Abstract
The bureaucracy helps to make and implement laws; the police uphold and enforce them. Every country maintains security services to protect its citizens from lawlessness within and enemies without. Because of their coercive nature, however, the security services can also be misused by governments as an instrument for oppressing their own people. In this chapter, I shall:
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1.
Describe the police setup in India.
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2.
Discuss the role of the police in maintaining law and order and solving crimes.
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3.
Examine the dangers of police politicisation and militancy.
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4.
Describe the structure of India’s defence forces.
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5.
Speculate on the reasons for the absence of military intervention in India in the context of the literature on military interventions and the state of civil-military relations.
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Further Reading
Bayley (1969). An intensive analysis of civilian-police relationships in India as they affect both the efficiency of the Indian police and the development of a democratic polity.
Bayley (1983). Argues that frustrated by inability to satisfy the public’s demand for order and demoralised by politically inspired management, the Indian police have become deeply involved in partisan politics.
Cohen (1990). A very good account of the development of the professional officer in British and independent India.
Kukreja (1991). A major comparative study of three armies with common origins but differing degrees of involvement in the political process.
Nayar, V. K. (1992). Discusses the internal security threats to India.
Thomas (1986). A balanced and informative account of the shifts in India’s strategic environment and the problems of internal security, and also of security decision-making.
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© 1995 Ramesh Thakur
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Thakur, R. (1995). The Security Services. In: The Government and Politics of India. Comparative Government and Politics. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24100-2_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24100-2_8
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-59188-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-24100-2
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