The Police and Political Order in India

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will demonstrate this thesis by examining three aspects of Indian policing: (1) political direction, (2) police strikes, and (3) violence and crime. Although each of these features has a unique dynamic, which is explained, they are also related. The final section describes this interaction and links it to general factors shaping contemporary Indian political life. For readers unfamiliar with the Indian police system, a bit of description may be helpful. Except for some specialized police not worth mentioning, there is only one police force in India. Police organizations do not have concurrent jurisdictions as in the United States with its national, state, county, and municipal police. The police throughout the country are organized according to a single piece of national legislation. At the same time, operational command is decentralized, being the prerogative of India's states. Thus the bulk of police are state police but are similar to one another in organization, training, command, and rank hierarchy. The national government's police consist only of the small Central Bureau of Investigation, David H. Bayley is Professor, Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver. This article is based on close study of the Indian police over almost twenty years (see the author's The Police and Political Development in India, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969). More recently, the author gave written and oral testimony to the Indian National Police Commission and toured police facilities throughout India in 1978 and 1980. Many of the conclusions reached in the article are matters of judgment, reflecting the author's personal evaluation of trends. They are based primarily on interviews and observations and some documentary material for the most part not available in the public domain. As a result, sources cannot be cited in the customary manner.