The Presidency armies were abolished with effect from 1 April 1895 when the three Presidency armies of Bengal, Bombay, and Madras became the Indian Army.[3] The Indian Army was divided into four Commands: Bengal Command, Bombay Command, Madras Command and Punjab Command, each under a lieutenant general.[3]
Between 1904 and 1908, the Bengal Command became the Eastern Command. In 1908, the four commands were merged into two Armies – Northern Army and Southern Army – as recommended by the then Commander-in-Chief, Indian Army, Lord Kitchener. This system persisted until 1920 when the arrangement reverted to four commands again: Eastern Command, Northern Command, Southern Command and Western Command.[3]
On 1 November 1920, the Eastern Command was formed, with its summer headquarters in Nainital and winter headquarters in Lucknow. GeneralSir Havelock Hudson, became its first Commander.[4]
Second World War
In 1942, the command had the following formations under it:
On 21 April 1942, the command was re-designated as Eastern Army.[5] Its headquarters moved to Barrackpore to fight the World War II. The Chindits were raised and launched into operations in 1943, by the 77th Indian Infantry Brigade, a unit of the Eastern Command.[6]
In October 1943, the Fourteenth Army was formed and was given responsibility of the area east of the Meghna River. With this, the Eastern Army retained responsibility of the area west of the river.[7]
After the war, on 23 March 1947, the Command HQ moved to Ranchi. The HQ was later moved to Lucknow in 1955. However on 1 May 1963, post the Sino-Indian War; the Central Command was re-raised and Lucknow was made its HQ, while Kolkata was made HQ Eastern Command.[8]
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
The Command had the overall responsibility of the eastern theatre of the 13-day war. The command had the two existing infantry corps – IV Corps and XXXIII Corps and raised another – II Corps. Apart from this, the 101 Communication Zone was re-organised as a Division-sized combat formation.Lieutenant GeneralJ S Arora, as the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Command, commanded all Indian and Bangladesh Forces in the eastern theatre.
The Order of Battle of the Eastern Command during the war was:
Following is the list of precursors to the Eastern Command and their commanders:[20]
Eastern Command (1902–1907)
Eastern Command (1920–1940)
Eastern Army (1942–1943)
Eastern Command (1943–1947)
List of GOC-in-C of Eastern Command (1947–present)
Notes
^"The Official Home Page of the Indian Army". www.indianarmy.nic.in.
^ a b"Lt Gen RC Tiwari to be next Eastern Army Commander". Chanakya Forum. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
^ a b c"Northern Army". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2010.
^"Sir Havelock Hudson". Pioneer Mail and Indian Weekly News. 26 November 1920. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
^Volume II: India's Most Dangerous Hour, Major-General Stanley Kirby et al., 1958, 193.
^"77 Brigade". Order of Battle. Archived from the original on 6 July 2007. Retrieved 19 October 2009.
^"Why is the Fourteenth Army known as the Forgotten Army?". Royal British Legion. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
^"Central Command Raising Day concludes". The Times of India. 3 May 2009. Archived from the original on 5 October 2013. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
^Islam, Maj. Rafiqul, A Tale of Millions, p318
^Jacob, Lt. Gen. JFR, Surrender at Dacca: Birth of A Nation, p196
^Islam, Maj. Rafiqul, A Tale of Millions, p313
^Burke, S. M (1974). Mainsprings of Indian and Pakistani Foreign Policies – S. M. Burke. ISBN 9780816607204. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
^Bose, Sarmila (November 2011). "The question of genocide and the quest for justice in the 1971 war" (PDF). Journal of Genocide Research. 13 (4): 398. doi:10.1080/14623528.2011.625750. S2CID 38668401. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 October 2017. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
^"Eastern Command". Indian Army. Archived from the original on 2 May 2014. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
^"Eye on China, India to raise second division for mountain corps". The Indian Express. 17 March 2017. Archived from the original on 17 March 2017. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
^"The mountain is now a molehill". Archived from the original on 19 November 2016. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
^"Lt Gen Abhijit S Pendharkar took over command of the Spear corps from Lt Gen HS Sahi". X (formerly twitter). 10 August 2024.
^"Lt Gen Gambhir Singh takes over as GOC IV Corps - ADGPI Twitter". X (formerly twitter). Retrieved 1 August 2024.
^"GOC of Trishakti Corps inaugurates oxygen generation plant in Siliguri". www.telegraphindia.com. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
^"Gen Cariappa Becomes Eastern Army Commander" (PDF). Press Information Bureau of India - Archive. 21 November 1947. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
^"Changes in Army Commands" (PDF). Press Information Bureau of India - Archive. 20 January 1948. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
^"Eastern Command History".
^"Promotions in the Indian Army" (PDF). Press Information Bureau of India - Archive. 15 October 1952. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
^"From Henderson to Subrahmanyam: Army to be Blamed. And Political Leaders". www.satp.org. Archived from the original on 24 October 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
^"The Two Myths of 1962 | Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses". idsa.in. Archived from the original on 24 October 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
^"Somnath Sharma, Sam Manekshaw, Amitabh Bachchan, Old Sherwoodians Sherwood College, Nainital - Alumni". www.oldsherwoodians.com. Archived from the original on 24 October 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
^"Indian Army: Charges of incompetence among senior officers undermined the Eastern Command". Archived from the original on 23 March 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
^"Eastern Army ex-Commander Kalkat passes away". The Tribune. 28 January 2021.
^"Press Information Bureau". Archived from the original on 23 October 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
^"New Vice Chief of Army Staff Appointed in India". Arab News. 1 January 2005. Archived from the original on 17 December 2012. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
^"National : New Vice-Chief of Army Staff". The Hindu. 1 January 2005. Archived from the original on 16 February 2005. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
^"K S Jamwal is new GoC-in-C, Eastern Command". Zee News. 4 January 2007. Archived from the original on 23 October 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
^"Lt Gen Kapoor to be new VCOAS; Panag, Jamwal to head N, E Cmds". www.oneindia.com. Archived from the original on 23 October 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
^"Army chief gets his way, Panag shifted out of J&K - Times of India". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 18 January 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
^"Press Information Bureau". Archived from the original on 23 October 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
^"Press Information Bureau". Archived from the original on 23 October 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
^"Lt. Gen. Naravane appointed Eastern Army Commander". The Hindu. 25 September 2018. Retrieved 28 September 2018.
^"Lieutenant General Anil Chauhan takes over as Eastern Army Commander". The Times of India.
^Pande, Manoj. "Manoj Pande to take over Eastern Command".
^"Lt. Gen. Rana P Kalita Takes Charge as General Officer Commanding in Chief in Kolkata". Sentinel Assam. 25 January 2022.
Further reading
Richard A. Renaldi; Ravi Rikhe (2011), 'Indian Army Order of Battle', Orbat.com for Tiger Lily Books: A division of General Data LLC, ISBN 978-0-9820541-7-8.