Police officers in Kerala are finally going to wear their revolvers on the right hip like their counterparts in the West, dumping a 400-year-old colonial tradition of carrying them on the left side.
The director-general of police, Mr Jacob Punnoose, has approved the "right shift" recommendation made in a report on the modernisation of the force by IPS officer K. Sethuraman, who is now the Malappuram superintendent of the police.
Talking to this newspaper, Mr Sethuraman said the tradition started with the East India Company forces in India, whose staff would wear their swords on the left side so that they could be easily drawn with the right hand. Historians say that Robert Clive, the founder of the British Empire, ordered that law officers and soldiers carry handguns too in the same manner — on the left side.
"As in many other cases, we are still following this East India Company tradition though the police in the United Kingdom and other Western countries started wearing handguns on the right side in the 1950s itself," he said.
"Japan and China too introduced this reform," he added.
The SP said that drawing a revolver from the left side was cumbersome (except perhaps for left-handers) and slowed down officers during situations that required split second response.
"We are now giving necessary training to sub-inspectors on how to use guns carried on the right side," said Mr Sethuraman.
Police forces in several other states in India still carry holsters on the left hip, though Black Cat and NSG commandos had made the ‘right’ choice from the start.