Assam Rifles: Cachar Levy Roots, Dual Control and the Myanmar Border
Assam Rifles explained: its 1835 Cachar Levy origin, why the MHA and the Army share control, the 2006 Act and its job on the India-Myanmar border.
The Assam Rifles is India’s oldest paramilitary force, raised by the British as the Cachar Levy in 1835 and today the guard of the 1,643 km India-Myanmar border and a counter-insurgency force across the Northeast. It is headquartered in Shillong, and it matters because India’s policy on its eastern border and its handling of the Northeast’s insurgencies both run through this one force.
Most readers carry one confusion about it: is the Assam Rifles part of the Army or a Home Ministry force? It is both, in two different senses. The Ministry of Home Affairs runs its administration while the Army runs its operations and supplies its senior officers, and that split has survived every attempt since 2001 to end it. This note settles who controls what, and why.
What Is the Assam Rifles?
The Assam Rifles is an armed force of the Union, created by its own Act of Parliament, that guards the India-Myanmar border and fights insurgency in the Northeast under Army command. The Home Ministry’s annual report calls it the oldest paramilitary force in the country and lists it separately as a Central Paramilitary Force, apart from the five Central Armed Police Forces it is usually grouped with.
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Established | 1835, as the Cachar Levy of about 750 men; renamed the Assam Rifles in 1917 |
| Ministry | Ministry of Home Affairs for administration; the Army, under the Ministry of Defence, for operations |
| Legal basis | Assam Rifles Act, 2006 (Act 47 of 2006), which repealed the Assam Rifles Act, 1941 |
| Headquarters | Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong, Meghalaya |
| Head | Director General, a serving Army Lieutenant General (Lt Gen Vikas Lakhera in March 2026) |
| Motto | “Sentinels of the North East”; also called “Friends of the North East People” |
| Size | 47 battalions including 1 NDRF battalion; authorized strength 66,411 (MHA Annual Report 2024-25) |
| Border | India-Myanmar border, 1,643 km, across Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram |
| Official category | Central Paramilitary Force under the MHA, listed apart from the five CAPFs |
The wider family of central forces, and where each one fits, is mapped in the note on Central Armed Police Forces.
How Did the Cachar Levy Become the Assam Rifles?
The force began in 1835 as the Cachar Levy, a militia of about 750 men raised to protect British tea estates and their settlements against tribal raids, and it took its present name in 1917 after its service in the First World War. The 82 years in between are the story of a small frontier police being reorganized again and again as its job grew.
As the levy’s work grew into punitive expeditions across the borders of Assam, the units were reorganized and renamed the Frontier Force. The force’s own history says they came to be known as “the right arm of the civil and left arm of the military”, a phrase worth remembering because it still describes the job: part police, part soldier. In 1870 the existing units were merged into three Assam Military Police battalions, and a fourth, the Darrang battalion, was raised just before the First World War.
That war is where the name comes from. Reservists couldn’t be called up at short notice and Gurkha soldiers were on leave in Nepal, so the Assam Military Police filled the gap and sent over 3,000 men to Europe and the Middle East. In 1917 the force was renamed the Assam Rifles in recognition of that service.
Secondary histories list a longer chain of intermediate police titles, with dates that differ from the force’s own account of an 1870 merger. Both agree on the two fixed points: the Cachar Levy of 1835 and the Assam Rifles of 1917.
After independence the force answered to the Ministry of External Affairs, which then administered the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA), the present Arunachal Pradesh. It fought as a conventional force in the 1962 war with China, and after that war the Army took operational control. In 1965 administrative control passed to the Home Ministry, and the split that defines the force today was set.
Later deployments widened the picture. The force served in Sri Lanka in 1987 with the Indian Peace Keeping Force (Operation Pawan), and as insurgency spread in the Northeast its main work became counter-insurgency and law and order. It grew from 17 battalions in 1960 to 46 today, plus 1 battalion serving with the NDRF.
Is the claim to be the oldest paramilitary force fair? It rests on unbroken lineage: the unit raised in 1835 was renamed and reorganized many times but never disbanded and raised afresh. The comparison helps too. The ITBP and the precursor of the SSB both date from 1962-63, after the war with China, and the Border Security Force from 1965, so every other border force is more than a century younger.
Which Ministry Controls the Assam Rifles?
Two ministries share it. The Ministry of Home Affairs holds administrative control: it funds the force and runs its recruitment. The Army, under the Ministry of Defence, holds operational control: it decides where battalions go and what they do there. Its officers also fill the command posts.
The two terms blur easily, so pin them down. Administrative control answers the question of who keeps the force running; operational control answers the question of who tells it what to do on the ground. Think of a ship owned and paid for by one company but sailed by a captain and officers lent by another. The picture fits, with one catch: the crew below deck, the riflemen, are hired by the owner, not by the company that lends the captain.
| Matter | Who controls it |
|---|---|
| Budget and new battalions | MHA; in 2022 it announced in-principle approval for five extra battalions |
| Recruitment of riflemen | MHA, under its Rifleman (GD) recruitment scheme |
| The force’s law | The Assam Rifles Act, 2006, which vests control in the Central Government and names no ministry |
| Where battalions deploy and what they do | Army |
| Senior command | Army officers: a Lieutenant General as Director General, Major Generals at the Inspectorate General headquarters and Brigadiers at sector headquarters |
| Army officers serving in the force | They stay under the Army Act, 1950 (section 3(3) of the Assam Rifles Act) while taking orders from the force’s chain of command |
Nothing in the rule book provides for this split. A 2019 report on the dispute noted that the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961 contain no provision for dual control; the arrangement is a leftover of the 1962 war and the 1965 transfer that nobody has managed to unwind.
