In the fast changing socio-political equations of contemporary India, identities are constantly evolving along social and economic lines. Policing a complex socio-economic and political matrix of such a large country is bound to be complicated. This is more so on account of the fact that Indian policing has inherited a colonial model, and the horrors of the partition have made its Constitutional framework highly security conscious. And though policing is a state subject, the Union government is often involved in both, emergency as well as day-to-day policing.

The policing function of the state thus takes on a political hue as the conflict between ethnic communities, religious groups and the caste groups escalate. The author, Amit Prakash uses the case study of the deployment of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and he political process in Uttar Pradesh to highlight these inter-linkages.

Amit Prakash is Associate Professor in Law and Governance at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He is PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He has published widely in national and international journals in the area of political analysis, discursive structures of the Indian state, electoral patterns and trends in India. He is the author of Jharkhand: Politics of Development of Identity. He has also recently completed the manuscript of a book entitled Good Governance and Development Policies: A Comparative Study of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, which is to be published under the auspices of the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi.