Indian Army Armoured Corps - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Indian Army Armoured Corps is one of the combat arms of the Indian Army

Indian Army

The Indian Army is the land based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. With about 1,100,000 soldiers in active service and about 1,150,000 reserve troops, the Indian Army is the world's largest standing volunteer army...

. Formed in 1947 from two-thirds of the personnel and assets of the Raj's Indian Armoured Corps

Indian Armoured Corps

The Indian Armoured Corps was a unit of the British Empire's Indian Army. The Corps was formed on 1 May 1941 to administer existing armoured units within the Indian Army. Its headquarters was located at Ferozepore...

. It currently consists of 63 armoured regiments, including the president's bodyguards

President's Bodyguard (India)

The President's Bodyguard is an elite household cavalry regiment of the Indian Army. It is senior-most in the order of precedence of the units of the Indian Army. The primary role of the President's Bodyguard is to escort and protect the President of India which is why the regiment is based in the...

. The naming of the regiments varies. The terms "Cavalry", "Horse" and "Lancers", which have been dispensed with in the case of units raised post-independence, are historical legacies from the raising and renaming of these units when part of the East India Company

East India Company

The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...

's army and/or later the British Indian Army

British Indian Army

The British Indian Army, officially simply the Indian Army, was the principal army of the British Raj in India before the partition of India in 1947...

. The Armoured Corps School and Centre is at Ahmednagar. As a matter of tradition, each Armoured Regiment has its own "Colonel of the Regiment", an honorary post for a senior officer who oversees the regimental issues concerning the unit.

British Indian Army Cavalry Regiments prior to Independence

List of Regiments

The list of regiments forming part of the Armoured Corps of the Indian Army is as follows :

President's Bodyguard
President's Bodyguard (India)
The President's Bodyguard is an elite household cavalry regiment of the Indian Army. It is senior-most in the order of precedence of the units of the Indian Army. The primary role of the President's Bodyguard is to escort and protect the President of India which is why the regiment is based in the...
1 Horse (Skinner's Horse) "The Yellow Boys"
2nd Lancers
2nd Lancers (Gardner's Horse)
The 2nd Lancers was a cavalry regiment of the British Indian Army raised in 1809. It served in the Nepal and First World Wars. During the reconstruction of the British Indian Army in 1922 it was amalgamated with the 4th Cavalry....

(Gardner's Horse)
3 Cavalry "Flamingoes"
4 Horse (formerly 4th Duke of Cambridge's Own Hodson's Horse) also fondly called "Chor Horse" in the Armoured fraternity for their "unorthodox" ways of making Regimental property.
5 Armoured Regiment. The original 5th Horse (Probyn's)
5th King Edward's Own Probyn's Horse
The 5 Horse is an armoured regiment of Pakistan Army. Previously, it was known as the 5th King Edward's Own Probyn's Horse, which was a regular cavalry regiment of the British Indian Army...

was transferred to Pakistan in 1947. This Indian Army regiment was raised in Jodhpur
Jodhpur
Jodhpur , is the second largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is located west from the state capital, Jaipur and from the city of Ajmer. It was formerly the seat of a princely state of the same name, the capital of the kingdom known as Marwar...

on December 1, 1983. The regiment is based at Patiala and appears to be part of 1st Armoured Division (India).
6 Armoured Regiment - Original 6th Duke of Connaught's Own Lancers
6th Duke of Connaught's Own Lancers (Watson's Horse)
The 6 Lancers is an armoured regiment of Pakistan Army. Previously, it was known as the 6th Duke of Connaught's Own Lancers , which was a regular cavalry regiment in the British Indian Army. It was formed in 1921 by amalgamation of the 13th Duke of Connaught's Lancers and 16th Cavalry...

was transferred to Pakistan in 1947. This Indian Army regiment was raised in 1984.
7th Light Cavalry
7th Light Cavalry
The 7th Light Cavalry, was a regular army cavalry regiment in the British Indian Army which first came into British service with the East India Company and went on to serve on the North West Frontier and in World War I and World War II.-Formation:...
8 Cavalry
9 Horse (formerly 9th Royal Deccan Horse
9th Royal Deccan Horse
The 9th Royal Deccan Horse was a regular cavalry regiment of the British Indian Army , it was formed from the amalgamation of two regiments after World War I. They saw service from the Mutiny of 1857 up to and including World War II.-Formation:...

)Deccan Horse
10 Armoured Regiment
11 Armoured Regiment
12 Armoured Regiment
13 Armoured Regiment
14 Horse (Scinde Horse
14th Prince of Wales's Own Scinde Horse
The 14th Prince of Wales's Own Scinde Horse was a regular cavalry regiment of the British Indian Army it can trace its formation back to two regiments of Scinde Irregular Horse raised at Hyderabad in 1839 and 1846 respectively....

