Western Command is a formation 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...

, active since 1947. It has seen action during the Indo-Pakistan Wars of 1947, 1965 and 1971. After the partition of India

Partition of India

The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...

, the erstwhile command headquarters of which north India formed a part, Northern Command, went to 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...

. The communal violence of partition necessitated the raising of a new command headquarters to relieve Army Headquarters of the day to day overseeing of operations of the two independent areas in north India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

.

This command, initially named Delhi and East Punjab Command was raised in Delhi

Delhi

Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...

 on 14 September 1947 with Lt Gen Sir Dudley Russell, KBE, CB, DSO, MC as the first commander. It had under it :

• Delhi Independent Area.
• East Punjab Independent Area.

On 26 October 1947, following the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India, Western Command was put in charge of all Indian Army operations to seize the area for India.

Initially a division sized force Jammu and Kasmir Division was raised on 5 November 1947 under Maj Gen Kalwant Singh for overseeing operations in Jammu and Kashmir. This was later split into two parts - Ja (Jammu) Division (under Maj Gen Atma Singh) and Sri (Srinagar) Division (under Maj Gen K.S. Thimayya) to oversee operations in Jammu

Jammu

Jammu , also known as Duggar, is one of the three administrative divisions within Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state in India.Jammu city is the largest city in Jammu and the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir...

 and Kashmir

Kashmir

Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...

 respectively.

Today the command reportedly consists of:

• Headquarters Western Command at Chandimandir
  • II Corps
    II Corps (India)
    II Corps is the corps of the Indian Army, based in Ambala and known as Kharga Corps.The Corps was raised on October 7, 1971 by Lt Gen T N Raina at Krishna Nagar in West Bengal and saw action two months later in December...
    
    , headquartered at Ambala
    Ambala
    Ambala is a city and a municipal corporation in Ambala district in the state of Haryana, India, located on the border of the states of Haryana and Punjab in India. Politically; Ambala has two sub-areas: Ambala Cantt and Ambala City, approximately 3 kilometers apart from each other...
    
    , Haryana
    Haryana
    Haryana is a state in India. Historically, it has been a part of the Kuru region in North India. The name Haryana is found mentioned in the 12th century AD by the apabhramsha writer Vibudh Shridhar . It is bordered by Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to the north, and by Rajasthan to the west and south...
    
    
    • 1st Armoured Division headquartered at Patiala
    • 14th RAPID at Dehradun
      Dehradun
      - Geography :The Dehradun district has various types of physical geography from Himalayan mountains to Plains. Raiwala is the lowest point at 315 meters above sea level, and the highest points are within the Tiuni hills, rising to 3700 m above sea level...
      
      
    • 22nd Infantry Division headquartered at Meerut
    • 474th Engineering Brigade
    • 612th Mechanised Independent Air Defence Brigade
  • IX Corps
    IX Corps (India)
    IX Corps, also known as Rising Star Corps, is the Indian Army's youngest corps. Currently, the corps is headed by Lieutenant General B S Nagal. It was raised on September 1, 2005, by splitting the southern formations of Nagrota-based XVI ‘White Knight’ Corps of the Udhampur-based Northern Command...
    
    , headquartered at Yol
    Yol, India
    Yol is a cantonment town in Kangra district in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.-History:The town gets its name from YOL , a small town established by British Indian Army around 1849 is a cantonment area.The yol cantt was built in 1942. Formerly it was known as "majhaitha" village.Now yol is...
    
    , Himachal Pradesh
    Himachal Pradesh
    Himachal Pradesh is a state in Northern India. It is spread over , and is bordered by the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir on the north, Punjab on the west and south-west, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh on the south, Uttarakhand on the south-east and by the Tibet Autonomous Region on the east...
    
    
    • 26th Infantry Division headquartered at Jammu
      Jammu
      Jammu , also known as Duggar, is one of the three administrative divisions within Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state in India.Jammu city is the largest city in Jammu and the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir...
      
      
    • 29th Infantry Division headquartered at Pathankot
      Pathankot
      Pathankot became 22nd district on 28th July 2011 and a municipal corporation in the Indian state of Punjab. It was a part of the Nurpur princely state ruled by the Rajputs prior to 1849 AD. It is a meeting point of the three northern states of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir...
      
      
    • 2nd Independent Armoured Brigade
    • 3rd Independent Armoured Brigade
    • 16th Independent Armoured Brigade
  • XI Corps
    XI Corps (India)
    The XI Corps of the Indian Army is based in Jalandhar and is a part of Western Command.XI Corps was raised to take command of the formations in the Punjab as India reorganised its post-1947 army to meet the new threat of Pakistan.It consists of:...
    
    , headquartered at Jalandhar
    Jalandhar
    Jalandhar is a city in Jalandhar District in the state of Punjab, India. It is located 144 km northwest of the state capital, Chandigarh...
    
    , Punjab
    Punjab (India)
    Punjab ) is a state in the northwest of the Republic of India, forming part of the larger Punjab region. The state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the east, Haryana to the south and southeast and Rajasthan to the southwest as well as the Pakistani province of Punjab to the...
    
    
    • 7th Infantry Division headquartered at Firozpur
      Firozpur
      Firozpur is a city on the banks of the Sutlej River in Firozpur District, Punjab, India, founded by Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq , a Muslim ruler of the Tughlaq Dynasty who reigned over the Sultanate of Delhi from 1351 to 1388.The Manj Rajputs say the town was named after their chief, a Rajput of...
      
      
    • 9th Infantry Division headquartered at Meerut
    • 15th Infantry Division headquartered at Amritsar
      Amritsar
      Amritsar is a city in the northern part of India and is the administrative headquarters of Amritsar district in the state of Punjab, India. The 2001 Indian census reported the population of the city to be over 1,500,000, with that of the entire district numbering 3,695,077...
      
      
    • 23rd Armoured Brigade
    • 55th Mechanised Brigade