The Eastern Command is one of the six operational commands of the Indian Army. It is headquartered in Vijay Durg (formerly known as Fort William) in the city of Kolkata in the state of West Bengal. The Eastern Command was formed on 1 November 1920. The Command is commanded by a three-star rank officer with the title General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C).
Lieutenant General V. M. Bhuvana Krishnan is the current GOC-in-C of Eastern Command.
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. The Indian Army was divided into four Commands: Bengal Command, Bombay Command, Madras Command and Punjab Command, each under a lieutenant general.
Between 1904 and 1908, the Bengal Command became the Eastern Command. In 1908, the four commands were merged into two Armies â the Northern Army and Southern Army â 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.
On 1 November 1920, the Eastern Command was formed, with its summer headquarters in Nainital and winter headquarters in Lucknow. General Sir Havelock Hudson, became its first Commander.
In 1942, the command had the following formations under it:
On 21 April 1942, the command was re-designated as Eastern Army. 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.
In October 1943, the Fourteenth Army was formed and was given responsibility for the area east of the Meghna River. With this, the Eastern Army retained responsibility for the area west of the river.
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.
The Command had the overall responsibility of the eastern theatre of the 13-day war. The command had the two existing infantry corps â IV Corps and XXXIII Corps, and raised another â II Corps. Apart from this, the 101 Communication Zone was reorganised as a Division-sized combat formation. Lieutenant General J 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:
II Corps (HQ - Krishnanagar) (GOC - Lieutenant General T N Raina)
IV Corps (HQ - Agartala) GOC - Lieutenant General Sagat Singh
XXXIII Corps (HQ - Siliguri) (GOC - Lieutenant General M L Thapan)
101st Communication Zone (HQ: Guwahati) (GOC - Major General Gurbax Singh Gill)
On 16 December 1971, the Eastern Command of the Pakistan Armed Forces surrendered at Dhaka. East Pakistan ceased to exist and Bangladesh was born. Lt Gen J S Arora accepted the Pakistani Instrument of Surrender, signed by Lt Gen A. A. K. Niazi at Dacca Racecourse. Approximately 93,000 Pakistani servicemen were taken prisoner by the Indian Army, which included 79,676 to 81,000 uniformed personnel of the Pakistan Armed Forces, including some Bengali soldiers who had remained loyal to Pakistan.
The Command's Area of responsibility covers West Bengal; Sikkim; Assam; Arunachal Pradesh; Nagaland; Manipur; Mizoram; Tripura; Meghalaya, and Jharkhand.
The Eastern Command includes III Corps, IV Corps, XVII Corps, XXXIII Corps and the 23rd Infantry Division. It also supervises 101 Area, originally raised at Shillong in 1963 as 101 Communications Zone.
Following is the list of precursors to the Eastern Command and their commanders: