Rajasthan Police Academy, Jaipur
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Museum of guns
As in 2023
Dishank Purohit & Manasij Bhattacharjee, April 30, 2023: The Times of India
From: Dishank Purohit & Manasij Bhattacharjee, April 30, 2023: The Times of India
Every trigger has a tale to tell. Welcome to Rajasthan’s retro armoury. From body shields worn by kings to handguns wielded by bandits, from the first recorded FIR in the state to probably the only 12-foot Kentucky gun of state, colourful vestiges of the state’s encounters with violence are preserved in a large, well-lit room at Rajasthan Police Academy (RPA) in Jaipur. A favourite of American gangsters in the early 20th century, the tommy gun finds pride of place in the armoury. So do the camel guns, known to many as Kentucky guns. It often took two sturdy shoulders to fire one of them. The camel guns of the erstwhile royals are placed in one corner, while the common people’s desi kattas (crude guns) occupy the other side. There is also a 1918 machine gun of the type that was the German army’s mainstay during World War I. Many firearms on display here were once standard weapons of police units in princely states. RPA director Rajeev Kumar Sharma said all these firearms and records have been preserved meticulously. “We have contacted archival experts about preserving these artefacts. We have the state’s first FIR, police gazettes of different princely states, and much more. We want to properly preserve them. ”
The exhibits were transferred to the RPA from police offices across Rajasthan over decades, starting in 1975, and “there is a plan to shift these firearms to a museum proposed at the police headquarters,” Sharma said. While the date of manufacture and ownership history of many weapons are not known, he said some of the guns were seized decades ago from smugglers and bandits around frontier towns.
Rajputana was made up of several princely states. Most of them had a form of indirect rule with British paramountcy. Each princely state had its peculiar system of police administration. However, in the late 1940s a process began to form one composite and homogenous state police force. After the formation of a uniformed state police service in 1951, the integration of other ranks be- longing to the erstwhile princely states was completed by 1952-53 to bring greater uniformity in training, pay and ranks.
It was necessary to give the state a well-equipped and fully motivated armed police to guard the over 1,000km-long international border with Pakistan. Police documents show the state faced many challenges as powerful bandit gangs emerged, some of them operating from across Pakistan and in the Chambal ravines.
Officials say Rajasthan was the first state that provided its police force with a substantial number of camel sawars (riders) to take on dacoits in towns near the India-Pakistan border. These cops were armed to the teeth to fight the smugglers and raiders who rode in on camels and horses from Pakistan.
The documents also give a glimpse of policing in the pre-British period. For instance, a police gazette of Mewar State in 1643 issued a direction that people who provide shelter to criminals would face action.
Inspector Neelama Agnihotri of RPA showed one of the oldest khaki police uniforms in the room. “Many students of schools and colleges visit this room to see the weapons,” she said. Officials said the chief reason for developing a museum in the police HQ is to offer people a glimpse of Rajasthan’s rich history.
