Auxiliary Regiments

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Auxiliary or volunteer regiments were originally local civilian volunteer corps tasked with local security. In 1917 compulsory service was introduced. When the corps became the Auxiliary Force, India in 1920 volunteer service was resumed, however there was a minimum term of service.

Contents

History

  • Post-1858 - volunteer corps formed over subsequent decades
  • 1917 - Formation of Indian Defence Force (IDF), disbanded at the end of the war
  • 1920 - Formation of Auxiliary Force (India) (AFI)

Indian volunteer force

After the Indian Mutiny local volunteer infantry forces began to be set up. Cavalry corps started in the 1860s and the first volunteer artillery brigade was constituted in 1879. Railway companies also formed infantry corps from their staff beginning in 1869.

The volunteer corps were open to Europeans and 'Eurasians' and, with the exception of an adjutant, consisted entirely of volunteers.

However, in railway employment, it was virtually compulsory for all employees, both European and Eurasian, to enlist in the Railway Volunteer Regiments.

Indian Defence Force

During the First World War compulsory service was deemed necessary and the Indian Defence Force Act was passed in 1917. The volunteer corps became units of the IDF and were redesignated. European British men between the ages of 18 and 41 were subject to compulsory service. Some corps allowed Indians to join as volunteers.

The IDF corps performed local security duties during the war and were not sent to the front. Some officers were transferred to regular Indian Army units. After the War the IDF as an official organization was disbanded.

Auxiliary Force India

A further reorganization of the units occured in 1920 when the Auxiliary Force (India) replaced the IDF. Volunteers enrolled for an indefinite period but could be discharged after four years (or upon reaching the age of 45). The AFI was disbanded upon Partition.

Anglo-Indians and Railway Regiments

Megan Stuart Mills writes: "The rise of nationalist agitation in the 1920s brought a highly visible role to the [Anglo-Indian] community as participants in the Auxiliary Force, a reserve organization created after the Mutiny and known widely as the Volunteer Corps. A full 75% were Anglo-Indian, an unsurprising figure in view of the Anglo-Indians often having provided the backbone of the different provincial police forces. In most areas, the AFI represented only handfuls of men but in India's larger commercial and railway towns they were an obvious, relied upon presence. (Craddock:1929) By 1947, the AFI had expanded to almost 30,000 as it was deployed to contain the Gandhian movement as well as communal disturbances. It has been easy for nationalist historians to assume that its members were pro-British. However, as the Bangalore educator C.N. Weston explained, the Anglo- Indians by the 1930s, contended with a particular predicament with regard to the Force:
encouraged and in many cases, compelled to join ... On the railways they cannot get posts unless they agree beforehand to join ... where no military are stationed, the Auxiliary Force is called out and often has to fire and kill... This naturally tends to cause hatred on the part of the Indian towards the Anglo-Indian. (1938:116)" [1]

Satoshi Mizutani writes "One of the most important roles assigned to these [Railway Auxiliary Force] men was to crack down on strikes by native employees (endnote 54)...
As Henry Gidney, [a campaigner for Eurasian rights, in 1934] rightly complained:
‘for economic purposes we are called statutory natives of India, and as such we are expected to work amicably on an equality with our Indian fellow-workmen. Suddenly a railway strike develops, as has so often happened during the past decade, or a riot breaks out. Promptly, the Anglo-Indian [Eurasian] and domiciled European employee on the railways (still classed as “statutory Indian”) has to don his uniform, carry his rifle, and turn out as a member of the Auxiliary Force […] he is suddenly metamorphosed into a European British subject'. (endnote 55)" [2]


References

  1. ↑ "Some Comments on stereotypes of the Anglo-Indians (Part II)" by Megan Stuart Mills from the International Journal of Anglo-Indian Studies 1996, quoting
    • Craddock, Sir Reginald. (1929). The Dilemma in India. London: Constable and Company.
    • Weston, C.N. (1938). Anglo-Indian Revolutionaries of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Bangalore: Scripture Literature Press
  2. ↑ Loyalty, Parity, and Social Control-The Competing Visions on the Creation of an ‘Eurasian’ Military Regiment in late British India by Satoshi Mizutani The International Journal of Anglo-Indian Studies Volume 10, No. 1, 2010

Cavalry

Infantry

This list is currently being reorganized

1917 redesignations

Corps redesignated as numbered battalions on the 1st April 1917 on formation of the IDF:

1918:

1920 redesignations

Battalions and regiments redesignated on the 1st October 1920 on formation of the AFI:

1926

Artillery

Engineers

Corps Of Signals

Machine Gun Corps

External links

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