The Indian Imperial Police, referred to variously as the Imperial Police or simply the Indian Police or, by 1905, Imperial Police, was part of the Indian Police Services, the uniform system of police administration in British India, as established by India Act 5 of 1861. In 1920 the Imperial Indian police had 310,000 police in their contingent Its members ruled more than 300 million people in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Burma. In 1948, a year after India's independence from Britain, the Imperial Police Service was replaced by the Indian Police Service, which had been constituted as part of the All-India Services by the Constitution.
History
It comprised two branches, the Superior Police Services, from which the Indian Police would later be formed, and the Subordinate Police Service. Until 1893, appointments to the senior grades were made locally in India, mainly from European officers of the Indian Army. The highest rank in the service was the Inspector General for each province. The rank of Inspector General was equated and ranked with Brigadier and similar ranks in the Indian Armed Forces, as per Central Warrant of Precedence in 1937. After the Inspector General, the ranks were made up of District Superintendents and Assistant District Superintendents, most of whom were appointed, from 1893, by examination for the Indian Civil Service exams in the UK. The Subordinate Police Service consisted of Inspectors, Sub-Inspectors, Head Constables and Constables, mainly consisting of Indians except for the higher ranks. By the 1930s, the Indian Police exercised "unprecedented degree of authority within the colonial administration". The Indian Imperial Police was also the primary law enforcement in Burma, governed as a province of India, until 1937.
, under his real name of Eric Blair, served in the Indian Imperial Police, in Burma, from 27 November 1922 to 12 July 1927, formally resigning while on leave in England having attained the rank of Assistant District Superintendent at District Headquarters, first in Insein, and later at Moulmein. He wrote of how having been in contact with, in his own words, "the dirty work of Empire at close quarters" had affected his personal, political and social outlook. Some of the works referring to his experiences include "A Hanging", set in the notorious Insein Prison, and his novel Burmese Days. Likewise, although he wrote that, "I loved Burma and the Burman and have no regrets that I spent the best years of my life in the Burma police.", in "Shooting an Elephant", he pointed out that "In Moulmein in Lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people–the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me."
