| Territorial Army | |
|---|---|
 Crest of the Territorial Army | |
| Active | 1949 – present |
| Country |  India |
| Allegiance | Republic of India |
| Branch |  Indian Army |
| Type | Army |
| Role | Reserve Force |
| Size | 203,000 includes 43,000 first line and 160,000 second line |
| TA Group Headquarters |
|
| Nickname | Terriers |
| Mottos | Savdhani Va Shoorta (Vigilance and Valour) |
| Anniversaries | 9 October (TA Day) |
| Engagements | 1962 India-China War 1965 Indo-Pak war 1971 Indo-Pakistani War Operation Pawan Operation Rakshak Kargil War |
| Website | https://indianarmy.nic.in/ |
| Commanders | |
| Director General | Lt Gen Girish Kalia |
| Chief of Defence Staff | GeneralAnil Chauhan |
| Insignia | |
| Insignia | Chain of Lotus and theLion Capital of Ashoka |
| Flag | .svg) |
TheTerritorial Army (TA) is amilitary reserve force composed ofpart-timevolunteers who provide support services to theIndian Army. It consists ofofficers,junior commissioned officers,non-commissioned officers, and other personnel who hold ranks identical to those in the Indian Army, and also maintain civilian occupations. The primary role of the TA is to "relieve theregular army from static duties and assist civil administration in dealing with natural calamities and maintenance of essential services" and to "provide units for the regular army as and when required".[1]
The TA was constituted by the Territorial Army Act of 1948 in theDominion of India as a successor to theIndian Defence Force (1917–1920) and theIndian Territorial Force (1920–1948). It is commanded by athree-star ranking Director General of the Territorial Army, typically aLieutenant General-ranking officer deputed from the Indian Army, and headed by theChief of Defence Staff under theDepartment of Military Affairs of theMinistry of Defence. The TA has two units—a departmental unit consisting of employees ofpublic sector undertakings (PSU) and theIndian Railway and ex-servicemen; and a non-departmental unit consisting of privately employed civilians.
The TA has participated in all of India's wars since the country's independence, including theSino-Indian War of 1962,Indo-Pakistani War of 1965,Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, and theKargil War. The TA has also taken part inOperation Pawan (1987) inSri Lanka, Operation Rakshak inPunjab andJammu and Kashmir,Operation Rhino (1991) andOperation Bajrang (1990–1991) inNortheast India, andOperation Parakram in Jammu and Kashmir.
Individuals seeking to join the TA must be employed in mainstay civilian professions or be self-employed. Members are required to undergo two months of mandatory paid service every year. Although the TA states that it "does not provide a full-time career", soldiers can choose to remain embodied for longer periods. TA personnel are entitled to all benefits available to the Indian Army, except gratuity and pension, which are determined by the number of full years served.[2]
In 1612, when theEnglish East India Company reachedSurat, it established a contingent of part-time soldiers comprising the company's employees to safeguard its commercial interests. In 1687, the Governor and Council ofFort St. George ordered the creation of the Companie of Trained Bands, a part-time force based inMadras. This force was established to defend against the rivalFrench East India Company and nativeprincely states. The Company played a role in theBattle of Plassey on 23 June 1757, and many of its part-time units were eventually converted intoregular andirregular forces.[3]
After theIndian Rebellion of 1857, theBritish Crown assumed control of Indian administration from the East India Company. Existing part-time forces were reorganized, resulting in the creation of theVolunteer Force (VFI) through legislation. As British rule expanded in India, full-time regular forces gained prominence. The VFI engaged in military conflicts both in India and abroad, including theSecond Boer War and theFirst World War. Subsequently, the VFI was restructured and replaced by theIndian Defence Force (IDF).[3]
The IDF, organized into separate European and Indian sections, was established by theImperial Legislative Council on 9 October 1917 to release regular troops from garrison duties during World War I. Indians served as volunteers, while Europeans wereconscripted. The Indian Defence Force Act of 1917 mandated military service for all European males (except clergy) aged 16 to 50 permanently residing inBritish India, including princely states.[4] Those aged 16 to 18 were obligated to undergo training, while men over 40 were required to serve in their local districts. Men between 19 and 40 were obligated to serve wherever needed within British India.[5]
