In 1861, the British were still suspicious of Indians and so governance needed such strong control.
OXFORD, UK: This is with respect to Saroop Ijaz’s article of July 13 titled “The Great Leap Backwards”. While I agree that the Police Act of 1861 should not have been reimposed in such a fashion, I do disagree with Mr Ijaz’s historical analysis. First, let us not make Sir Charles Napier the bad guy here; he also did a lot of good for Sindh. Secondly, the Police Act was peculiar to its conditions and so cannot, and should not, be judged from a modern perspective.
In 1861, the British were still suspicious of Indians and so governance needed such strong control (and let us not forget that this model was also followed in England initially). Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, one should be careful in using phrases like, “using barbaric force on the indigenous populace under the assumption of according them subhuman status”, “contempt for the native” and the like. These are very loaded words, and historically tenuous at best. In a country like Pakistan where people rarely read history, I would be careful in feeding them such strong, and in my opinion, wrong, assessments — attributes and actions are rarely as black and white. Also, for the record, the police force had locals much before any of the other services!
Yaqoob Bangash
Oxford University
Published in The Express Tribune, July 14th, 2011.
