Mumbai police uniform has evolved in colour and style over the centuries

The officers of rank from sub-inspectors to superintendents of police (as the present-day assistant commissioners of police or ACPs were then known in Mumbai) wore white uniforms, and maintaining them in their clean, spotless form was difficult in those tumultuous times. The cost of laundering them was also high. This led to the state government’s decision to phase them out and bring in khaki uniforms.

In 1955, the Samyukta Maharashtra movement, which sought statehood for Maharashtra with Mumbai as its capital, was at its zenith, with massive protests and rousing public meetings. However, the men in the Bombay police, as the Mumbai police was then known, had more on their mind than regular bandobast and crowd control duties.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently stressed the need for police forces across the country to have a standard uniform. (HT PHOTO)

The officers of rank from sub-inspectors to superintendents of police (as the present-day assistant commissioners of police or ACPs were then known in Mumbai) wore white uniforms, and maintaining them in their clean, spotless form was difficult in those tumultuous times. The cost of laundering them was also high. This led to the state government’s decision to phase them out and bring in khaki uniforms.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently stressed the need for police forces across the country to have a standard uniform. The Mumbai police, however, has seen the uniforms of its men and officers evolve over the centuries, dating back to its genesis as the Bhandari militia which was born in 1669, according to one provenance.

Rohidas Dusar, retired deputy commissioner of police and a chronicler of the history of the Mumbai and Maharashtra Police, noted that initially, the men of the Bhandari militia were given the red uniforms that were also used by the British army. Later, the constables switched to a blue uniform. As S M Edwardes, the then police commissioner of Bombay, notes in his 1923 book ‘The Bombay City Police: A Historical Sketch 1672-1916’, the bright yellow cap and dark blue tunic and knickers was the uniform of the constabulary in the early 19th century.

Deepak Rao, Mumbai police historian, said that policemen from sub-inspectors to superintendents of police, both European and Indian, used blue uniforms till 1905, after which white uniforms were introduced. “But the officers of the Indian Police (Imperial Police) (predecessors of the present-day IPS), always donned khaki, though they wore white uniforms on certain ceremonial occasions like the visits of the viceroy and governor,” he said. “These white uniforms were in use for ceremonial functions till 1978, after which khaki took over. In 1948, some variation was introduced in the blue uniforms of the constables. The monkey cap that they wore was done away with and their baggy pants were shortened.”

However, the constables and officers of the Bombay provincial police, as the Maharashtra police were then known, always donned khaki. This meant that khaki was the standard uniform for the force beyond Mahim, as the areas which form the suburbs of Mumbai today were then in Thane district. It was only on October 1, 1945, that the Bombay suburban district, which had been carved out of Thane in 1920, was merged into Bombay City. This meant that now the Bombay City Police became the Greater Bombay Police and their jurisdiction was extended up to Andheri in the western suburbs and Ghatkopar and Kurla in the eastern suburbs.

It was only in 1957 that the extended suburbs up to Dahisar and Mulund were also brought under the jurisdiction of the Mumbai civic body and police commissionerate, thus marking the culmination of the Greater Bombay scheme, said Rao. This meant that now, the constabulary adopted the blue uniforms in these areas as well.

In 1955-56, the ‘Samyukta Maharashtra’ agitation had peaked. “It was difficult for officers to maintain their white uniforms and keep them spic and span in this tumult. So the need for a change was felt, and the khaki uniforms were brought in, though the idea was originally born in 1953 to replace the colonial-era white uniform which were associated with an oppressive rule,” Rao explained. However, the white uniforms continued to be used on ceremonial occasions till they were finally phased out in 1978.

The present-day khaki uniform of the Mumbai police constables was born in October 1981 during the tenure of then chief minister Abdul Rehman Antulay, who replaced the constables’ blue uniform with half-pants with khaki uniforms that had full pants. This was because it was felt that the half-pants looked shabby.

But even today there remains a slight variation between the caps worn by the officers of the Mumbai police and their counterparts in Maharashtra—while cops in Mumbai wear blue caps with a yellow band, those in the state wear khaki caps with a brown band. The topis worn by Mumbai police constables are blue with a yellow band, while their colleagues elsewhere have a red band on their blue caps. Two attempts to tweak the caps met with resistance and were scrapped.

In 1981-82, khaki caps were introduced for officers in Mumbai and were scrapped after officers felt that they looked like those worn by security guards. During his tenure as the director-general of police, Arvind Inamdar introduced caps on the lines of the Metropolitan Police in London for Mumbai police constables. However, the plan was withdrawn soon due to an uproar.

So, after the prime minister has mooted his plan for a single uniform for police forces across the country, what shape will the uniform of the Mumbai police now take? Only time will tell.