Afraid of men in Khaki? Here are the 5 states where police are most feared

A new report reveals fresh facts about the way Indians look at policing and the police. The Status of Policing in India-2018 was released in May by Common Cause, an NGO, and Lokniti Programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS). Sikhs and Punjab residents report the highest incidence of fear.

Among religious communities, the Sikhs feared the police the most and the Hindus the least, the report found. State-wise distribution showed high levels (46 per cent) of fear of the police in Punjab. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka follow Punjab in this respect.

The report further found that poorer Sikhs are more likely to be scared of the police. But this is true of all religious groups. If we consider the upper classes among all religions, the Sikhs (37 per cent) are much more likely than the Hindus (14 per cent) or the Muslims (9 per cent) to fear the police. The trend could be linked to the history of violence in Punjab in the last four decades and how the police responded to it, especially in the 1990s, when militancy peaked in the state. 

The Hindus and the Muslims in the south are most likely to fear the police. There is a general perception that the Muslims in the Hindi heartland fear the police more than anywhere else.

But the report found that the Muslims in south India, particularly in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, are more likely to be fearful of the police than those living elsewhere.