Police brutality in India is a direct result of the country's colonial legacy.

[A Thread]
The Indian Police was founded on the basis of laws (The Police Act, 1861) enacted during the period of 1860-61, as a direct consequence of the Revolt of 1857.

It was created with the sole purpose of strengthening and prolonging the existence of the British Raj in India.
This institution served the British well and helped them extend their rule over us for the next nine decades.

But in the process, the police force inevitably developed anti-people traits. It became cruel, corrupt, and complicit with the rulers.
The Indian police force was modelled after the Irish colonial paramilitary police. The police in colonial Ireland were a centralised paramilitary organisation, answerable solely to the government, and rendered their service as an armed force under civilian direction.
The police system needs to be viewed in the light of colonialism’s need to establish a relationship of control, coercion, and surveillance over a subject population.

Its structural and organisational features were helpful to a regime of exploitation and surplus appropriation.
A massive expansion of police arms and surveillance took place during the 1940s.

By 1947, the police occupied a crucial position in the ordering of rural and urban society, in the suppression of political opposition and in the maintenance of state and class control.
The policing system was initially developed to control the colonial subject, and was later adopted by the postcolonial state in order to maintain social control over marginalised communities.
The disturbing truth remains that police highhandedness often has had open and explicit support from society at large. The acceptance of violence as an instrument of justice is nothing but injurious to the healthy growth of a secular democracy.
Independence in 1947 did not lead to structural change in the organisation and functioning of the Indian police.

In the absence of meaningful police reforms, India continues to have a coercive police machinery, as espoused by the Britishers before Independence.
Police brutality in India is a serious issue that needs widespread awareness and discussion.

What occurred in Tamil Nadu is absolutely deplorable, and no amount of outrage will be enough.

We need immediate police reforms.

#JusticeforJayarajAndBennicks
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