Country India Size 200,000 Troops Nickname(s) Terriers | Type Army Headquarters TA Group Headquarters | |
Motto(s) सावधानी व शूरता - Savdhani Va Shoorta (Vigilance and Valour) |
The Indian Territorial Army (TA) is a second line of defence after the Regular Indian Army; it is not a profession, occupation or a source of employment. It is only meant for those people who are already in mainstay civilian professions; in fact, gainful employment or self-employment in a civil profession is a prerequisite for joining the Territorial Army.
Contents
History
The Indian Defence Force, incorporating Europeans and Indians in separate sections, was formed by the British on 9 October 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 the clergy were exempt.
The IDF was generally unpopular among the British conscripts. It was replaced by the Auxiliary Force (for Europeans and Eurasians) and the Indian Territorial Force (for Indians) in 1920.
The modern Territorial Army was inaugurated by the first Indian Governor-General of India, C. Rajagopalachari, on 9 October 1949 after the Independence Territorial Army Act was passed in 1948. The annual Prime Minister's Territorial Army Day Parade takes place on 9 October.
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 (Maharashtra), Uttarkashi in Garhwal Himalaya and the super cyclone in Odisha. The Ecological units have arrested man-made environmental degradation by planting 2.5 crore trees over 20,000 hectare of land in Mussoorie hills and Pithoragarh (Uttarakhand), Bikaner and Jaisalmer (Rajasthan) and ravines of Chambal in Madhya Pradesh.
Force structure
The Territorial Army is part of the regular Indian Army. The present role of the Territorial Army 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 the Regular Army as and when required.
The Territorial Army has a strength of approximately 40,000 first line troops (and 160,000 second line troops) comprising departmental Territorial Army units such as railway, IOC, ONGC, telecommunication and General Hospital, and the non-departmental Territorial Army units of infantry battalions and ecological battalions affiliated to various infantry regiments.
Group headquarters
Ecological battalions
Training
Infantry training is carried out on urban and provincial systems.
Members
Many famous Indians have been members of this force, including Brigadier K P Singh Deo, former Cabinet Minister; Captain Rao Birender Singh, former Chief Minister of the State of Haryana; Subir Raha, former Chairman, ONGC; Padama Shree, Brigadier (Retd) Dr. Kapil Mohan VSM PhD Managing Director, Mohan Meakin Breweries and various present ministers, legislators, senior civil officers and professionals.
Capt. Muthukrishnan Iyyappan, commissioned in 1999 was the first officer of the Territorial Army to be permanently seconded to the regular army. He joined the 3rd battalion of 8 Gorkha Rifles and served a tenure at the Siachen Glacier — again the first officer of Territorial Army to serve in the Siachen Glacier. Capt. Muthukrishnan Iyyappan was also the first officer of the Territorial Army to be posted at the Defense Services Staff College where he was the Officer Commanding - Troops during 1999–2000. His tenure as company commander with the 109 Marata Light Infantry (TA) at Srinagar, the state of Jammu and Kashmir, witnessed the first ever Fidayeen (suicide) attack in the history of Kashmir insurgency in April 2000.
Navdeep Singh, a lawyer, is known to have received the highest number of decorations/awards in the Territorial Army.
The Malayalam film star Mohanlal is an honorary lieutenant colonel in the TA (Madras Regiment).
Major Vishal Bakshi, Chairman of VR Industries, was awarded with the Vishisht Seva Medal, on Republic Day, 2010.
Deepak Rao, a military trainer, scientist, author, and physician, is considered to be an authority in the field of close quarter battle training. He was conferred the honorary rank of major in the Territorial Army after 17 years of imparting special close quarter battle commando training to the armed forces. He serves as the executive director of the Unarmed and Commando Combat Academy and has been appointed as resource personnel for imparting training in close quarter battle by India's Ministry of Home Affairs.
On 1 November 2011, Mahendra Singh Dhoni 106 INF Bn (TA) PARA and Abhinav Bindra 124 INF Bn (TA) Sikh Li were awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Territorial Army for their respective contributions in the field of cricket and shooting.
Mechanical Engineer from Special Class Railway Apprentice 96 Batch, Prashant Kumar Singh, posted as Deputy Chief Mechanical Engineer at Carriage & Wagon Workshop, Alambagh, represented Indian Railways TA at Rashtrapati Bhawan. Captain Prashant Kumar Singh participated and presented the tableau from Railway’s side in Prime minister’s Territorial Army Day parade on 4 October in Parade Ground Delhi. He is the only officer to have received the General Manager Railway Award on the recommendation of the Territorial Army. He represented the Indian Railway Territorial Army before the President of India, Pratibha Devi Singh Patil, at the "Calling on the President" that was held at Rashtrapati Bhawan on 13 October 2011.
Captain Jitender Kumar Sharma, Platoon Commander at 1101 Railway Engineer's Regiment (TA) at Chandigarh, is posted as Senior Coaching Depot Officer at New Delhi Railway Station, having been previously posted in Railway Board. Under his leadership, his depot won the General Manager's Best Coaching Depot Shield in Northern Railway.
Most recently Anurag Thakur, MP from Hamirpur has been commissioned to the rank of lieutenant on 29-July-2016 in Territorial Army.