Introduction

          At the beginning of British rule in India, the Government generally was dependent on the village-watch system for the collection of information about crime and socio-religious developments from the remote areas. There was hardly any organized system of reporting of information’s of political nature. Another channel of information of the local administration was their personal contacts with the Zamindars and other influential persons of the society.

          At the beginning of 19^th century, the appointment of a class of functionaries known as “Goindahs” is noticed; but these Goindahs, meaning spies were generally appointed to the suspected Thanas with instructions to keep track and report the activities of the Darogas.

            The need for collection of political intelligence arose with the growth of political consciousness and political institutions in India. In fact, the history of intelligence organization is linked with the history of national awakening and the development of organized political activities in the country.

Formation of Intelligence Wing during British Rule

          As the Congress movement was taking off, Dufferin became aware of the inadequacy of the system of collection of political intelligence and saw in the Indian National Congress, a threat to the stability of the empire, as there was no other political movement at that time raging in the country. In response of Dufferin’s proposal the Secretary of State for India issued an order on December 22, 1887 for setting up a Central Special Branch and also Special Branches of the Police Department at the headquarters of each provincial Government.

          In the beginning, the Central Special Branch did not have any unit solely under their control. They were merely collating and compiling their reports received from the provincial Special Branches. But in the far-flung areas of the Empire, there was need for collecting military intelligence.

          In 1901 it was, therefore, decided that the Central Special Branch which was responsible only for the collection of political intelligence should be expanded to include a small staff of selective detective agents, to be employed to monitor political movements as also to deal with those forms of organized crimes which extended beyond the limits of a single province.

Formation of C.I.D.

          In 1906, when the provincial Criminal Investigation Department was formed, there was no organizational linkage between the Special Branch already existing and the C.I.D. Both functioned separately – one as part of the office of the Inspector General of Police, Bengal, while the other was headed by a Deputy Inspector General who was in-charge of the C.I.D. and Railways. Even during the Swadeshi Movement of 1905 following the Partition of Bengal, the Special Branch which was being headed by Denham at that time, was monitoring the Movement with its meager resources.

          The C.I.D. was at that time divided into two sections – one, the criminal side, investigating ordinary crimes and the other, the political side, acting as auxiliary to the Special Branch and investigating political crimes and offences arising out of political agitation. The Special Branch was so long attached to the office of the Inspector General of Police. In 1908 it had to be shifted to a rented office at 41, Park Street which also accommodated the C.I.D. Denham was then acting as Special Assistant to the Inspector General of Police and was in-charge of the Special Branch. His services were transferred to C.I.D. as Special Assistant to D.I.G., C.I.D. in charge of the Special Branch. The traumatic events of 1908, however, called for considerable expansion of the Special Branch.

New building for Special Branch

          As 41, Park Street was known to have housed the CID, the functioning of the Special Branch from this building will be somewhat difficult. The Secrecy was not likely to be maintained in an open office. So, 7, Kyd Street was taken on rent for the purpose of opening a secret office of the Special Branch.

          The Government of India attached great importance to the Bengal Special Branch in view of the fact that Bengal was at that time the epicenter of political agitation and terrorist activities. In no other province the Special Branch was recognized and strengthened in the manner it was done in Bengal.         The staff of the Intelligence Branch was substantially increased during the First World War when a full time Deputy Inspector General of Police was appointed to head the Branch.

The Intelligence Branch Office

          The Intelligence Branch used to have two main divisions. (i) Secret Service Division and (ii) the branches responsible for processing and dissemination of intelligence. The Secret Service Branch used to deal with intelligence collection and for this, they were dependant primarily of the agents. Agents were the paid informers of the Branch. The officers with special aptitude for recruiting agents were selected for Intelligence Branch.

          Besides the Secret Service Branch, the processing and dissemination of Intelligence used to be done by other branches in the I.B. office. The Confidential Section which used to do the sheet-indexing and from there, the particulars of suspects used to go to Indexing Section for card-indexing. In fact the confidential Section alone used to handle the folders containing the reports of the agents. That is why precaution was taken to ensure secrecy as leakage of the source report might lead to the disclosure of identity of the sources. Besides this, the Confidential Section used to maintain the party / organization-wise records of information.

Formation of District Intelligence Branch Office

          It gradually came to light that the ramification of the underground conspiratorial organization were not confined to Calcutta alone but had spread to the districts, then the idea of forming Intelligence Branches at district headquarters was seriously considered. As early as in 1908, the Special Branch had set up some centers in places where the existence of underground organizations had come to light. Such centers were at Midnapore, Barishal, Deoghar, Kustia, Khulna, Jessore. Each of the centers was in-charge of an Inspector who was detailed from Calcutta and remained stationed at the Centre till he was relieved by another. On the eve of the First World War, however, it was felt necessary that there should be a senior officer in-charge of the Intelligence Branch in the districts. In some of the affected districts, Additional Superintendents of Police were posted to head the district Intelligence Branches. Where there was no Additional Superintendent of Police, the Superintendent of Police was designated as Superintendent of Police in-charge of the District Intelligence Branch. The bigger districts like Midnapore, Dhaka, Chittagang etc. had one Additional Superintendent of Police in-charge of the District Intelligence Branch. The duty of the Intelligence Branch of the District Police was two fold :

(1)       The collection of information regarding the ramification of the conspiracy organization.

(2)       Investigation of the specific offences committed in furtherance to the common object of the conspiracy.

Pre-Independence

          The methodology of collection and dissemination of intelligence and the system of reporting from District Branch to higher-ups were gradually evolved and codified over the years. It, however, goes without saying that the Intelligence Branch in Bengal showed exceptional ability in dealing with the terrorist violence during the period before Independence. It excellent source work and innumerable channels of information eventually resulted in unearthing of all the groups responsible for terrorist violence.

          After the Government of India Act came into operation in 1937, the Intelligence Branch started losing its close contact with the Intelligence Bureau. But it retained its efficiency and capabilities to a great extent. The Quit India Movement of 1942, the Tebhaga Movement of 1946-47 and the communal riots of 1946 are three major political upheavals which broke-out in the Province before Independence. The Intelligence Branch competently faced the challenges of these upheavals. Besides during the War, the counter-intelligence tasks were also performed with great ability.

          The Partition of the province of Bengal and Independence were followed by further communal holocast and an unending stream of refugees form East Pakistan. As the transfer of power was taking place, the records of the Intelligence Branch and Intelligence Bureau were hurriedly destroyed or taken away resulting in immense loss of materials for history, which cannot perhaps be fully compensated. After this, till 1969, there was no terrorism, and not much of militancy in politics of the State. So when the Naxalite insurgency broke out in the State in 1969 the Intelligence Branch was caught on the wrong foot. However, by 1974 it succeeded in reviving its glorious past.  

Post-Independence

          In the post-Independence period, Shri P. K. Basu as DIG, IB did some pioneering work not only in the field of Intelligence but in matters of reorganization of Branch. In fact he revised the rules for internal functioning of the Intelligence Branch and in 1965 could get it totally separated from the CID for which another DIG was appointed.

          In the early 1980s the post of the DIG, Intelligence was upgraded to the rank of Inspector General and later on to the Additional Director General and Director General. Later on, to meet the problems of Indo-Bangladesh, Indo-Bhutan and Indo-Nepal borders, a separate Border wing has been created. A separate wing to look after the problems of VIP security has also been functioning under the direct supervision of Director Security.