The IDF'syouth wing, known as the University Corps (UC), was established at the universities ofCalcutta,Bombay,Madras, andAllahabad. The IDF was generally unpopular among British conscripts.[3] In 1920, it was replaced by two volunteer organizations: theAuxiliary Force (AFI) for European andAnglo-Indian officers and theIndian Territorial Force (ITF) for Indianother ranks.[6] The UC was reorganized as the University Training Corps (UTC) under the ITF and was later renamedUniversity Officers' Training Corps (UOTC). AfterIndia's independence, the AFI was disbanded as its services were no longer required. The ITF was restructured into the newly formed Territorial Army, and the UOTC was converted into theNational Cadet Corps (NCC).[3]
Post-independence, the Territorial Army Bill was introduced in theConstituent Assembly (the then Parliament of India) on 23 August 1948. It was passed on 1 September and came into force on 10 September. It allowed civilians pursuing other professions to serve part-time in the army.[7] The TA was constituted by reorganising and redesignating 11 ITF infantry units. The first TA camp was inaugurated by the firstGovernor-General of independent India,C. Rajagopalachari, on 9 October 1949. Since then, the annual Territorial Army Day has been observed on 9 October.[8] During the India-China conflict in 1959, defence ministerV. K. Krishna Menon, in a radio address, asked Indians to volunteer for the TA.[9]
Initially, the Territorial Army comprised various types of units, including Armoured Regiment (TA), Infantry Battalion (TA), Air Defence (TA), Medical Regiment (TA), Engineers Field Park Coy (TA), Signal Regiment (TA),EME Workshop (TA), Coast Battery (TA),ASC GT Coy (TA), ASC Compo Pl (TA), and AMC Field Ambulances (TA). By 1972, these units, except for the infantry battalions, were either disbanded or became part of the regular army.[10] In 2019, the TA began accepting women in officer and other ranks.[11]
By law, the Territorial Army is an integral part of theIndian Army, whose composition is defined in the Part I of the Defence Services Regulations, which states; "the army comprises regular army, regular reserves, and the Territorial Army".[7] Part-time TA personnel may fall within the definition of regular army when attached to a unit. The Territorial Army Act 1948 states, for the purpose of sections 128, 130, and 131 of theCode of Criminal Procedure (CrPC); "all officers, non-commissioned officers and other enrolled persons who have been attached to a unit shall be deemed to be officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers respectively of the Regular Army".[12] This is further complimented in theArmy Act, 1950, which defines regular army as "regular army means officers, junior commissioned officers, warrant officers, non-commissioned officers and other enrolled persons who, by their commission, warrant, terms of enrolment or otherwise, are liable to render continuously for a term military service to the [Indian] Union in any part of the world, including persons belonging to the Reserve Forces and the Territorial Army when called out on permanent service".[13]
According to the TA Act 1948; "every officer or enrolled person shall be liable to perform military service: (a) when called out in the prescribed manner to act in support of the civil power or to provide essential guards; (b) when embodied in the prescribed manner for training or for supporting or supplementing the regular forces; and (c) when attached to any regular forces either at his own request or under the prescribed conditions". The act also says no personnel has any liability to serve beyond the "limits of India" unless under a General or by a special order of theGovernment of India.[12]
The concept of the TA was redefined multiple times by the TA Review Committee, nominated by the Government of India. The first review of 1971 defined it as "... to provide part-time military training to gainfully employed citizens of the nation"; and the 1982 review said "... TA should be based on part-time and full-time units and recruitment to be all citizens who fulfil the prescribed standard, while in consonance with the traditional concept, every effort should be made to enroll gainfully employed persons". The third review, in 1995, recommended a restructure to make it a tri-service organisation, including theIndian Navy and theIndian Air Force, named the Indian Territorial Force; and passage of the Indian Territorial Force Act.[3]
As per Army Order. 77/1984, the present role of the TA is to "relieve the regular army from static duties and assist civil administration in dealing with natural calamities and maintenance of essential services in situations where life of the communities is affected or the security of the country is threatened and to provide units for regular army as and when required".[14]
At the time of its inception, the TA was well received by the Indian Army, Navy, and Air Force, but the concept was eroded and confined to some infantry and departmental units of the Indian Army.[15] Former Indian Army colonel and columnist Balwan Singh Nagial wrote the "expansion of the regular army certainly overshadowed the concept of TA. Instead, it should have happened the other way around, keeping in view the cost-effectiveness of TA".[15] In February 2020, GeneralBipin Rawat stated "TAisation of defence forces" is a way to reduce the cost of running the military. After the restructuring of the Indian Armed Forces by introducing theChief of Defence Staff and theDepartment of Military Affairs in March 2020, the TA's focus expanded to include more operational andintelligence-gathering roles to cut costs of the Indian Army. In 2020, the TA was in a phase of gradual expansion.[16]
