July 28, 1858, marks the day Sir William Herschel, a British East India Company administrator, who pioneered the use of fingerprints for identification. He used fingerprints in India, recognizing their uniqueness and permanence. This innovation laid the groundwork for modern biometric identification systems. However, in 1897 Sir Edward Henry solved the cumbersome task of fingerprint indexing. The Scotland Yard in England followed the Henry system in 1901and since then this system had been adopted worldwide.
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| slideshare.net |
The science of fingerprint identification stands as the paramount tool in forensic science, having accurately identified criminals across the globe for over 115 years. Its widespread reliance stems from a foundational and repeatedly verified truth: no two friction ridge patterns are alike, establishing an unparalleled standard of uniqueness for forensic evidence . While the recovery of these "Chanced Impressions"—left by the natural secretions of eccrine sweat glands on surfaces like glass or metal—is now a routine part of criminal investigation, the prevailing narrative surrounding its invention is often misplaced. Contrary to the general consensus that the technique originated at Scotland Yard, the critical breakthrough and systematic experimentation occurred not in Britain, but in Colonial India.
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| Father of fingerprinting eastindiastory.com |
The establishment of fingerprinting as a reliable identification system was less a product of British domestic necessity and more an innovation born of the Imperial project. Historian Chandak Sengoopta, in Imprint of the Raj, argues persuasively that the methodology was fundamentally a product of the British Raj. The initial impetus was rooted in the oppressive rulers' need for comprehensive methods to track the native population. This routine identification of people was politically and socially viable in the colony, but, as the source text notes, was "impossible to think of" in England, where it would have been seen as an intrusion on the privacy of British subjects. Colonial India, therefore, served as the necessary, uninhibited experimental field for this groundbreaking forensic tool.
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| A Haque and H. Chandra Bose pioneers, facebook.com |
The decisive moment came in 1897 with the establishment of the world’s very first Fingerprint Bureau in Kolkata (then Calcutta), West Bengal. This bureau was founded by Sir Edward Richard Henry, the Inspector General of the Bengal Province. Henry was the key figure who championed the technique and is credited with classifying fingerprints based on their core patterns, a system—known globally today as the Henry Classification System—that revolutionized record-keeping. However, Sengoopta’s research ensures that credit is appropriately shared, underscoring the invaluable contributions of Henry’s Indian assistants: Azizul Haque and Chandra Bose, whose work was instrumental to the success of the classification method.
Henry’s work in Kolkata provided the robust framework needed for global adoption. After returning to England to head the Metropolitan Police in London, he solidified fingerprinting international reputation with the publication of his classic work, Classification and Use of Finger Prints, in 1900. Although the physical facility in Kolkata—the oldest fingerprint bureau in the world—now reportedly operates from a modest, understaffed room, its historical significance remains immense. The bureau in Kolkata is the true birthplace of the systematic, globally-adopted technique that continues to send thousands of criminals to the slammer based on irrefutable evidence.
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/179753
https://eastindiastory.com/history-of-28th-july-sir-william-herschel
