PRAVEEN SWAMI

Forty-five annas worth of goods had vanished from the house in Katra Sheesh Mahal, nestled inside the lanes of Delhi’s Chandni Chowk: Kitchen utensils, women’s clothes, a hookah, and, mysteriously, a bowl of kulfi ice-cream. Late in 1861, Maeeduddin Yar Khan, son of Muhammad, walked into the Sabzi Mandi police station, one of three in Delhi, to report the crime. There is no way of telling what the police, over-burdened investigating gambling, prostitution, stolen mules and murders, made of the curious case of the kulfi thief. The crime was, however, recorded in the first-ever First Information Report.

Ever since he took power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been exhorting Indians to shed their colonial inheritance. Army bands have Indian musical instruments, there is a new naval ensign, and Raj Path has been renamed Kartavya Path.

There is one colonial legacy, though, that Modi hasn’t shown interest in eradicating: The Police Act of 1861, which makes Indian police forces accountable to the political establishment – but not the people.

Sixteen years ago this week, the Supreme Court laid out a blueprint for reforming the colonial-era governance of India’s police—among other things, calling on state and central governments to set up independent bodies to regulate the appointment of its higher leadership. The reforms called for giving the police functional autonomy,  demanding public accountability in return….

PM Modi wants India to shed its colonial past. He should begin by reforming the police