DAROGA,

DAROGA, from Persian daroghah, lit. “head man of an office, prefect of a town or village, overseer, or superintendent of any department,” is a term usually applied to a police officer in charge of a thana (police station) exercising jurisdication over a police circle. The title, equivalent of than adaror thanedar in the Punjab, is still used in some other Indian states to designate an inspector or subinspector of police in charge of a police station or, in official terminology, a station house officer, S.H.O. for short. During the medieval period, as even now, daroga, as a government official responsible for maintaining law and order in the countryside, enjoyed wide powers of detention and arrest. His counterpart, in larger towns, or superior was kotwal.