Policing Colonisation The Evolution and Role of Sind Police and the Views of Sir Charles Napier on the Administration of Criminal Justice in Sind

Aftab Nabi and Dost Ali Baloch

This article examines the origin, evolution and orientation of police subsequent
to the conquest of Sind and assesses how policing, and to a substantial extent, the
administration of criminal justice, became subservient to the larger aim and vision
of the conqueror of Sind when confronted with the immediate and fundamental
problem, that is, the territorial consolidation of the province and the subjugation of
the tribals in the hinterlands. The background to the annexation of Sind is relevant
because it was these issues and aspects that played an important role in the
formulation and orientation of the police department and its evolution over the four
years of Sir Charles Napier’s tenure. In this context, the article is sub divided into
nine sections, first, the British interest in Sind, the ambitions of Sir Charles and the
conquest of Sind, second, the administrative system initiated by Sir Charles and the
position of Sind police in that system, third, the colonial priorities and the
orientation of the Sind police, fourth, the police manpower and recruiting policies,
fifth, the nature of crimes and their detection, sixth, the policy and orientation of
Napier’s concept of criminal justice, seventh, the consolidation of the Upper Sind
Frontier, eighth, the essence and orientation of Napier’s policing system and last, the
impact of collaboration and codification on the policing of rural Sind.