THE POLICE IN INDIA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 121, 24 May 1932, Page 6

THE POLICE IN INDIA.

Tn India, as in other parts of the Empire, a police service exists for the purpose of promoting justice aiul of preserving order. The first essential of justice is that its agents should net impartially. There is amplo proof that the men under Hie British administrative heads of the Indian police in all parts of that vast dependency are sufficiently well disciplined and sufficiently loyal to duty to obey orders and act impartially, even in a situation where their religious feelings may he deeply stirred. The influence of communal feeling inside the rank and file of the polics force is strikingly absent. This speaks volumes for the administrators, for it is recognised that this impartiality of action is due, not only to the training and discipline of the force, but to the ordinary policeman's knowledge ho will be supported in the duo discharge of his duty and will not be sacrificed to clamour or intrigue. The Indian Police Department is the target < f much political attack in its work to secure the essential conditions for tho enjoyment of all the advantages of citizenship, but if the question arisos of removing a police station, the outcry which immediately follows proves that the value of police protection is recognised, The Indian peasant is normally law-abiding but he is capable under excitement, and in particular under religious excitement, of serious violence. Small store is then set 011 life and limb. Even peaceful Madras ryots (peasants) will heat each other savagely over disputes about water rights. Moreover, there are whole communities which are criminal by caste—theft is their recognised and only means of subsistence from birth to death. Even more dangerous, there are in some parts of India considerable elements in the population, which, 011 tho relaxation of police control, or any suspicion of it, turn to organised and \iolcnt crime 011 a wide scale. Tho interval which separates order from anarchy in India is narrow, as the non-co-operation movement and present communal riots in Bombay testify. It will be natural to ask how such a force as this, recruited from various communities and often operating in times of tension, is affected in its duties by religious divisions. The records of the force clearly prove that in this respect it is extremely good. For in areas notorious for tho frequency and violence of their communal riots, Mohammedan constables can ho trusted to escort a Hindu procession playing music before mosques, and the Brahmin constables can be trusted to perform tho same service for a Mohammedan procession leading cows to slaughter. Thus there is very remarkable evidence of the loyalty and discipline of the rank and file and it reflects great credit on the fine leadership and strict justice of the British controlling officers of Die service. —ROBERT H. NEIL.