Western Command (India)


Western Command is a Command-level formation of the Indian Army, active since 1947. It has seen action during the Indo-Pakistan Wars of 1947, 1965 and 1971. The Command's Area Of Responsibility covers the states of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and parts of Jammu.
The Command is commanded by a Three Star General Officer of the rank of Lieutenant General with the title General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Command. Lieutenant General Ravendra Pal Singh is the current GOC-in-C, who took over on 1 October 2019.

History

The Presidency armies were abolished with effect from 1 April 1895 when the three Presidency armies became the Indian Army. The Indian Army was divided into four Commands each under a lieutenant general.
In 1908, the four commands were merged into two Armies : this system persisted until 1920 when the arrangement reverted to four commands again. In 1938 Western Command was downgraded to Western Independent District commanded by a major-general. Northern Command was re-formed again as North Western Army in April 1942 to guard the North West Frontier and the independent district was absorbed by the new North Western Army at that time.

Re-raising

After the partition of India, the erstwhile command headquarters of which north India formed a part, Northern Command, went to Pakistan. The communal violence of partition necessitated the raising of a new command headquarters to relieve Army Headquarters of the day to day overseeing of operations of the two independent areas in north India.
This command, initially named Delhi and East Punjab Command was raised in Delhi on 14 September 1947 with Lt Gen Sir Dudley Russell, KBE, CB, DSO, MC as the first commander. It had under it :
On 26 October 1947, following the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India, Western Command was put in charge of all Indian Army operations to seize the area for India.

List of Commanders