Rewa (Central India)
pigments on paper
Company Painting, Signed by the artist Bharat Sharan Musohver
A charming Company painting of a police officer captioned, “Inspector Police Mounted,1920.”
The Indian Police Services was part of the uniform system of police administration in British Raj, as established by Government of India Act 1858, Police Act of 1861. It was motivated by the danger experienced by the British during the 1857 rebellion. During 1920s the Imperial Indian police had 310,000 police in their contingent. Its members policed more than 300 million people in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Burma (then comprising British Raj). During this period the police held a multiplicity of functions. As an agency of state coercion and intelligence gathering, the police were vital to Britain’s attempts to hold onto power in India. By the mid-1940s the erosion of police loyalty towards the British was an important index of Britain’s waning power.
Painting Size (cms): 22 (H) x 18 (W)
Painting Size (inch): 8.5 (H) x 7 (L)
Framed Size (cms): 36.5 (H) x 32 (W)
Framed Size (inch): 14.5 (H) x 12.5 (L)
