Report No. 152

13.2. Role of Police under British Rule.-

The present police system in India is a British legacy. It is the creation of British Government and it rests on the basic ideals of efficiency and subordination to the law of the land. During British Rule the rule of police was limited to the role invested by the Police Act, 1861-whose main objective was to make the police an efficient instrument for the prevention and detection of crime and to use it as an effective weapon at the disposal of the foreign government to put down firmly any challenge to its authority.

Their approach was not public service oriented, instead their objective was to maintain status quo. During the British Rule in India, the police had to take effective repressive measures, at the bidding of the then rulers, against our own people engaged in freedom struggle, as a result of which, the image of the police was greatly tarnished and it came to be identified with tyranny and oppression.