A historical account of tackling law and order in a metropolis
Delhi’s rapid urbanisation
and its haphazard growth over the years from an acropolis (walled city)
to a metropolis (mega city), has given the Delhi Police a tough time
catching up with the more diversified forms of crime and its
ever-growing law and order demands.
This
connection between urbanisation, rising crime and law enforcement in
Delhi, a city which has undergone tumultuous socio-political upheavals,
is graphically depicted in Policing Delhi – Urbanization, Crime and Law Enforcement, a book written by a serving police officer, O P Mishra.
The
book is an academic endeavour that seeks to grapple with the
complexities of present day law and order problems of Delhi in a
historical context, making what is considered to be a dry subject come
alive. It talks about the various rebirths of Delhi as a city and gives a
glimpse of the various patterns of policing that have existed since the
ancient past, through the Mauryan, the Mughal and more recently, the
British eras to the present day.
Mishra
traces the various compulsions and constraints under which the city
grew and how the city police had to meet the challenges of such growth,
particularly after Independence of the country. He refers to the
Partition and forced migration, which brought in a huge influx of
refugees into Delhi, and how the exclusion of Lahore from the country
led to a redistribution of commerce and wholesale trade patterns in
northern India.
“Trade
and commerce gravitated towards Delhi and old Delhi, which was already
congested and under strain,” he notes. As the national capital, Delhi
also attracted administrative and bureaucratic establishments and
foreign missions. Besides, the normal migration of people from other
parts of the country after Independence further aggravated the problems
relating to law and order in the city......Read more...http://www.gfilesindia.com
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