he term ‘Police’ broadly connotes the purposeful maintenance of public order and protection of persons and property from the hazards of public accidents and the commission of unlawful acts. A popular belief is that the Indian Police System is a creation of the British rule in India but a study of the ancient Indian history shows the origin and development of the law enforcement institutions since the Vedic period. Kautilya, who established an elaborate system of policing and laid down several grades of bureaucracy, could rightly be called the father of the modern concept of police.
The police as a department had become a well established administrative institution during the Mauryan Empire. With the passage of time, the police responsibility widened and different organisations had to be necessarily created in order to effectively implement the law and enforce order, and bring the criminals to justice. Principles of internal security, the moral and ethical responsibilities of the king and the system of policing developed in ancient towns and villages were effectively followed and improved by the successive Hindu kings.
With the advent of the Mughals, policing became a subsidiary aspect of the conqueror’s stratagic, military and revenue requirements. The age-old community based policing was largely replaced by a mercenary and exotic group of people with official patronage. Even then, community policing, either through the medium of the landlords or through the village level panchayats and analogous bodies persisted to a certain extent.
The first hundred years of British rule in India saw a number of remarkable changes in the system of criminal justice administration. With the East India Company’s interference in the country’s administration, laws were revised to suit the imperial needs. Warren Hastings suggested the first major amendments in 1772, when he prepared a detailed note indicating the remedial measures necessary to maintain law and order in Bengal. His report was later amended from time to time but the basic features are still discernible.
Report of The First Police Commission , appointed on 17th August, 1860 ,contained detailed guidelines for the desired system of police in India. The Second Police Commission (1902-1903) went into details of the organisational structure of police at the district level, functioning of the railway police and the river police, recruitment, training and pay structure of different subordinate ranks of police.
The British contribution was to put the system of policing on a professional footing and to bring about a large measure of uniformity in its laws, procedures and practices.The Present Policing System in the country is based on the Police Act,1861.
Prior to Independence, superior police officers belonged to the Indian (Imperial) Police appointed by the Secretary of State on the basis of competitive examination. The first open competition for the service was held in England in June, 1893 and the top ten candidates were appointed as probationers of the Indian Police.It is not possible to pinpoint a date on which it could positively be claimed that the Indian Police came into being. However, in 1907 the Secretary of State’s officers were directed to wear the letters "IP" on their epaulettes to distinguish them from the other officers not recruited by the Secretary of State. In this sense, 1907 could be regarded as the starting point for the Indian Police.
After Independence, this service was replaced by the present day Indian Police Service (I.P.S.) in 1948 and Rajasthan Police Service (R.P.S.) at the state level in 1951.
