Caught By The Police: The Life Story of Dr Anandswarup Gupta

Deepak Gupta, Madhukar Gupta, Mira Yog, Harsh Gupta, Ranjit Gupta, Anandswarup Gupta

Sujets

• Personal Memoirs
• Bureau of Police Research and Development
• Biography
• UPSC
• Autobiography
• BPRD
• Police
• IAS
• Gupta

Informations

• Publié par: Roli Books
• Date de parution: 01 mars 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789351941811
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Caught by the Police is the story of atalented, public-spirited and erudite man,with a multidimensional personality, arepublican bent of mind, Indian valuesand English sensibilities. After a brilliantacademic career, he joined the RoyalAir Force in 1934 at the age of 19;unfortunately, he was forced to leave oncontrived medical grounds.
He got into the Indian Police due to aprovidential combination of circumstancesand events, somewhat against hisinclination. But once in it, he gave hisall to his profession. A brave and intrepidpolice officer, he went on to become acelebrated police historian. He also wrotespiritual poetry, which forms a part ofthe book and, interestingly, could reciteShakespeare, Ghalib and the Bhagvad Gitawith equal facility.
Spanning a century of changing times,this book provides a unique account ofthe last decades of British Rule and theemergence of a new India, woven intothe story of an extraordinary life lived inordinary places, and a compelling familychronicle.

© All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission of the authors.
First published in 2015
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ISBN: 978–93–5194-158-3

Typeset in Book Antiqua by Roli Books Pvt. Ltd. Printed and bound at Printways
This book is in memory of our father, who was a member of the Indian Police.

It is dedicated to all the officers and men of the Indian Police.
‘Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays: Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays, And one by one back in the Closet lays.
– Omar Khayyam
Contents


Preface
PART I
CHAPTER ONE
Family Background and Early Life (1915 – 1933)
CHAPTER TWO
Across the Seas and into the Skies (1934 – 1935)
CHAPTER THREE
Caught by the Police (1936 – 1939)
CHAPTER FOUR
Service in British India (1940 – 1947)
CHAPTER FIVE
Dawn of Independence (1947 – 1954)
CHAPTER SIX
Scaling the Heights: Deputation to Himachal Pradesh (1955 – 1959)
CHAPTER SEVEN
The Decade of the Sixties (1960 – 1970)
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Last Lap of Service: The Quintessential Academic Policeman (1970 – 1974)
CHAPTER NINE
Retirement and Unto the Morrow (1975 – 1981)
PART II
Glimpses of Reality
Musings

