Stephen Meredyth Edwardes - The Bombay City Police

THE BOMBAY CITY POLICE

THE BOMBAY CITY POLICE

A HISTORICAL SKETCH
1672-1916

BY
S. M. EDWARDES, C.S.I. , C.V.O. ,
formerly of the Indian Civil Service and sometime
Commissioner of Police, Bombay

HUMPHREY MILFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS
1923

I have been prompted to prepare this brief record of the past history and growth of the Bombay Police Force by the knowledge that, except for a few paragraphs in Volume II of the Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island, no connected account exists of the police administration of the City. Considering how closely interwoven with the daily life of the mass of the population the work of the Force has always been, and how large a contribution to the welfare and progress of the City has been made by successive Commissioners of Police, it seems well to place permanently on record in an accessible form the more important facts connected with the early arrangements for watch and ward and crime-prevention, and to describe the manner in which the Heads of the Force carried out the heavy responsibilities assigned to them.

The year 1916 is a convenient date for the conclusion of this historical sketch; for in September of that year commenced the violent agitation for Home Rule which under varying names and varying leadership, and despite concessions and political reforms, kept India in a state of unrest during the following five or six years.

Other considerations also suggest that the narrative may close most fitly in the year preceding the memorable pronouncement in Parliament, which ushered in the recent constitutional reforms. No one can foretell what changes may hereafter take place in the character and constitution of the City Police Force; but it is improbable that the Force can remain unaffected by the altered character of the general administration. Ere old conditions and old landmarks disappear, it seems to me worth while to compile a succinct history of the Force, as it existed before the era of democratic reform.

I am indebted to the present Acting Commissioner of Police for the photographs of the portraits hanging in the Head Police Office and of the types of constabulary; to the Record-Keeper at the India Office for giving me access to various police reports and official papers dating from 1859 to 1916; and to Mr. Sivaram K. Joshi, 1st clerk in the Commissioners office, who spent much of his leisure time in making inquiries and framing answers to various queries which the Bombay Government kindly forwarded at my request to the Head Police Office.

S. M. EDWARDES

London, 1923

A perusal of the official records of the early period of British rule in Bombay indicates that the credit of first establishing a force for the prevention of crime and the protection of the inhabitants belongs to Gerald Aungier, who was appointed Governor of the Island in 1669 and filled that office with conspicuous ability until his death at Surat in 1677. Amidst the heavy duties which devolved upon him as President of Surat and Governor of the Companys recently acquired Island, After mentioning the strength of the forces at Bombay and their distribution afloat and ashore, the letter proceeds:

There are also three companies of militia, one at Bombay, one at Mahim, and one at Mazagon, consisting of Portuguese black Christians. More confidence can be placed in the Moors, Bandareens and Gentus than in them, because the latter are more courageous and show affection and good-will to the English Government. These companies are exercised once a month at least, and serve as night-watches against surprise and robbery.

A little while prior to Aungiers death, when John Petit was serving under him as Deputy Governor of Bombay, this militia numbered from 500 to 600, all of whom were landholders of Bombay. Service in the militia was in fact compulsory on all owners of land, except the Braminys (Brahmans) and Bannians (Banias), who were allowed exemption on a money payment. The most important section of the Hindu element in this force of military night-watchmen was that of the Bhandaris (Bandareens), whose ancestors formed a settlement in Bombay in early ages, and whose modern descendants still cherish traditions of the former military and political power of their caste in the north Konkan.

The militia appears to have been maintained more or less at full strength during the troubled period of Sir John Childs governorship (1681-90). It narrowly escaped The latter was instructed to repair to Sewri with two topasses and take charge of a new guard-house, to allow no runaway soldiers or others to leave the island, to prevent cattle, corn or provisions being taken out of Bombay, and to arrest and search any person carrying letters and send him to the Deputy Governor. The order concluded with the following words:

Suffer poor people to come and inhabit on the island; and call the militia to watch with you every night, sparing the Padre of Parels servants.

The terms of the order indicate to some extent the dangers and difficulties which confronted Bombay at this epoch; and it is a reasonable inference that the duties of the militia were dictated mainly by the military and political exigencies of a period in which the hostility of the neighbouring powers in Western India and serious internal troubles produced a constant series of alarums and excursions.

The close of the seventeenth and the earlier years of the eighteenth century were marked by much lawlessness; and in the outlying parts of Bombay the militia appears to have formed the only safeguard of the residents against robbery and violence. This is clear from an order of September 13, 1694, addressed by Sir John Gayer, the Governor, to Jansanay (Janu Shenvi) Subehdar of Worli, Ramaji Avdat, Subehdar of Mahim, Raji Karga, Subehdar of Sion, and Bodji Patan, Subehdar of Sewri. Being informed, he wrote, that certain ill people on this island go about in the night to the number of ten or twelve or more, designing some mischief or disturbance to the inhabitants, these are to enorder you to go the rounds every night with twenty men at all places which you think most suitable to intercept such persons. the prevalence of piracy and the lack of proper laws and legal machinery, all contributed to render Bombay very unhealthful and to offer unlimited scope to the lawless section of the population.