)
15 Armoured Regiment
16th Light Cavalry
16th Light Cavalry
The 16th Light Cavalry is a regiment of the Armoured Corps, a primary combat arm of the Indian Army. Prior to India gaining independence from the British in 1947, it was a regular cavalry regiment of the British Indian Army...
17 Horse
The Poona Horse
The Poona Horse is an armoured regiment in the Armoured Corps of the Indian Army. The regiment, known before independence as The Poona Horse , was raised as a regular cavalry regiment in the Bombay Presidency army of the East India Company...

(The Poona Horse
The Poona Horse
The Poona Horse is an armoured regiment in the Armoured Corps of the Indian Army. The regiment, known before independence as The Poona Horse , was raised as a regular cavalry regiment in the Bombay Presidency army of the East India Company...

) Fakr-e-Hind (The most decorated Armoured Regiment of the Indian Army).
18 Cavalry
19 Armoured Regiment
20 Lancers
Central India Horse Positioned as ser 21 in the order of precedence.
40 Armoured Regiment
41 Armoured Regiment
41 Armoured Regiment (India)
The 41 Armoured Regiment, part of the Armoured Corps of the Indian army, was raised at Ahmednagar on July 1, 1980, under then Lieut-Col J.P. Singh. The regiment was declared fit for war service in February 1981....

- Raised in 1980.
42 Armoured Regiment Raised in 1981.
43 Armoured Regiment Raised in 1981.
44 Armoured Regiment Raised in 1981. Founding commanding officer Brig D.S. Dhillon (Retd.)
45 Cavalry
45 Cavalry
The 45th Cavalry Regiment is an Indian Army armoured unit. It was first created during World War II and was active from 1941 to 1946. It was reformed in 1965 and is currently stationed in Pathankot India...

Raised in 1965. Traces lineage to the old 45 Cavalry.
46 Armoured Regiment Raised in 1982. Founding commanding officer Col. P.S. Sandhu (Retd.)
47 Armoured Regiment
48 Armoured Regiment
49 Armoured Regiment
50 Armoured Regiment
51 Armoured Regiment
52 Armoured Regiment
53 Armoured Regiment
56 Armoured RegimentRaised on 1st Oct 2011....Called "The LION HEARTS". It is the Youngest Armoured Regt .
61 Cavalry
61 Cavalry
The 61st Cavalry Regiment of the Indian Army is one of at least three horsed cavalry regiments left in any present-day army.-History:When the British finally departed the shores of India in 1949, the only horses left in the military stables were with the units of some of the Imperial Service ...
62 Cavalry
62 Cavalry
The 62nd Cavalry is an Armoured Regiment of the Indian Army and was raised by Lt Col RS Butalia on 31 Mar 1957 at Ambala Cantonment. Drawn from the existing cavalry regiments of the time, the 62nd Cavalry is recruited from the Sikh, Jat and Dogra communities....
63 Cavalry
64 Cavalry General Bipin Chandra Joshi, former Chief of the Army Staff, was commissioned into this regiment. He later served as the Colonel of the Regiment.
65 Armoured Regiment
66 Armoured Regiment
67 Armoured Regiment
68 Armoured Regiment
69 Armoured Regiment
70 Armoured Regiment
71 Armoured Regiment
72 Armoured Regiment
73 Armoured Regiment
74 Armoured Regiment Lieutenant General Kamal Davar was Colonel of the Regiment in 2001.
75 Armoured Regiment The only Indian armoured regiment to have been raised on foreign soil during the 1971 Indo-Pak war at Gadra Road (in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

)on 12 Mar 1972.
76 Armoured Regiment
81 Armoured Regiment
82 Armoured Regiment
83 Armoured Regiment
84 Armoured Regiment
85 Armoured Regiment
86 Armoured Regiment Lieutenant General Kamal Davar was Colonel of the Regiment in 2001.
87 Armoured Regiment
88 Armoured Regiment
89 Armoured Regiment
90 Armoured Regiment
90 Armoured Regiment
90 Armoured Regiment was raised on 15 August 1979 by amalgamating three Independent Reconnaissance Squadrons of the Indian Armoured Corps. 90 Indep Recce Sqn belonged to The Poona Horse, 92 Indep Recce Sqn belonged to 18 Cavalry and 93 Indep Recce Sqn belonged to 65 Armoured Regiment.Though raised...

British Indian Army Cavalry Regiments prior to Independence

List of Regiments

Further reading