In July 2022, the TA started recruitingMandarin-language graduates as officers as part of an effort by theIndian Army to increase its expertise in Mandarin andTibetology amid the2020–2022 China–India skirmishes and efforts of China'sPeople's Liberation Army to recruitHindi interpreters for posting inTibet Autonomous Region.[17]
Territorial Army units were actively involved in military operations in theSino-Indian War of 1962,Indo-Pakistani War of 1965,Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and theKargil War.[18] The TA has participated in all wars since independence; subsequently, many of its air defence and artillery units were converted into regular army units.[19] The TA also took part inOperation Pawan (1987) inSri Lanka, Operation Rakshak inPunjab andJammu and Kashmir, and Operation Rhino (1991) andOperation Bajrang (1990–1991) inNortheast India. Departmental units assisted the civil authorities during industrial unrest and natural calamities, particularly the1991 Uttarkashi earthquake, the1993 Latur earthquake and the1999 Odisha cyclone.[20]
The TA, as part of theIndian Peace Keeping Force, was involved inpeacekeeping activities in Sri Lanka from 29 July 1987 to 24 March 1990. Since the early 1990s, units have been actively deployed in Jammu and Kashmir, Northeast India, and along India's northern and western borders. According to a 2021 report, approximately 75 percent of TA units are deployed incounter-insurgency andcounter-terrorism-prone areas in these regions.[15] Since 1994, many TA soldiers serve as regular troops in counter-insurgency areas like Jammu and Kashmir for up to three years.[18] The TA participated in rescue and relief operations following the2001 Gujarat earthquake and protected oil installations inVadodara during the riots the followed theGodhra train burning incident in 2002.[21]
The TA has also participated in mountaineering activities. The joint Indo-British TA Mountaineering Expedition scaledMount Kokthang (6,147 metres (20,167 ft)) in October 1982 and September 1994, andMount Tenchenkhang (6,010 metres (19,720 ft)) in May 1998 inWest Sikkim. The Ecological Battalion units planted 2.5 crore saplings over 20,000 hectares (49,000 acres) of land atMussoorie andPithoragarh hill stations inUttarakhand,Bikaner andJaisalmer inRajasthan, ravines ofChambal inMadhya Pradesh, and Bhatti mines inDelhi.[14] As of 2021, Ecological Task Forces has planted 6.9 crore saplings covering an area of 72,761 hectares (179,800 acres) with a 65-to-75-percent survival rate.[15] In 2020, plans to increase the presence of TA personnel in theAndaman and Nicobar Islands were made due to concerns about Chinese intrusion.[16]
On the night of 29 June 2022, alandslide occurred at thecompany location of107 Infantry Battalion (TA) nearTupul railway station inManipur that had been deployed to protect the under-constructionJiribam–Imphal line; 31 TA personnel died.[22] The family of each TA serviceperson received more than ₹1 crore in compensation and benefits, and future benefits for their children.[23]
Until 2020, the TA was headed by an Additional Directorate General of Territorial Army (ADG TA); this role was held by amajor general of the Indian Army, and came under the office of theChief of the Army Staff (COAS). From March 2020 onward, following a restructuring of the Indian Armed Forces, the TA is headed by a Director General of Territorial Army (DG TA); this role is held by alieutenant general from the Indian Army, and comes under the office of theChief of Defence Staff (CDS) of the newly createdDepartment of Military Affairs, which is under theMinistry of Defence. Lieutenant GeneralDevendra Pratap Pandey was the first DG TA and GeneralBipin Rawat was the first CDS of the Indian Armed Forces.[24]
The TA has infantry and engineer units affiliated to various regiments of the Indian Army. Beside, it also has ecological battalions for restoration of environment.[25] The TA units are classified as departmental units (includingIndian Railways,Oil and Natural Gas Corporation,Indian Oil Corporation,Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, andHindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited) and non-departmental units of infantry battalions, home and hearth, and engineers regiments. The departmental units are funded by state governments,Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas,Ministry of Railways, andMinistry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, while the non-departmental units are funded by the Ministry of Defence.[8]
There are zonal divisions, and recruitment is zonal-based.
