Territorial Army (India) - History

History

The Indian Defence Force, incorporating Europeans and Indians in separate sections, was formed by the British in 1917. It was established in order to release regular troops from garrison duties during the First World War. It was divided into British and Indian sections. Like the Indian Army of the time, units in the Indian section consisted primarily of British officers and Indian other ranks. Units in the British section were all British. The Indians were volunteers, but many of the Europeans were conscripted, as the Indian Defence Force Act 1917 made military service compulsory for all Europeans permanently residing in British India (including the princely states) between the ages of 16 and 50. Boys between 16 and 18 were only obliged to undertake training and men over 40 only had to serve in their local district, but men between 19 and 40 were obliged to serve anywhere required within the country. Only clergy were exempt.

The IDF was generally unpopular among the British conscripts. It was replaced by the Auxiliary Force (India) (for Europeans and Eurasians) and the Indian Territorial Force (for Indians) in 1920.

The modern Territorial Army was formally inaugurated by the first Indian Governor-General of India Shri C. Rajagopalachari on October 9, 1949 after the Independence Territorial Army Act was passed in 1948. October 9 is celebrated by the Prime Minister's Territorial Army Day Parade.

The Territorial Army initially had various types of units such as armoured regiments, infantry battalions, air defence, medical regiments, engineers field park companies, signal regiments, Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (EME) workshops, coast batteries, Army Service Corps GT Coy, ASC Compo Pl, and AMC field ambulances. By 1972 these units were either disbanded or converted to Regular Army units with the exception of infantry battalions.

Territorial Army units were actively involved in military operations in 1962, 1965 and 1971. The "Terriers" have also taken part in Operation Pawan in Sri Lanka, Operation Rakshak in Punjab & J&K, Operation Rhino and Operation Bajrang in the North East. Departmental units came to the aid of the civil authorities during industrial unrest and natural calamities, most famous being earthquake in Latur (Maharastra), Uttarkashi in Garhwal Himalaya and the super cyclone in Orissa. The Ecological units have arrested man made environmental degradation by planting 2.5 crore trees over 20,000 hectare of land in Mussoorie hills & Pithoragarh (Uttarakhand), Bikaner & Jaisalmer (Rajasthan) and ravines of Chambal in Madhya Pradesh.