Indeed, no man does in reality
suppose so; on the contrary, every man knows that the same motives
actuate public servants in India as elsewhere. We have acted
successfully upon this knowledge in all other branches of the public
service, and shall, I trust, at no distant period act upon the same
in that of the police; and then, and not till then, can it prove to
the people what we must all wish it to be, a blessing.
The European magistrate of a district has, perhaps, a million of
people to look after.[16] The native officers next under him are the
Thanadars of the different subdivisions of the district, containing
each many towns and villages, with a population of perhaps one
hundred thousand people. These officers have no grade to look forward
to, and get a salary of _twenty-five rupees a month each_.[17]
They cannot possibly do their duties unless they keep each a couple
of horses or ponies, with servants to attend to them; indeed, they
are told so by every magistrate who cares about the peace of his
district. The people, seeing how much we expect from the Thanadar,
and how little we give him, submit to his demands for contribution
without a murmur, and consider almost any demand venial from a man so
employed and paid.
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