On 1 March 1983, the 801 Engineer Regiment R&P (TA) was established as a Departmental Territorial Army unit atAgra Fort under the Ministry of Petroleum, Chemicals & Fertilizers (later renamed asMinistry of Petroleum and Natural Gas). The unit was formed to operate oil refineries & pipelines in an emergency, and to cater for theIndian Oil Corporation. In 1985, the unit's scope was extended to other oil companies. The idea of raising oil-sector units was mooted after civil unrest in Assam in 1980, which resulted in a loss of more than₹5,000 crore in oil production. The duties of oil-sector units are technical in nature. During their embodied service in the TA, these personnel perform the jobs they were doing in their civilian roles.[26]
In the early 1980s, the fragile ecology of theSivalik Hills and the environmental stability of theMussoorie hills deteriorated due to illegal limestone mining, increasing the rate ofdesertification.Norman Borlaug, the director of Mexico'sInternational Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, proposed to India's prime ministerIndira Gandhi to use the Indian Army to recover the region's ecology. The government decided to raise TA units by enrolling ex-servicemen with the dual aim of rejuvenating the ecology and the settlement of ex-servicemen. Units were raised under the aegis of theMinistry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the Ministry of Defense in conjunction with state governments. It was recommended that each state have one ETF unit to operate for state forestry departments. The first Ecological Task Force Battalion was raised on 1 December 1982; as of 2021, 10 ETF units were carrying outafforestation activities in rugged and ecologically degraded areas.[27]
In 2018, the Composite Ecological Task Force (CETF), also called the Ganga Task Force, was raised as part of the Namami Gange Programme of the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), which aimed to maintain the cleanliness of theGanges river. The unit comprises ex-servicemen whom theCentral Pollution Control Board trains to test the river water. They also carry out afforestation activities on the river's banks.[28] The CETF was raised after a proposal by theDepartment of Ex-servicemen Welfare.[29]
On 3 June 2022, after reviewing a report by a constituted committee and with the agreement of theMinistry of Defence and Directorate General of Territorial Army (DGTA), theMinistry of Railways disbanded five out of the six Railway Engineers Regiments (TA) that were based atJhansi,Kota,Adra,Chandigarh, andSecunderabad, keeping only theJamalpur regiment for operational duties along the critical, 361-kilometre (224-mile) New Jalpaiguri-Siliguri-Newmal-Alipurduar-Rangiya rail link through theSiliguri Corridor and toRangiya as proposed by the Ministry of Defence. The disbandment process was to be completed by the DGTA within nine months.[30]
Several hospitals are affiliated with the Territorial Army, such as General Hospital (TA) atKolkata,Allahabad,Jaipur,Patiala,Guwāhāti,Ahmadabad, andRohtak. These units are activated to treat army personnel during wartime. In 2009, the TA activated the M & J Institute of Ophthalmology, Ahmedabad, after 30 years, to perform a mock drill.[31]
In 2003–2004, Home and Hearth (H&H) units were raised, based on the "sons of the soil" model. The 162 Infantry Battalion TA JAK LI (H&H) is exclusively forIkhwans.[32] The H&H personnel are recruited only fromJammu and Kashmir.[33] H&H units are deployed in northern and eastern regions of the state and 70 percent of the infantry battalion troops are sent forcounterinsurgency duties.[8] In 2015, the government sanctioned three engineering units in Jammu and Kashmir. Two units for Kashmir and one for Jammu.[34] The Engineer Regiments are deployed for maintenance of theLine of Control.[35]
The Territorial Army has a strength of more than 43,000 first-line troops and 160,000 second-line troops, as of the data of 2019.[36]
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| Rank group | General / flag officers | Senior officers | Junior officers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Territorial Army[37] |  |  |  |  |  |  | No insignia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Brigadier ब्रिगेडियर | Colonel कर्नल | Lieutenant colonel लेफ्टिनेंट - कर्नल | Major मेजर | Captain कप्तान | Lieutenant लेफ्टिनेंट | Officer cadet | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rank group | Junior commissioned officers | Non commissioned officer | Enlisted | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Territorial Army[37] |  |  |  |  |  |  | No insignia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Subedar Major सूबेदार मेजर | Subedar सूबेदार | Naib Subedar नायब सूबेदार | Havildar हवलदार | Naik नायक | Lance Naik लांस नायक | Sepoy सिपाही | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Training is carried out on weekends and holidays. Four hours of training is counted as one day.
The TA has amilitary band named Territorial Army Symphony. It was raised in 2009 and has more than 40 musicians, playingbrass,strings, andIndian classical instruments. The band performs bothcontemporary and traditional music.[49]
The Territorial Army has a multi-purpose stadium inAmravati,Maharashtra, called theTerritorial Army Parade Ground, which was formerly known as Reforms Club Ground, that hosts mostly cricket matches.[50][51] TA personnel engage in sporting activities such as volleyball and basketball.[52] They also participate in armyshooting competitions and conduct competitions such as TA inter-battalion football and volleyball events.[53] In 2016, the 118 Infantry Battalion (TA) and the Cycle Polo Federation of India jointly organized the National Cycle Polo Championship, TA won the men's senior division.[54] TA lost to Air Force Cycle Polo team in the National Cycle Polo Championship (2021–22).[55] The TA has also organised golfing competitions.[56]
TA personnel have received manyawards and decorations. As of 2021, these include oneAshok Chakra, oneKirti Chakra, fiveAti Vishisht Seva Medals, fiveVir Chakras, fiveShaurya Chakra, oneYudh Seva Medal, 78Sena Medals, 28Vishisht Seva Medals, 17 Mentioned-in-Dispatches, and 280 COAS commendation cards.[15]
{{cite news}}:|author= has generic name (help)Arms and services ofIndian Army | ||||||
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