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Strangers in the Village? Colonial policing in rural Bengal, 1861 to 1892

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2015

ERIN M. GIULIANI
ERIN M. GIULIANI*
Affiliation:
University of Queensland, Australia Email: e.giuliani@uq.edu.au
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Abstract

The chief concern of this article is the organization and administration of rural policing in colonial Bengal during the last 40 years of the nineteenth century. It connects its design and implementation with the consolidation of India's colonial police force, while highlighting the ongoing negotiations made by the Bengal police in a wider colonial model. The article argues that the police administration of rural Bengal was shaped initially by the ordinary constraints of the colonial state which underpinned the design of the Indian police—namely its frugality and preference for collaborating with local intermediaries, a manifestation of salutary neglect. Yet, it highlights the role of Bengal's largely British police executive in renegotiating customs of governance and, ultimately, as an established model of policing in India. The article focuses, therefore, on ongoing and at times informal police reforms which were based upon notions contradictory to an official discourse about policing in India. This article thus contextualizes the development of rural police administration in Bengal in a strong tradition of police-led reform in the province. In so doing, the article redresses a traditional historiographical focus on the political origins and coercive function of the police, and problematizes current research which situates Indian policing within customs of British governance in the subcontinent.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 49 , Issue 5 , September 2015 , pp. 1378 - 1404
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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References

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13 Bhadralok is a term for an economic group of people in Bengal (of various castes), who were economically prosperous and formed a social elite; members of this social group became involved as nationalist leaders in the independence movements of the early to mid twentieth century in colonial Bengal.

14 Ibid, p. 260.

15 Ibid, p. 230.

16 Taken from the title of Chandavarkar (2007) ‘Customs of Governance’, p. 1.

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28 Chandavarkar, Imperial Power and Popular Politics, p. 180.

29 Ibid, p. 5.

30 Ibid, p. 4.

31 Ibid, p. 5.

32 Chandavarkar, ‘Customs of Governance’, p. 449.

33 ‘Government Resolution Appointing the Police Commission’, 17 August 1860. IOR/P/146/27.

34 Ibid.

35 Ibid.

36 Ibid.

37 Ibid.

38 Police Committee to the Secretary to the Government of India, Home Department, ‘Report of the Police Commission, 1860’ in Hari Rao, The Indian Police Act, pp. 126–133.

39 Ibid, p. 132.

40 Ibid, p. 127.

41 ‘Select Extracts from the Speeches During the Proceedings of the Legislative Council of India, No. III, First Reading of the Draft Police Act’, 29 September 1860. IOR/P/146/27.

42 ‘Report of the Police Commission, 1860’, p. 127.

43 Ibid.

44 Ibid.

45 Letter from the Court of Directors to Governor General in Council, 24 Sept 1856 in Papers Relating to the System of Police in the Bengal Presidency, Cox and Wyman, 1857. IOR/V/27/150/2.

46 Ibid.

47 ‘Minute by Lord Cornwallis, The Governor-General, 7 December 1792’, Srinivasasara Aiyangar (1905) ‘Confidential note on the question of the liability of the zamindars as landholders to report the occurrence of serious crimes in their estates and to assist the regular police in the apprehension of offenders’, serial 30, ORB/40/278, p. 2.

48 Letter from the Court of Directors to Governor General in Council, 24 Sept 1856.

49 One coss is equal to 2 miles.

50 Regulation XXII, 1793, in R. W. Carlyle, Inspector-General of Police, Lower Provinces (1905) ‘Note on the Rural Police in Bengal: A brief history of the village system with information as to the nature and success of any attempts which have been made to improve it’, Bengal Papers Relating to the Indian Police Commission, serial 28, ORB 40/278, p. 3.

51 Chatterji, Basudev (1981) ‘The Darogah and the Countryside: The Imposition of Police Control and Its Impact (1793-1837)’, Indian Economic and Social History Review, 18:1, p. 25CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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53 ‘Report of the Police Commission, 1860’, p. 127.

54 Ibid, p. 127.

55 Ibid, p. 135.

56 Ibid.

57 Ibid.

58 C. F. Carnac, Inspector-General of Police, Lower Provinces, ‘Report of the New Police in Bengal, from the Date of its Organisation (under Act V 1861), to the Close of the Year 1862’, Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Press, 1863, IOR/V/24/506/1, p. 3.

59 Ibid, p. 5.

60 Ibid.

61 Ibid.

62 Trevelyan, G. O. (1864) The Competition Wallah, London: Macmillan's Magazine, p. 113Google Scholar.

63 ‘Section 21’, Hari Rao, The Indian Police Act.

64 Ibid.

65 ‘Select Extracts from the First Reading of the Draft Police Act’, p. 26.

66 Ibid.

67 For a full copy of Act VI, see: Wheeler, Henry (1908) A Chaukidary Manual, with the Village Chaukidary Act, Bengal Act VI of 1870 and the Bengal Village Chaukidary Act I of 1871; as Modified up to 1 May 1907, Calcutta: Government of Bengal, p. 81Google Scholar.

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69 Carlyle, ‘Note on the Rural Police in Bengal’, p. 5.

70 Rivers Thompson, quoted in ibid.

71 ‘Miscellaneous Provisions’, Section 62, Chaukidary Act (VI of 1870), p. 32.

72 (1891) ‘Chapter III: Review of the Village Police’, Report of the Committee Appointed by Government to Consider the Reform of the Police of the Lower Provinces of Bengal, Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Press, p. 28.

