Policing the Empire - Open Exam Notes "The Armed Police and Colonial Rule in South India, 1914-1947" by David Arnold, 101-125: · Discussions of colonial situations must consider the role of regime's "armed agencies" and their role in containing indigenous political movements. (101) . Notes in British colonies armies took a backdrop role with the police forces taking on the "task of suppressing disturbances and enforcing impartial authority". (101) · Reluctance to employ troops in civil situations for multiple reasons: more expensive to equip than police, concentration in a few strategic centres limited their availability for minor disturbances and they ultimately needed to be held in reserve to be used when other forms of coercion had failed. (101) This is all supported by Britain's own experiences in the "Cromwellian interlude" which nurtured a distrust of standing armies. . "in the colonies unarmed police replaced the military as soon as effective control had been established" with exceptions only on turbulent frontiers e.g. northern borders of India and Nigeria. (102) · Notes the colonial police were given a more military character than would have been acceptable in Britain. (102) · Ireland often proved a pioneer and paradigm for British colonial experience and this is also true when it comes to considering policing - "it was on the lines of the Royal Irish Constabulary that colonial governments built their paramilitary police" (102) . Notes period of 1914-22 as one of "profound crisis for the British in India" (102) with WWI and its aftermath placing a great strain on the imperial system. (102-3) . The tactic of British in these circumstances was two-fold, they laid out the goal of colonial government in India as being eventually to allow them self-government and extended some powers to the locals e.g. over local self-government. However, they also "strengthened the mechanism of repression through coercive legislation" e.g. the Rowlatt Bills of 1919 and the expansion of the armed police. (103) . "demonstrations of British strength and determination to rule were felt to be necessary to discourage mass violence" (103) and the task of disciplining nationalists and suppressing violent demonstrations was given to the police. (104) . Notes how British troops were much more highly rated and regarded than their Indian counterparts - the former had a, so it's argued, great morale boosting effect on the latter. · "Post-war retrenchment coincided with nationalist and governmental reaction against the use of the army in political disturbances, especially the Punjab unrest of April 1919" (105) · Notes controversy surrounding General Dyer's actions in Amritsar. (105) . Will focus in on Madras city. . Notes that, following the Police Commission of 1860, armed reserves had been formed in most of the Madras Presidency's districts. They were only meant to be lightly armed, not military in character, but in 1886 they had been deprived of their firearms. (106) Even as late as 1900 a proposal by the city's Commissioner of Police to re-arm the reserve was rejected by the Madras government as an