxar (1764). These two battles entailed the massive military occupation and consolidation of British rule against the broken and divided regional Indian rulers.
On the administration front, British rulers found the need to establish their own policing framework and thus they drafted and enforced three criminal laws which were to become the guiding principle for modern day policing.
- The Indian Penal Code, 1860 (enforced in 1862) - result of 1st law commission, 1834 under the chairmanship of Thomas Macaulay. It was amended several times and was later replaced by Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita, 2023
- The Criminal procedure Code, 1860 (enforced in 1862) - It was the result of multiple works and was amended several times. It was later replaced by Bhartiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023
- The Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (enforced in 1872) - primarily based upon the works of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen and was later replaced by Bhartiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023
Apart from the criminal laws, the framework of Indian policing went through a massive reshuffle and was remodeled on the basis of Indian police Act, 1861, which was developed on the back of police reforms done in Sindh by Sir Charles Napier in 1843.
Indian Police Act,1861
The province of Sind was proving to be a tough province to be managed by the Britishers, as it was riddled with dacoits, baloch raiders and desert banditry. Also, the feudal-style policing carried out by the waderas, sardars and tribal chiefs, infested with corruption, hereditary postings and private militias were no match for them. Therefore, after a military veteran Sir Charles Napier took charge of the Sindh province, he completely overhauled the policing structure and established the first structured police system modern India had ever seen. The need for such policing by British rule was obviously to instill stability in the region in order to maintain the lucrative trade from the region and continue with Company’s profit-making. Nonetheless, these reforms became the basis of modern policing in the country that is still in force, with gradual improvements and changes.
Some major changes were:
- Devoiding the police officers from the duties of revenue-collection, ensuring reduced local-level corruption and abuse.
- Structuring the police force into - Regular police, Mounted police, Thanedars with defined jurisdiction and village watch system.
- Abolished the Feudal Police practices and made the police force a centralized force, removing private militias.
- Introduced record-keeping, Magisterial oversight and established thanas and chowkis in Sindh province.
- Furthermore, British officers were placed above constabulary in order to maintain discipline through drills and inspections.
These changes among others helped improve the policing in the sub-continent. However, one other thing that influenced the Indian Police was the recruitment of police personnel and how it went through changes.
Recruitment in Indian Policing
“Recruit the right personnel, and half the policing is already done.”
Recruitment of the police personnel has always played a key role in accomplishing the aspirations of the empires that it served. Therefore, the recruitment scenario always kept on changing.
Changes in the Police organisation as per the times are discussed in brief below:
- Medieval Times - The police mainly constituted of hereditary based posts such as Kotwals, Thanedars, Darogahs etc generally hired from local population. Officers who were loyal to Sultans and Mughals were recruited and police were decentralized, corruption-ridden and ineffective. Police was heavily influenced by the military and there were no concerns regarding scientific investigation and citizen rights.
- British Era Recruitment - IndianPolice went from hereditary/local posts to structured police set-up with
- Imperial Police - Officers being recruited in England through competitive exams and held higher ranks such as SP, DIG, IG
- Provincial Police - Inspectors/SIs were recruited from provincial governments through exams
- Constabulary - Recruited at district level with main focus on brawns than brains. Training was imparted to the personnel in police training schools, with emphasis on drill, discipline and basic law.
- 19th Century & Post Independence Era - This particular era saw the acceptance of the Islington Commission and policing became much more organized and much more Indian officers started getting recruited in the police force. Entry of Indian gentry into the Imperial police was allowed and accepted, leading to the initiation of Indianization of officer cadre of the force.
- Post Independence Era - Now a fair merit-based recruitment is underway, supervised by dignified commissions such as UPSC, SSC and State Service Commissions. The police force has now completely Indianized, however, it is still far away from being perfect. There are new challenges that have risen such as Corruption, Tech-handicap, dismal Inter-agency cooperation, low quality of life and humongous work pressure among others. But it is a topic for another day.
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