Auxiliary Force (India)


The Auxiliary Force was a part-time, paid volunteer organisation within the Indian Army in British India. Its units were entirely made up of European and Anglo-Indian personnel.
The AFI was created by the Auxiliary Force Act 1920 to replace the unpopular British section of the Indian Defence Force, which had recruited by conscription. 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.

Units of the AFI on 3 September 1939

In literature

The Auxiliary Force features extensively in the plot of John Masters' novel Bhowani Junction, focusing on a community of Anglo-Indian railway workers at an Indian town in 1946, on the verge of the British withdrawal.

Footnotes