List of Abbreviations
Glossary
About the Authors
Preface

The book, Caught by the Police, tells the story of our beloved father, the late Dr. Anandswarup Gupta, who was born one hundred years ago on December 25, 1915, in the small mofussil town of Mainpuri in the then United Provinces (Uttar Pradesh).
2015 being the centenary year of our father’s birth, we, his children, thought we would offer as a tribute to his memory, something of lasting value both for us, his immediate family, and also for his larger family, and circle of friends, the professional community in the midst of which his work was cast, as well as for society at large. We decided, therefore, that it was an appropriate time to tell the story of his life... a story spanning a century and a half, telling of humble origins; of simple living and high thinking; of discipline, dedication, and strong moral values; of adventure and courage; and of perseverance and spirituality.
We were all excited as we set out on this venture. Gathering source material was the first crucial step. We had our grandfather’s autobiography, as also that of father’s younger sister, Smt. Kumudini Khaitan; these gave us valuable information about his family background and early childhood. We also had our memories and perceptions of father and mother and our lives as a family, but this was certainly not enough. We needed something from our father telling us about his life, we needed letters, documents, notes… we needed facts!
We remembered him telling us that he would like to write his autobiography and call it Caught By The Police. “Had he started writing something?” we wondered! We knew that after his retirement he would spend long hours in his library reading and writing, and we knew also that he was extremely meticulous, and we felt, therefore, that there must be papers and documents, which must be kept somewhere. We looked back to 1984, when our family home in Lucknow was sold, and thought about the couple of steel boxes which had been stored in Meera’s father-in law’s house, which was also in Lucknow. There had been no time, opportunity, or reason to look into them too closely then, or over the years, only to make sure that they were safe. Now there was a compelling and very important reason, and Meera, who now lives in the same house with her husband, did exactly that. Early one morning when she opened one of the steel trunks on which she had marked ‘old photos and papers’, she found some photographs which had got faint with age. Putting them aside, she looked further and found several plastic bags containing old files and papers. On opening the first few, she found a wealth of material, stories, and articles which father had written, and which had been published in magazines and newspapers and even text books, from a different century; also many articles on various aspects of police functioning. And then inside one very old-looking, pink file cover… typed pages with the title, Caught By The Police! With hands shaking, she turned the pages and saw that these were the first few chapters of father’s autobiography. She could hardly believe her eyes, it felt as if God had answered our prayers and sent father to tell us about a part of his life in his own words. She looked excitedly for what more precious material she could find. Another bag had hundreds of letters and documents – a virtual storehouse of authentic information about a defining period of father’s life between 1932 and 1934. And then there was more… for also among these papers was a manuscript with the title, ‘Musings’, on the cover; inside was a collection of about 50 poems, each marked with a date showing that they were written by father, largely in 1957, along with a ‘Foreword’ in his own words; there was also a small brown pocket diary, with many neatly-written jottings and poems in Hindi under the pen name of ‘Abr’. Here it was all, father’s life, in his own words, waiting to be discovered! Meera could not contain herself. It was very early morning, but she had to call all the other siblings to inform them about this serendipitous discovery. The uniform excited reaction was, “Wonderful, we have struck gold!”
This finding of father’s personal records, letters, diaries, copies of articles, his Musings, and also the incomplete manuscript of his autobiography was nothing short of providential, and acted as a spur and compelling motive to write and complete this book about his life and times, to coincide with his centenary year. From a perusal of these personal papers it became quite clear to us that he was very keen that his autobiography and Musings be published. We felt that it was our filial duty to do so.
We read and sifted, we remembered and shared memories, we shed tears and we laughed, and our book about father’s life took shape and got written by all five of us, jointly, and by father!
The book has been organized in two parts: Part I tells the story of his life, in chronological order.
Some chapters in the first part are largely in father’s words, as his manuscript contained a detailed description about the early important developments of his life. In chapter one, he describes his family background and childhood, bringing out the influences that shaped this early and impressionable stage; facts about this period are also gleaned from our grandfather’s autobiography and childhood memories are captured from our aunt’s story – altogether they weave a beautiful tale from a time long ago. In chapter two, he describes his brief stint with the Royal Air Force (R.A.F.) in England, and the unfortunate events, ‘deliberately contrived’ by the British, to ensure that the brilliant Indian cadet was ‘medically invalided’; he terms this as his ‘flirtation with the Royal Air Force’. In chapter three he writes about his return to India, his resilience in dealing with the aftermath of the events in England, and his determination to be a ‘graduate’ and stand on his own feet again. He then describes the events leading to his being ‘caught by the police’. In chapters four and five, father describes his early experiences in the service during British times, and later in the Police Training College (P.T.C.) and the Criminal Investigation Department (C.I.D.) in Independent India – including his unsuccessful attempts seeking to move out of the Police. Hereafter, he relates happenings in his life only sporadically, and the rest of the story, therefore, is written mostly by us, in third person. In c hapter six he has very briefly touched upon his work during his tenure as the Inspector General of Police (I.G.P.) of Himachal Pradesh, which was perhaps the most fulfilling time for him and the family, and which we have described in more detail. In chapter seven, we have written about his life and experiences in the last 10 years of his service in his State of allotment, Uttar Pradesh (U.P.), along with developments on the family front. It also contains a detailed account, in his own words, of the circumstances leading to his being denied the richly and legitimately deserved opportunity of leading the Police Force in U.P., and moving to the Home Ministry as the first Director of the newly set-up Bureau of Police Research and Development (B.P.R.D.). Chapter eight