The most dangerous violence that governments and states encounter is likely to be ethnic and/or religious. Ethnic and religious conflict, by contrast, is far more serious for a regime. Governments rely on the military to protect themselves but must be concerned simultaneously with preventing the military from overthrowing them. Governments have limited options available regarding ethnicity policy within the police and military, and between them. Basically the government can ignore ethnicity, counter-balance ethnic groups within the forces, and deliberately provide for dominance by a preferred ethnic group in one or all of the institutions. The chapter explores which of these options have been chosen and why with reference to the security forces of India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, in South Asia. All were British colonies with similar though not identical political experiences from the British period. The Indian government has set up multiple paramilitary forces, each with a special mission, to cope with specific problems.