The Bombay City Police: A Historical Sketch, 1672-1916Edwardes, S. M. (Stephen Meredyth)
History
The Bombay City Police: A Historical Sketch, 1672-1916
Edwardes, S. M. (Stephen Meredyth)
Crime -- India -- Mumbai; Police -- India -- Mumbai
Among the special events of these years which imposed extra work for the
time being on the Police were the Nasik murder and conspiracy trials in
the High Court in 1910, the visit of Lord Minto in 1909, the arrival of
Lord Hardinge and the visit of the ex-German Crown Prince in 1910, and
the arrival of Lord Chelmsford in 1916. For the first time on record,
the Mounted Police under their European officers were permitted to form
part of the escort both of Lord Minto and the German Crown Prince, and,
riding grey Arabs in their handsome full-dress uniform, they provided not
the least showy part of the spectacle. These Viceregal progresses from
the railway terminus or the Apollo Bandar to Malabar Hill had changed
in character since the beginning of the twentieth century. Formerly the
route chosen for the arrival of a new Viceroy or the departure of his
predecessor lay as a matter of course through Kalbadevi road and Bhendy
Bazaar, and thence by way of Grant road, or later Sandhurst road, to
Chaupati and Walkeshwar. No particular precautions were taken, for none
were deemed necessary; the people were well-disposed and always ready to
welcome the King’s representative as he was driven through the heart of
the Indian quarters. But as the anarchical and revolutionary movement
spread and attempts were made upon the lives even of Viceroys, the old
route through the city was, except for very special reasons, gradually
abandoned, and the incoming and departing potentates were escorted along
the safer route of Queen’s road. The distance of this thoroughfare from
the heart of the City, and the growing nonchalance of the majority of the
inhabitants in regard to Viceregal appearances in public, were naturally
responsible for an absence of sight-seers on the processional route, and
at times there were few persons to be seen except the foot-police lining
the sides of the road. On the occasion of Lord Chelmsford’s arrival in
April, 1916, one of the Superintendents, through whose division a portion
of the route passed, determined to keep up appearances of loyal welcome,
by collecting the necessary crowd at Sandhurst Bridge and instructing
them beforehand in the art of hand-clapping and other manifestations
of popular satisfaction. As it was obviously impossible to impress
respectable householders and others for this duty, the sectional officers
were instructed to shepherd their bad characters of both sexes to the
fixed point, after arranging that they all donned clean clothes and were
paid 2 annas apiece for their trouble. The plan worked well. As the new
Viceroy’s carriage swept out of Queen’s road on to the bridge, the signal
was given and a hearty burst of hand-clapping, punctured with cries of
_shabash_, rose from the little crowd of disreputables at the corner.
No one knew who they were, except the police who had hunted them out
of their haunts a few hours previously: and the Viceroy was doubtless
gratified at this signal expression of welcome.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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