Indian Army: Important Facts

January 3, 2016 January 3, 2016

Current form of Indian army finds its origin from East India Company’s military department created at Kolkata in 1776. Gradually, three Presidencies of Bengal, Bombay and Madras organized their separate armies until 1895 when they were unified into single Indian Army. At that time, Indian Army had four commands viz. Punjab, Madras, Bengal and Bombay. The British Indian Army was one of the crucial forces of British Empire during 20th century and it served Britain in both the first and second world wars. Upon independence, the British Army was divided into India and Pakistan.

World’s largest Volunteer Army

Indian army is world’s largest “volunteer army”. By Volunteer army, we mean that it is not mandatory for citizens in India to send their children to serve in army. We note here that in some countries such as Israel, all 18 year old people have to serve in army for at least two years via the provision called conscription (forced recruitment by authority of law). In India, there was mandatory conscription during British Era. During Constituent Assembly debates, the issue had come under discussion. The basic argument against conscription was that anything which forces the citizens of mandatory military service is against the freedom of trade and brings in forced labour. Our Constitution has no explicit provision for or against conscription. However, during emergency, all the fundamental rights except articles 20 and 21 get suspended, so technically conscription is possible in India also. However, it has never been used in India.

Various Ranks of Personnel

The Junior most personnel of Indian army is a Sepoy, followed by non-commissioned officer (NCO), Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO), Lieutenant, Captain, Major, Lt. Colonel, Colonel, Brigadier, Major General, Lt. General and General.

The rank of General is held only by Chief of Army Staff who commands the entire army.

As shown in the above graphics, there is an honorary / ceremonial rank called Field Marshal above the General. This field marshal rank has been conferred only upon two officers in past viz. Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw and Field Marshal K M Cariappa. A Field Marshal of Indian army:

Holds the rank till his death
Considered to be a serving officer till his death
does not draw pension because he never retires. He gets full pay of a General equivalent to General of Indian Army (COAS).

Infantry regiments

The so called Foot soldiers are largest operating arm of Indian army. There are 32 infantry regiments. Oldest regiment is 1 Gorkha Rifles which is existing since 1815. Except a few recent regiments, most infantry regiments were created on ethnic, regional, religious and caste lines such as Punjab Regiment, Madras Regiment, Maratha Light Infantry, Rajputana Rifles, Jat Regiment, Dogra Regiment and so on. In 1949, for the first time an all India, mixed class regiment was raised called “Brigade of the Guards“. The idea behind raising such regiment was to encourage recruitment from classes which had been under-represented in the forces. Since independence, the policy is to not to raise any new regiment on the basis of a particular class, creed, community, religion or region.

Order of Precedence

There is also an order of precedence among various regiments of Indian army. Before 1947, this order of precedence was based on seniority (oldest first). Accordingly, the first number was of Punjab Regiment. We note that there were numerous Punjab Regiments beginning from 1761. Before 1947, they were amalgamated to form total six Punjab Regiments. Partition of India led to partition of the Punjab Regiments also. India retained only one of those six (2nd Punjab Regiment), while rest five went to Pakistan. This 2nd Punjab Regiment is the current Punjab Regiment in our army.

Kindly note that in the current order of precedence, Punjab Regiment has fourth place. The first three places are of Brigade of the Guards, Parachute Regiment and Mechanised Infantry Regiment. These three regiments are although created in independent India, but they have got higher order in precedence because these three regiments were created from the senior most battalions of the various regiments.

Armoured Regiments

There are 97 armoured regiments in Indian army including cavalry and lancer regiments.

Artillery Regiment

Indian army’s Artillery Regiment has been one of the most formidable operational arm. For the first time, guns were used by the Bahamani Kings in 14th century. In 1526, Babur used artillery to win over much larger armies of Ibrahim Lodi and later of Rana Sanga.

The East India Company had constituted the first artillery regiment in 1748. In 1827, the Royal Indian Artillery regiment was created in the British Indian Army, which was inherited by Independent India.

Currently, artillery is the second largest arm of the Indian Army (after infantry) with an array of armours including mortars, field artillery, self propelled artillery, rocket artillery etc.

Seven Commands of Indian Army

The Indian Army has a regimental system, but is operationally and geographically divided into seven commands, with the basic field formation being a division. These commands and their headquarters are mentioned below: