The Auxiliary Force (India) (AFI) was a part-time, paid volunteer military organisation within the

British Indian Army The Indian Army was the force of British Raj, British India, until Indian Independence Act 1947, national independence in 1947. Formed in 1895 by uniting the three Presidency armies, it was responsible for the defence of both British India and ...

, with recruits from

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

. Its units were entirely made up of European and

Anglo-Indian Anglo-Indian people are a distinct minority group, minority community of mixed-race British and Indian ancestry. During the colonial period, their ancestry was defined as British paternal and Indian maternal heritage; post-independence, "Angl ...

personnel. The AFI was formed in 1920, along with the Indian Territorial Force (ITF), replacing the Indian Defence Force (IDF).

History

The AFI was created by the Auxiliary Force Act 1920"Indian Auxiliary Forces: A Territorial Scheme", ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', 1 October 1920 to replace the unpopular British section of the Indian Defence Force (IDF), which had recruited by

conscription Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it conti ...

. By contrast, the AFI was an all-volunteer force modelled after the British Territorial Army. The Indian parallel to the AFI was the Indian Territorial Force (ITF) which was composed of British officers and Indian other ranks.

Units on 3 September 1939

In popular culture

The Auxiliary Force features extensively in the plot of John Masters' novel '' Bhowani Junction'', focusing on a community of

railway workers at an Indian town in 1946, on the verge of the British withdrawal.

Footnotes

{{Reflist Army units and formations of British India