THE TRUTH ABOUT THE INDIAN POLICE. [To THE EDITOR OF
THE " SPECTATOE:1 SIR,—In the first place, the name "Indian" Police is a misnomer, and to speak of the " Indian " Police as if it were a homogeneous body is misleading. There are Bengal, Bombay, and Madras Police, to say nothing of other provinces too numerous to mention, and the personnel of each body differs as the countries themselves differ. Nor is there any one in the whole world (pace Sir J. D. Rees) sufficiently con- versant with the men of every province to be able to compare them all in every particular, though any one can see that there are extraordinary differences amongst them in such an elementary matter as education. Here we have statistics more or less trustworthy, at any rate for comparative purposes, and what do we find P
Unfortunately the "Statement Showing the Material and Moral Progress of India for 1908-9 " gives no details as to the education of the police in any province except Madras and Bombay, which are known to be far ahead of the others in this respect ; and yet even in Madras eleven per cent. of the force were admittedly " illiterate " in 1908-9 ; in Bombay only a little more than half were able to read and write. Now it is not too much to say that unless a constable can keep a notebook, which is written up day by day as the events occur, it is impossible to keep any check on his proceedings, and his evidence will always be remarkable for the exuberance of his imagination ; it can only be tested and kept to plain facts by reference to the notes he made at the time he was making his inquiry. Anything entered in a notebook the day after the event is absolutely useless ; hence the extreme , importance of constant examination of notebooks by every . inspecting officer, especially the Magistrates immediately concerned.
The truth is that the police in India are neither much better nor much worse than other low-paid officials in that country, but they have, no doubt, more opportunities of oppressing the people, and unless they are very sharply looked after, especially, as I said above, by the local . Magistracy, they are only too likely to avail themselves of their opportunities ; but to say, as one gentleman was allowed to say in a respectable paper like the Daily News, that the lower ranks of the police suborn evidence, and even torture their prisoners " with the connivance of their superior European officials," is so monstrously untrue that one is not surprised to find that the editor was not prepared with evidence in support of the charge, and had therefore no excuse . whatever for,publishing such a libel.—I am, Sir, 86.0 ,
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