73 Bhowmik, S. K. (1991) Rural Police and Local Justice: 1772–1870, Calcutta: Nalanda Publications, p. 107Google Scholar.

74 Ibid.

75 ‘Miscellaneous Provisions’, Section 62, Chaukidary Act (VI of 1870), p. 32.

76 ‘Regulation XXII, 1816’ in Carlyle, ‘Note on the Rural Police in Bengal’, p. 5.

77 Letter no. 1817 from C. C. Quinn, Offg. Commissioner of the Bhaugulpore Division, to the Chief Secretary to the Government of Bengal, 21 October 1891, IOR/P/4105, p. 63; Letter no. 2744J from R. Castairs, Esq., Deputy Commissioner of the Sonthal Parganas, to the Commissioner of the Bhaugulpore Division, 14 August 1891, IOR/P/4105, p. 65.

78 Letter No. 1693G from C. J. Stevenson-Moore, Esq., Magistrate of Jessore to the Commissioner of the Presidency Division, 17 September 1891, IOR/P/4105 p. 518; Carlyle, ‘Note on the Rural Police in Bengal’, p. 5.

79 G. E. Porter, Magistrate of Saran, to the Commissioner of the Patna Division, ‘Act VI (B.C.) of 1870 Review’, no. 505, 15 April 1875. IOR/P/259.

80 Pughe, Colonel J. R., Inspector General of Bengal Police (1872) Report of the Lower Provinces of the Bengal Presidency for the Year 1871, Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat PressGoogle Scholar, IOR/V/24/3198, p. 18.

81 Ibid.

82 Ibid.

83 Hankey, H., Inspector General of Bengal Police, (1876) Report of the Lower Provinces of Bengal Presidency for the Year 1875, Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat PressGoogle Scholar, IOR/V/24/3198, p. 7.

84 Monro, James (1878) Report of Lower Provinces of the Bengal Presidency for the Year 1877, Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat PressGoogle Scholar, IOR/V/24/3199, p. 7.

85 Ibid.

86 Ibid.

87 Ibid, p. 8.

88 Ibid, p. 7.

89 ‘Chapter III: Review of the Village Police’, p. 14.

90 ‘Resolution of the Police Committee appointed to enquire and consider what measures should be adopted for placing the entire system of the village watch on a more satisfactory footing’, 21 May 1884, file 106 A-29, IOR/P/2247, p. 269.

91 Circular no. 30J from the Secretary to the Government of Bengal, judicial department, to J. Monro, Offg. Commissioner of the Presidency division, file 522–17, 22 June 1881, IOR/P/2247.

92 ‘Resolution of the Police Committee’, p. 269.

93 Ibid.

94 Letter no. 1068J from C. T. Metcalfe, Offg. Commissioner of the Bhaugulpore Division and the Sonthal Parganas, to the Secretary to the Government of Bengal, Judicial Department, ‘Amendment of Law Relating to Powers and Duties of Village and Road Chaukidars’, 3 July 1882, file 522–15, p. 192. IOR/P/2247.

95 Letter no. 586GM from E. E. Lowis, Commissioner of the Chittagong District, to the Secretary to the Government of Bengal, Judicial Department, 28 August 1882, file 522021, p. 205. IOR/P/2247.

96 Ibid.

97 Ibid.

98 Letter from C. T. Metcalfe, ‘Amendment of Law Relating to Powers and Duties of Village and Road Chaukidars’, p. 192.

99 J. Monro, C. F. Worsley, E. V. Westmacott, ‘Members of Committee appointed to enquire into the working of Act VI of 1870, 27 April 1883’, file 106 A-28, IOR/P/2247, pp. 211–253.

100 Ibid, p. 212.

101 Ibid.

102 Ibid, p. 29.

103 Letter from C. J. Stevenson-Moore, 17 September 1891, p. 518.

104 Wheeler, A Chaukidary Manual, p. 81.

105 Letter no. 39 from Babu Raj Kumar Sarvadhikari, Secretary, British Indian Association, to the Chief Secretary to the Government of Bengal, 26 September 1891, IOR/P/4105, p. 19.

106 See, for more information, Report of the Committee Appointed by Government to Consider the Reform of the Police of the Lower Provinces of Bengal, pp. 1–3.

107 Ibid.

108 Ibid.

109 Ibid.

110 Letter from C. J. Stevenson-Moore, 17 September 1891, p. 518.

111 Letter from C. C. Quinn, 21 October 1891; Letter from R. Castairs, 14 August 1891, p. 65.

112 Letter from C. J. Stevenson-Moore, 17 September 1891, p. 518.

113 Ibid, p. 518.

114 Letter from C. C. Quinn, 21 October 1891, p. 63.

115 Ibid.

116 Letter no. 2991J from Sir John Edgar, Chief Secretary to the Govt. of Bengal, to all Commissioners of Divisions, ‘Submitting Draft Chaukidary Bill’, 28 July 1891, file4-c/5.1. IOR/P/4105. pp. 439–440.

117 Ibid, p. 440.

118 Ibid, p. 431.

119 Ibid.

120 Amending Act (II of 1892), of the Chaukidar Act (VI of 1871), p. 4.

121 Ibid.

122 Ibid.

123 Masters, J. (1900) Report of the Administration of the Police of the Lower Provinces, Bengal Presidency for 1899, Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat PressGoogle Scholar, IOR/V/24/3202, p. 74.

124 Ibid.

125 Ibid.