Indian Army Corps

Next the line under the Tactical Area Commands are the Corps Headquarters, which are Field Army Headquarters elsewhere. The Indian Army's combat formations are now grouped and tailored under many such Corps Headquarters (with some forces being retained under static Area Commands). As with the American Army, all Corps have numerical designations. They also have names, by which they are more commonly known. These names may derive from the city in which they are headquartered [XVI Corps / Nagrota Corps], or they may be evocative [IV Corps is Gajraj Corps, meaning "King Elephant."

The field force is grouped into Corps. Some of these are defensively oriented and have, over the years, acquired an unofficial - 'Holding'. The others are called reserve or, unofficially again, 'Strike' Corps. The principal offensive formations of the Indian army are the three Strike Corps - 1 Corps, 2 Corps & 21 Corps. These are built around a nucleus of a single armored division and two infantry divisions - probably with more mechanized brigades than basic infantry formations. Strike corps should be capable of being inserted into operational level battle, either as battle groups or as a whole, to capture or threaten strategic and operational objective(s) with a view to cause destruction of the enemy's reserves and capture sizeable portions of territory.

The term "Holding" is really a misnomer since these contain ample offensive potential. The Holding Corps are not so well supplied as the Strike Corps with support, from either CADA or the engineers, and do not possess armored formations larger than brigades and the armored regiments attached to the infantry regiments. These formations have significant offensive capability, but are largely designed to operate in a defensive role.

Corps Headquarters are designed to handle an all-arms field army of three to five divisions or their equivalents. Army Headquarters reserves could be mammoth-size or small, but powerful in either case. Heavy-tracked-Corps are an instance of the former, and the three parachute commandos (battalion-size units), which perform special forces duties, of the latter. Airborne, Air Assault or Parachute troops are usually held centralized. The mounts, in all cases, are provided by the Indian Air Force.

The allocation of specific divisions to Corps is not well attested in the open literature, but such attestations as are available are in considerable agreement. These is some dispute as to whether I Corps is assigned 33 Armored Division (at Hisar, Hissar, Haryana) or 31 Armored Division (at Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh), but geographical propinquity argues for the former.

Corps	Headquarters	Command	Divisions
I Corps Strike Corps	Mathura, Uttar Pradesh	South Western	4 Infantry Division 6 Mtn Div (Bareilly) 33 Armd Div (Hisar, Hissar, Haryana)
II Corps Kharga Corps Strike Corps	Ambala, Haryana	Western	1 Armored Division 14 RAPID (Dehradun) 22 Inf Div (Meerut)
III Corps	Rangapahar (Dimapur), Nagaland	Eastern	23 Inf Div (Ranchi) 57 Mtn Div (Leimakhong)
IV Corps	Tezpur, Assam	Eastern	2 Mtn Div (Dibrugarh) 5 Mtn Div (Bomdila) 21 Mtn Div (Rangia)
IX Corps Rising Star Corps	Yol, Himachal Pradesh	Western	26 Inf Div (Jammu) 29 Inf Div (Pathankot) 2 Ind Armd Bde 3 Ind Armd Bde 16 Ind Armd Bde
X Corps	Bhatinda, Punjab	South Western	16 Inf Div (Sri Ganganagar) 18 RAPID (Kota) 24 RAPID (Bikaner) 6 Ind Armd Bde Engr Bde
XI Corps	Jalandhar, Punjab	Western	7 Inf Div (Ferozpur) 9 Inf Div (Meerut) 15 Inf Div (Amritsar) 23 Armd Bde 55 Mech Bde
XII Corps - Desert Corps	Jodhpur, Rajasthan	Southern	4 Armd Bde 340 Mech Bde 11 Inf Div (Ahmedabad) 12 Inf Division (Jodhpur)
XIV Corps	Leh, Ladakh	Northern	3 Inf Div (Leh) 8 Mtn Div (Dras) artillery brigade
XV Corps / Chinar Corps	Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir	Northern	19 Inf Div (Baramulla) 28 Inf Div (Gurez, Bandipora District) artillery brigade
XVI Corps / Nagrota Corps / White Knight Corps	Nagrota, Jammu & Kashmir	Northern	10 Inf Div (Akhnoor) 25 Inf Div (Rajauri) 39 Inf Div (Yol) artillery brigade armoured brigade?
XVII Corps / Mountain Strike Corps	Siliguri	Eastern	U/I Mountain Div (??) 59 Mountain Div (Panagarh) 72 Mountain Div (Pathankot) Infantry BDE Infantry BDE artillery brigade artillery brigade artillery brigade Armour Regiment Armour Regiment Armour Regiment
XXI Corps 1 Strike Corps (ex IPKF) Sudarshan Chakra Corps	Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh	Southern	31 Armd Div (Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh) 36 RAPID (Sagar) 54 Inf Div (Sikandrabad) Arty Bde AD Bde Engr Bde
XXXIII Corps	Siliguri, West Bengal	Eastern	17 Mtn Div (Gangtok) 20 Mtn Div (Binnaguri, Jalpaiguri district) 27 Mtn Div (Kalimpong) arty bde