The Central Command of the

Indian Army The Indian Army (IA) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Land warfare, land-based branch and largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head ...

is one of the seven operational commands of the army. It is based at

Lucknow Lucknow () is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the largest city of the List of state and union territory capitals in India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is the administrative headquarters of the epon ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

History

Second World War

Central Command was first established in 1942 during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and then disbanded in 1946.Army Commands
Southern Command was responsible for most of the training activities for Indian Army until Central Command was formed in April 1942 which took over the responsibility of some of the training areas.

Post 1962 Indo-China war

With its HQ at

the Command was re-established on 1 May 1963 due to the

Sino-Indian War The Sino–Indian War, also known as the China–India War or the Indo–China War, was an armed conflict between China and India that took place from October to November 1962. It was a military escalation of the Sino–Indian border dispu ...

of 1962. Lt Gen K Bahadur Singh was the first Army Commander of the new Central Command. Prior to that date

had been the headquarters of the Eastern Command.

Humanitarian assistance and flood relief operations

Central Command undertook humanitarian and Flood Relief Operations at various locations during flash floods including Delhi and Kinnaur (Himachal Pradesh).

Structure

Central Command's Area Of Responsibility (AOR) covers eight states of India:

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; Sanskrit: ''himācāl prādes;'' "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a States and union territories of India, state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen Indian Himalayan ...

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...

Chhattisgarh Chhattisgarh (; ) is a landlocked States and union territories of India, state in Central India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, ninth largest state by area, and with a population of roughly 30 million, the List ...

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in East India, eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north ...

and

Odisha Odisha (), formerly Orissa (List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2011), is a States and union territories of India, state located in East India, Eastern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by ar ...

. 18 Regimental Centres and a large number of logistic and training establishments come under Central Command. The responsibility for the central sector of the Western border with

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

also lies with Central Command. Almost half of the 62

cantonment A cantonment (, , or ) is a type of military base. In South Asia, a ''cantonment'' refers to a permanent military station (a term from the British Raj). In United States military parlance, a cantonment is, essentially, "a permanent residential ...

s in India lie within the Central Command's theatre. There are two Static Area Formations:–

Uttar Bharat Area Uttar means north in Hindi and many other Indian languages. It can be found in: *Uttar Dinajpur, district of West Bengal, India *Uttarkashi, town in Uttarakhand, India ** Uttarkashi District *Uttar Pradesh, state of India *Uttarakhand, state of Ind ...

and

Madhya Bharat Area Madhya (Sanskrit for 'middle') may refer to: * Madhya Pradesh, occasionally Madhya for short, a state in India * Madhya, the middle tala in Indian classical music * Madhya, the middle octave in Indian (especially Hindustani) classical music See ...

. Central Command earlier used to act as a strategic reserve but now it is looking after Uttarakhand sector of Indo-Tibet and Indo-Nepal border.

Precursors

Following is the list of precursors to the Western Command and their commanders:

Central Command (1942–1946)

List of GOC-in-C of Central Command (1963–present)

References

External links

Central Command @ globalsecurity.org
{{Military of India Commands of the Indian Army