POLICE IN SOUTH INDIA 15 senior police officers, was adhered to even during the 1937-39 Congress ministry.80 This deliberate isolation of the police from the public contributed in a large measure to the hostility which existed between the two. In conclusion two aspects of the colonial police in the Madras Presidency deserve to be stressed. First, recent European studies of colonialism have stressed the part played by the collaboration of the indigenous population (or sections of it) in supporting a colonial regime. The importance of collaboration should not be ignored—indeed, Indian participation in the police offers illuminating examples of it—but it should also be appreciated that collaboration was often the only practical alternative to futile resistance. The coercive powers of the colonial state were formidable and they were constantly being adjusted and strengthened to meet new varieties of opposition to colonial rule. British control of India rested to a considerable extent on force and the threat of force. Secondly, the agencies of the colonial administration were not politically neutral. It is sometimes said, by Indian as well as European commentators, that the British introduced ^the rule of law" into India and that this was a virtue of British rule. In a historical sense it may be true tliat in some respects British administrators were less arbitrary in their notions of ^law and order" than previous regimes had been. But if one looks carefully at the legal machinery of the British Raj, at the laws, the courts and the police, it is easy to see that certain interests were favoured at the expense of others. The British imported into India the preoccupation of their ruling classes with the protection of property and added to it the racial supremacy whicli was essential for the maintenance of their empire. The police force in Madras during the colonial period served both these racial and propertied interests. ' N Gash, Mr Secretary Peel: The Life of Sir Robert Peel to 1^0, Longmans, London 1%1, PD 344-55. 505. a G Relth, A Nav Study of Police History, Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh 1956. 8 S Broeker, Ruial Disorder and Police Reform in Ireland, 1812-30, Routledge & Kcgan Paul, London 1970. 4 C Jeffries, The Colonial Police, Max Parish, London 1952, p 60. 9 G3vcmment of Madras, Correspondence on Mopish Outrages in Malabar, 185'\ to 7/?57, vol II, United Scottish Press, Madras 1863. * Government of Madras, Papers Connected with the Reorganization of the Police in the Madras Presidency, Fort St George Press, Madras 1859, especially minutes by the Governor, Lord Harris, and W Elliot, member of Council, pp 37-8, 43. <7 G'?vernm-nt of Madras, Statewnt of the Police Committee on the Administration of the District Police in the Madras Presidency, Government Press, Madras 1902, p 33. € Government of India, Report of the Indian Police Commission, 1902-03, Government Central Printing Office, Simla 190^» PP 30-6; 'Tamil Nadu Archives, Madras (hereafter cited as TNA),G 0 1254, Judicial, 1 3 July 1907. a TN\ G 0 2017-18, Judicial, 12 December 1899. 0 TN\, G 0 m-5. Judicial, 23 March 1912; G 0 1471, Judicial, 16 September 19 12. 11 Statement . . . on the administration of ihe District Police . . ., pp 13-21.