The past appears different when it is analysed in the present-day perspective. When the present is peaceful, prosperous, progressive and politically stable, the past loses its attraction and charm, and no longer remains a source of inspiration and guidance.

If the present is full of crises, people become disappointed and disillusioned. In this case, the society looks at the past with nostalgia and reconstructs it as the ideal period in which people lived happily and had no problems.

In Pakistan, as our problems increase day by day, there are crimes, terrorism and corruption, and the bureaucratic system has degenerated to the extent that it has become an outdated societal structure, with its efficiency and utility completely lost. The judicial system is not in a position to deliver justice.

This develops a tendency to look at the British rule and idealise it as the perfect system that maintained law and order and delivered justice. Those who lived during British rule narrate their experiences of British justice and remember the old days as peaceful and pleasant compared to the present situation.

Idealisation of British rule and the belief that law and order was maintained in the interest of the people of the subcontinent indicates how the colonial period has been misunderstood. As a colonial state, its authority depended on maintaining law and order only so far as it protected the integrity of the state. Hence, chaos, disorder and mafias and movements that could challenge the authority of the state were taken seriously. A display of weakness here would have encouraged nationalist movements to initiate or step up freedom movements. Therefore, the major interest of the British was to maintain law and order to protect their power in India. As foreign rulers, they were conscious of their weaknesses. Any rebellion against their domination would thus be crushed ruthlessly by the army.

In Bengal, when the peasants forced to cultivate indigo rose against the East India Company, the rebellion was brutally crushed. The great rebellion of 1857 was subdued with an iron hand and thousands of locals were hanged in the name of law, order and justice. This policy continued throughout the period of British rule. In the 19th century the police department was established in order to crush civilian disturbances. Therefore strikes or demonstrations by workers were treated harshly in the name of law and order. Similarly, when political parties became active and demanded political rights, their processions and demonstrations were lathi-charged or fired upon by the police.

The British government built special jails to imprison political activists along with ordinary criminals, and the root cause of these actions was to consolidate British supremacy. .

A glaring example of this was the massacre by General Dyers in the Jallianwalla Bagh incident. Dyer the mass-murderer, immediately became the hero and saviour of the British empire.

Therefore those who romanticise British rule as just, should understand why it was imperative for the British to maintain law and order.

The colonial period should be examined critically and analysed with a fresh perspective to conclude that the rule was neither benevolent, nor enlightened or pro-people, but only aimed to strengthen imperial rule by using all kinds of coercive methods. The British past cannot become a source of inspiration nor can it guide us in solving our present-day problems.

In our case, law and order should be maintained not to protect the ruling elite but to provide security and peace to the masses. Law enforcement agencies and their utility have to be revisited and their structure should be reconstructed as pro-people. Opposition must be tolerated while demonstration for peoples’ rights should be allowed. The ruling elite must not follow the colonial rule where law and order was used as a tool to silence opponents and enforce hegemony through undemocratic means.