Internal Security Administration in India: The Reform Process

The primary responsibility for internal security affecting 1.3 billion Indian people is with the civil police, numbering about one million and working under twenty-eight state governments and seven Union Territories. Central police and armed forces are sent to assist the states in grave situations. However, they work under the direction of the local police to quell disturbances and have no independent enforcement power except in notified ‘Disturbed Areas’.