Asif Mahmood
When a video of a man who had flaunted his arrogance at a petrol pump being slapped in return at a police station was shared on social media , I was reminded of Sir Archibald Galloway, former Vice Chairman of the East India Company, and Penderel Moon, author of Strangers in India and former Deputy Commissioner of Rawalpindi. I began to wonder: were Sir Archibald Galloway and Penderel Moon right?
In 1857, when the Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar’s reign came to an end and he was arrested, a new police system was introduced in this region three years later. Its purpose was not to deliver justice but to keep the people crushed under the weight of authority, so that they would never again even think of committing the insolence of another 1857.
When this system was about to be introduced, Sir Archibald Galloway, then Vice Chairman of the East India Company, objected to it. He argued that the Mughal police system in this region was working remarkably well. The Mughal system of the Kotwal could deliver a decision by evening in some cases, and by the following Thursday or Friday in others. He therefore recommended that the existing system be retained.
Sir Archibald Galloway warned that the new system being introduced would prove disastrous. He was not only an expert in British law but also had a keen interest in Hanafi jurisprudence. He had even written a book on Islamic law titled A Commentary on Muhammadan Law.
Galloway’s reservations were formally answered in writing. The response explained that the new system being introduced had a specific purpose. It conceded that the Mughal system was indeed very good. Its police force was active and efficient, and apprehending and dealing with offenders under that system was relatively straightforward. But the system had one drawback: it did not allow the British to establish what they called “control from above.” And since they now wanted “control from above” in this region, the Mughal police system did not suit their purposes. They were therefore introducing a new one.
This new system, this police force, this law and the entire structure of justice imposed during the colonial era were never intended to deliver justice. Their purpose was to keep the people subdued. They were not designed to provide relief to the poor and the oppressed. Their sole purpose was to ensure that there would never again be an act of defiance or rebellion like that of 1857. This was about control from above, not about delivering justice at the grassroots level.
It was explicitly stated that the justice system should be made so complicated that people in this region would spend their entire lives trying to obtain justice. It was also argued that the British Empire was under no obligation to dispense justice. If it chose to grant justice to anyone, that was an act of generosity, a favour bestowed upon its slaves and subjects. It was not a duty. Justice would be provided to the obedient; the defiant were not entitled to such a privilege.
That very system continues to operate today. We still have the police system of 1860 and the same centuries-old, decrepit legal framework. To humiliate Muslim judges of that era, they were made to wear a particular uniform and stand behind colonial judges. Even today, court attendants stand behind judges wearing the same uniform. An entire civilisation was humiliated, its legal system dismantled, and a colonial system imposed upon it.
Even after the creation of Pakistan, we have failed to rid ourselves of this colonial system. Today, society is crying out that obtaining justice under this system has become virtually impossible. The interesting thing is that, alongside society, even the government now seems to have begun crying out against it.
The police encounters taking place across the country, and the retaliatory slaps being administered at police stations to wealthy young men who display their arrogance, are declarations that the colonial system of punishment has failed. Sir Archibald Galloway was right when he warned that the new system would turn the lives of the people of this region into a living hell.
Interestingly, Sir Archibald Galloway was not the only one to make this point. Penderel Moon said the same thing. He served as Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of Rawalpindi, and in his book Strangers in India, he made a similar observation. He warned that the system being introduced by the British, with its courts, lawyers and police, would, after their departure, plunge the people of this region into such a quagmire that life would become a torment for them.
And that is precisely what has happened.
The people now understand this, and the government, too, seems to realise that justice is impossible under the existing system. But the alternative that successive governments have chosen is the wrong one. It will lead to an entirely new set of problems.
The solution is not to kill an alleged criminal in a police encounter or to slap someone at a police station and claim that the rule of law has been upheld. The solution is to abolish this colonial system and replace it with a local, justice-oriented system.
A murderer must be punished, but the punishment must come through the courts. A man who throws his weight around and abuses his power must face consequences on the very same day, but those consequences must be imposed through the courts, through the justice system and in accordance with the law.
If your justice system lacks the strength to deliver justice, the answer is not to hand over all these powers to the police. The answer is to dismantle that system and replace it with another. Introduce a system designed not for subjects but for citizens. Introduce a system whose purpose is not to subdue and crush people but to treat them as citizens entitled to justice.
Until you do away with these colonial remnants, your problem will remain unresolved.