E-Paper
From Red Fort to Sena Bhawan
THE 1947-48 Kashmir War was fought with an evolving Indian higher command set-up. The ad hoc Delhi and East Punjab command, created to control the widespread communal disturbances and tackle the refugee migration problem, soon gave way to a resurrected Headquarters Western Command.
THE 1947-48 Kashmir War was fought with an evolving Indian higher command set-up. The ad hoc Delhi and East Punjab command, created to control the widespread communal disturbances and tackle the refugee migration problem, soon gave way to a resurrected Headquarters Western Command.
Indian Army Headquarters began its life in the Red Fort - Delhi. Imposing edifice that it is, it was hardly suitable to house a complex entity such as this. Supreme Headquarters at that time retained its seat in South Block and refused to share space. Mercifully, it was wound up in short order. Today Army Headquarters occupies portions of South Block along with a gigantic, architecturally modern Sena Bhawan adjacent.
Some portions are still housed in barracks of Second World War vintage. By 14 January 1949, the Army had its first Indian Commander-in-Chief (in 1956 designated as Chief of the Army Staff) - General (later Field Marshal) KM Cariappa.
The short 1962 Border War with China dictated that no matter what the state of electronic communications, higher directive control should be exercised from geographical proximity.
Headquarter Eastern Command had tried this from Lucknow, some 1,100 kilometres distant from Walong. Wiser after the war experience, Headquarter Eastern Command went back to Fort William, Calcutta. Lucknow was taken over by the newly formed Headquarter Central Command.
The 1965 and 1971 Wars demonstrated that the area under General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Command was too vast for effective command.
Accordingly, in 1971, duplicate headquarters with duplicated staff were set up at Shimla and Bhatinda.
After 1971, Headquarter Northern Command was established at Udhampur, taking over responsibility for Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. Sihmla was considered unsuitable for Headquarters Western Command and so was moved to Chandigarh with Punjab and Northern Rajasthan under its jurisdiction. In the Indian context, Command Headquarter can be likened to a Field Army or even an Army Group Headquarter with a General Officer Commanding-in-Chief presiding over matters in the rank of a (three-star) Lieutenant General. Next the line are the Corps Headquarters, which are Field Army Headquarters elsewhere. The Indian Army’s combat formations are now grouped and tailored under many such Corps Headquarters (with some forces being retained under static Area Commands).
The static Areas, Sub Areas, or Independent Sub Areas span the length and breadth of the country.
These look after infrastructural (and lines of communications) assets, relieving field formations from the tedium of administering a multiplicity.of support installations located in an area. Area’ boundaries conform to state (or a group of states) administrative boundaries.
Static Areas (or even field formations in some cases) set up Station Headquarters whose area of responsibility usually coincides with a district or a group of districts. Field formations located in Areas are always contingently tasked to assist the civil administration through these static Headquarters.
Strangely enough, this system works.
Staff
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS) wears multiple hats. To the entire army, now some 1.1 million men and women strong, he is the Chief. A number of Staff Officers assist him, such as Principal Staff Officers (PSOs), Heads of Arms and Services, etc. It would take a book of considerable length to even set down their designations and functions.
Until the 1960s, staff coordination was a one-man affair in the form of a three-star General Officer designated the Chief of the General Staff, with direct access to the Chief available to ‘some’ - the PSOs. Today a Vice Chief and two Deputy Chiefs of Army Staff handle coordination. The command channel is absolutely one to one between the Chief and his Army Commanders -with no one - but no one authorised even to say hold the line’.
PSOs at Army Headquarters (and others down the line) have retained their nineteenth-century designations, not having succumbed to new managerial nomenclatures or alpha-numeric designations. The Quartermaster General, Master General of Ordnance, Adjutant General, Military Secretary, Engineer-in-Chief, Signal Officer-in-Chief, therefore, find traditional mention.
At the sharp end a brigade-level General Staff Officer and his logistic equivalents are still called Brigade Major, Deputy Assistant Adjutant General and Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General respectively. Quite a mouthful, paper-filling designations when no abbreviations are used.
