Why Citing Post Boxes Is Not the Best Way to Call for a Single Police Uniform

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is persistently conflating his idea of India’s ‘one nationhood’ to a variety of fields, to dissimilar institutional architecture bequeathed by history – ancient, medieval and colonial – as also created by the constitution of India, to stress ‘uniformity’ in the way India lives and governs itself.

Some months ago, he keenly promoted ‘one nation, one election’ from all available platforms. Earlier, he had used the idea of ‘one nation, one constitution’ while reading down Article 370 and 35A. He also took pride in pushing the systems of 'one nation, one tax'; 'one nation, one grid'; 'one nation, one mobility card'; and so on.

On October 28, he pushed the idea of 'one nation, one uniform' for the police across the country.

Jawaharlal Nehru, on the other hand, imagined independent India as a nation with ‘unity in diversity’. In Discovery of India, he said, ‘Some kind of a dream of unity has occupied the mind of India since the dawn of civilisation. That unity was not conceived as something imposed from outside, standardisation of externs or even of beliefs. It was something deeper and, within its fold, the widest tolerance of belief and custom was practiced, and every variety acknowledged and even encouraged.’

While addressing the Chintan Shivir of state home ministers and police chiefs in Surajkund near Delhi via video conference on October 28, Prime Minister Modi said, "Currently in our country, there is 'one nation, one ration card', 'one nation, one grid', 'one nation, one sign language'. Just like these, all states should think about having a 'one nation, one uniform policy'. It will give a common identity to law enforcement as citizens will recognise police personnel anywhere in the country. Like a post box that has a distinct identity, police uniform should be identifiable across the country. (Italics by author)."

Two contrasts with Nehru, whom Modi loves to abhor and chastise, are markedly clear. First, Nehru would have used a constitutional forum such as the Interstate Council to engage with state home ministers and police chiefs rather than a so-called ‘Chintan Shivir’. Second, like imagining ‘unity in diversity’ as a living concept in civilisational terms, he would not have ever compared an animated and invaluable institution such as the police with an inert object like a post box, which has lost its relevance to technological advances in communication.

But the prime minister in his distinct style did just that.

However, not only his notion of uniformity is misplaced, but also a total lack of conception on what should be the marker of police identity and how should the police in India be identified.

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Police in India began taking shape as 'Indian police' as British colonialism took root. It was in 1847 that Sir Harry Burnett Lumsden of the army asked to raise a Corps of Guides, and pioneered the use of drab-coloured uniform for the field services that came to be known as 'khaki'.

Khaki, with some local variance, emerged as a standard colour of uniform for police, with a few exceptions such as blue-coloured uniform of the Bombay constabulary (which also has changed to khaki now) and white for the Calcutta police. However, different kinds of headgear and belts distinguished police in different presidencies, provinces and states.

Importantly, a difference between the uniforms for the senior level and junior officers, and constabulary was also maintained. Over the years since independence, they have been standardised across the country with a few variations in the colour of beret and peaked caps for different units. Since the police continue to be in the List 2 or the state list, different states have used their powers to design the uniform of their police services.

Should the prime minister’s new pitch for ‘uniformity in uniforms’ for the police nationally be read along with the test balloon launched in May this year by Bibek Debroy, the chairperson of the prime minister’s economic advisory committee, to shift the police from List 2 to List 3 (Concurrent List) in the Seventh Schedule.

Since this centralising idea of policing in India is being pushed simultaneously by Union home minister Amit Shah’s desire for an office of the National Investigating Agency in each state, it raises genuine doubts over intentions of the government. Otherwise, why should the Union government arrogate to itself an additional burden of designing uniforms for the police to make them ‘easily’ identifiable as a ‘post box’.

It is a different matter that with the advances in technology and popularity of electronic communication and private and efficient courier services, redundant post boxes may soon be removed worldwide. Though the police are not being removed in any foreseeable future anywhere, technology is certainly making them less visible.

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The prime minister’s suggestion raises one more question: Are the police in India are not easily identifiable because their uniforms are not the same across the country? Far from it. The police are indeed easily identifiable in whichever state we may go. Their excesses are also equally identifiable.

This identity was highlighted first by the Fraser Commission (the first Police Commission set up by the British in 1906, four decades after the Indian Police Act, 1861). It was reinforced by each of the commissions set up after independence by each of the state governments and the first National Police Commission.

There have been several efforts to create conditions for a new identity in the Supreme Court directive in 2006 and several committees constituted to take the directive forward. This is the only way to create an identity for the Indian police. Unfortunately, Narendra Modi never spoke or took an initiative in that direction either as chief minister of Gujarat (2001-2014) or as prime minister of India (2014 onwards).

Ajay K. Mehra is a political scientist. He was Atal Bihari Vajpayee Senior Fellow, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, from 2019 to 2021, and principal of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Evening College, Delhi University, in 2018.

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