India
| Author | George Kurian |
| Pages | 477-482 |
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Official country name: Republic of India (Bharat)
Capital: New Delhi
Geographic description: The largest country in the Indian subcontinent, stretching north to south from the Himalayas to the Indian Ocean, west to east from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal
Population: 1,080,264,388 (est. 2005)
The modern Indian police force is the successor of the imperial police force of British India that had its origins in the police force set up by Sir Charles Napier in Sind in 1843, soon after the annexation of that province. He patterned his organization after the Royal Irish Constabulary. In contrast, other provinces of British India adopted the model of either the London Metropolitan Police Force or the older, indigenous, Mughal system. The Sind model was extended to Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1853 and Madras (now Chennai) in 1859. The Police Commission of 1860 recommended its adoption all over the country, and its principal features were codified in the Police Act of 1861. Under this act, policing was a civil function exercised by state governments, and the state police force was organized hierarchically on military lines under an inspector general of police who was responsible for the internal police administration and accountable to the state government. When India became independent in 1947, the new republic inherited the system from the British and did not make any radical change in its structure.
The Union Government of India—the government's official name—encompasses twenty-eight states and seven union territories. All India Services, India's highest civil administrative services, consists of the Indian Administrative Service, which modeled itself after the elite, preindependence Indian Civil Service; the Indian Police Service, which belongs to individual states and consists of high-ranking police officers, inspectors, and constables; and the Indian Forest Service. Police organization and operations are, in part under central (Union Government) control and in part under local (state and territorial) control. Prevention and detection of crime, apprehension of criminals, and maintenance of law and order are primarily the responsibility of states and territories. The Union Government also has two other police forces: the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and the Central Police Reserve (CRP), which is used for guard duty, action against subversion, and to assist states during
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emergencies such as civil disorder or natural calamities. The CRP is headed by a director general, with headquarters and main garrison in New Delhi. Other national-level agencies include the Defense Security Corps, a number of police schools, and the Constables Advanced Training Center and Women's Police Training Center, both in Ambala. The Central Industrial Security Force is authorized to protect state industrial undertakings. Union Government control of all police services is part of what was known during the British Raj as the ''steel frame'' of Indian administration, but it is a perennial irritant in Union—state relations.
Officers of the IPS are recruited competitively by the Union Public Service Commission and, except for those on headquarters staff duties, are assigned to the states, where the senior positions in state police services are under the operational direction of state governments. Lower grades are staffed by state police services. Although state forces operate separately, they are still governed by the Police Act of 1861 and are highly similar in organization and mode of operation. They are further characterized by functional division between unarmed and separately quartered and armed contingents. The former perform routine daily precinct duties while the latter are reserved for emergency situations where physical force may be required.
The police service is not the first preference among the aspirants for civil service. At the lower levels of subinspector of police and constable, however, a percentage of aspirants come by choice, drawn by the glamour of a uniform and the authority that comes with it. Although there is provision for direct entry at all three levels, 30% of the higher-level positions are reserved for those who rise from the lower cadres. Police candidates must be physically fit and at least five feet tall. Selection is on the basis of an interview following a physical test at the district level by the superintendent of police. Security clearance is necessary before appointment. There is also a hiring quota. This ensures a reasonably balanced communal and regional representation. The higher cadre of police service officers selected by the Union Public Service Commission is subject to a two-tier civil services competitive examination, conducted nationwide, followed by an interview. Also at this level, there is a marginal concession on age, a lower cutoff point as regards marks, and a reservation of 15% for scheduled castes and 7.5% for scheduled tribes (India's socially underprivileged and less-well-educated people). In recent years, women have been admitted to all ranks of the police organization, including the IPS.
The Ministry of Home Affairs is the principal ministry concerned with law enforcement and the maintenance of peace and order. Generally, the minister of home affairs ranks next to the prime minister in influence. As well as the IPS, CBI, and CRP, all police schools and laboratories, prisons and reformatories, as well as the Railway Police are organized under and responsible to the Ministry of Home Affairs in New Delhi. The ministry has seven attached agency offices and eleven principal subordinate offices, including the Police Division. Among the agencies are the Central Bureau of Intelligence—as distinct from the Central Bureau of Investigation—which provides the prime minister and cabinet with national security intelligence. This bureau also has operational control over the Central Fingerprint Bureau, the Central Detective Training School, and the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, all located in Kolkata. It is headed by an inspector general.
The normal working hours of the ordinary constable, either on patrol or other duty, consists of eight hours a day. Subinspectors and those above have no such limitation and may be expected to work as long as required. A typical police officer's work schedule includes some...
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