CHENNAI: The etymology of the name — Pedda Naik is interesting. Engaged by the British to guard the town of Madarasapattinam, Pedda Naik and his ‘peons’ were the first prototypes of the commissionerate system of policing that is successfully functioning in Namma Chennai today. Pedda meaning ‘big’ in Telugu, Naik’s a caste title given to members of the Kapu sect, predominantly found in Andhra Pradesh. The root meaning of the term Kapu is variously given as ‘to protect’, ‘watchman’ or ‘watching,’ and those who did the job also went by the titles of ‘Naidu’ or ‘Naicker.’ The community is found in significant numbers in Tamil Nadu. After the British managed to dig in their heels in the main coastal towns of India by the 17th century, the year 1652 saw their Fort St George settlement metamorphose into a presidency aka Madras aka Chennai. In 1659, the English agent roped in a trio of hereditary Indian officials to make the ‘natives’ fall in line. One of them was — you guessed it right — the Pedda Naik, the ‘big’ or chief watchman, making him the first top cop of our city. Add to that his team of Thalaiyaris or ‘peons,’ we have the rustic predecessors to our modern-day men in khaki. Zoom over to the 18th century, the British thought themselves well-settled here. No wonder, they wanted to introduce a policing system that would effectively check the activities of the ‘natives.’ A police board sprung up in 1770 to deal with “removal of public nuisance and maintenance of public health and order”. A year later, Pedda Naik made way to the ‘Kotwal’ to make the tradesmen ‘behave.’ Two decades later, the system was abolished after the merchants accused the Kotwals of indulging in extortion. Phew! The greasy palm tendencies of cops seem to have colonial origins. Pedda Naik, with the new nomenclature of ‘Poligar,’ made a comeback. In 1780, the superintendent of police made his first appearance to manage the markets and costs of goods.In 1817, Superintendent Thomas Harris became the architect of the city pattern of policing, when he divided the presidency into eight divisions. In 1832, the system was improved upon and four districts — Black Town, Triplicane, Vepery and St Thomas (Santhome) were introduced.All the time, the British wielded the policy of ‘divide and rule’ that was working wonders for them. They systematically sidelined the Tamil military classes such as the Kallar and Maravar, who exercised immense power in the villages through the system of Kaval, and promoted castes that stood to gain from the suppression of these traditional warriors. The Kaval system was finally abolished in 1832.Indians were inducted into the police force in 1834. In 1856, on the threshold of the Sepoy Mutiny, the Police Act XII was passed. JC Boudlerson became the first Commissioner of Police under the new Act – considered the fountainhead of all police laws in India.
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