The split has a human cost as well as an administrative one. Retired personnel argue that it leaves them short of the benefits parity that soldiers get, and in 2017 the Assam Rifles Ex-Servicemen Welfare Association asked the Delhi High Court to place the force wholly under the Army.
What Does the Assam Rifles Act, 2006 Say?
The Assam Rifles Act, 2006 (Act 47 of 2006) is the force’s founding law, and it replaced the Assam Rifles Act, 1941. Section 4 constitutes “an armed force of the Union called the Assam Rifles” and gives it three jobs:
- ensuring the security of the borders of India;
- carrying out counter-insurgency operations in the specified areas;
- acting in aid of civil authorities for the maintenance of law and order.
Section 5 vests the “general superintendence, direction and control” of the force in the Central Government and its command in a Director General. The word “ministry” doesn’t appear in the Act at all. That silence leaves the choice of ministry to the executive, which is why the dispute has moved between Cabinet notes and a court petition instead of being settled by the statute.
The Act reads more like a military code than a police law. Its definition of “enemy” expressly includes armed rebels and terrorists, and section 86 sets up the force’s own Assam Rifles Courts, from a General court down to a Summary one, to try offenses by its members.
The force’s own role statement is more operational than the Act. It lists:
- counter-insurgency operations in the Northeast and elsewhere when needed, under the control of the Army;
- security of the Indo-China and Indo-Myanmar borders in peace and in “proxy war”;
- rear-area security during war;
- acting as the Union government’s “penultimate interventionist force” in internal security, again under Army control.
That last phrase needs translating. It means the second-last resort: the force sent in when a situation has outgrown the central police forces but before the Army itself is committed. The China reference surprises readers too, because the MHA’s border table assigns that frontier to the ITBP; the Myanmar border is the one the Assam Rifles is formally given. In 2022 the Home Ministry also said the force had been given powers under the NDPS Act, the narcotics law, for its anti-drug work on the border.
How Is the Assam Rifles Organized and Deployed?
It is organized like an Army formation, with its top in Shillong. The Home Ministry’s 2024-25 annual report counts:
- 1 Directorate General headquarters;
- 3 Inspectorate General headquarters;
- 12 sector headquarters;
- 47 battalions, including 1 NDRF battalion;
- a Training Centre and a Dog Training Centre, within an authorized strength of 66,411.
The Director General is an Army Lieutenant General, and the ranks below follow the same Army ladder. The force’s own site adds a detail worth keeping: its headquarters sits in Shillong because its role is regional, while every other central force is headquartered in Delhi.
Its formal border task is the India-Myanmar border, which runs 1,643 km through four states:
- Arunachal Pradesh, 520 km;
- Nagaland, 215 km;
- Manipur, 398 km;
- Mizoram, 510 km.
The force took over this border from the BSF in the early 2000s. The Group of Ministers set up after the Kargil conflict had recommended “one border, one force”, a single force answerable for each frontier so that responsibility can’t be passed around. Most accounts date the handover to 2002, and a September 2003 report already described the BSF as replaced. How the rest of India’s land borders were shared out under the same principle is covered in the note on border management.
Alongside the border, the force runs counter-insurgency operations across the Northeast, and 1 sector headquarters with 4 battalions works in Jammu and Kashmir. The MHA’s public record for 1 April 2024 to 15 January 2025 lists:
- 4 insurgents killed, 275 apprehended and 98 surrendered;
- 550 Myanmar nationals apprehended;
- 1,166 weapons recovered;
- contraband seized worth about ₹1,051 crore, most of it narcotics.
Counter-insurgency in the region has long run alongside AFSPA, the law that gives armed forces special powers in areas declared “disturbed”, and the force’s conduct under it is part of that wider debate. Where the Assam Rifles fits among India’s security agencies is set out in India’s internal security grid.
Why Hasn’t the Assam Rifles Been Merged or Moved?
Every attempt to give the force a single master has stalled. The Home Ministry’s plans to take full control or fold the force into another ran into the Army’s objections, and the veterans’ push for full Army control is still in court. The record, in order:
- 2001: the Group of Ministers set up after Kargil recommended “one border, one force” and full MHA control of the force; the Defence Ministry rejected the second part.
- January 2013: the MHA drafted a note for the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) to replace the Assam Rifles with the BSF on the Myanmar border and move operational control to the MHA; the plan stalled.
- 2017: the ex-servicemen’s association petitioned the Delhi High Court for full Army control.
- 2018: the MHA proposed merging the force with the ITBP; the Army opposed it.
- 2019: the MHA sent a fresh note to the CCS on 20 March and told the Delhi High Court on 15 April that it would abide by the committee’s decision.
- 20 November 2019: the Minister of State for Home told the Rajya Sabha there was “no proposal under consideration” to merge the force with the ITBP.
- 2025: the High Court heard the case again on 10 March, and in April the association wrote to the Prime Minister and the National Security Adviser asking for a decision.
- April 2026: Parliament passed the Central Armed Police Forces (General Administration) Act, 2026, which covers five forces and leaves the Assam Rifles out of its schedule.
The 2026 Act sharpens the contrast. In the five forces it covers, the Director General’s post is reserved for IPS officers, while the Assam Rifles stays under an Army Lieutenant General.
Both sides have a serious case. The Home Ministry’s is about coherence: the ministry that manages India’s borders should command the force guarding one of them, as it already does with the BSF and the ITBP. The Army’s is about the work: counter-insurgency in the Northeast runs alongside Army formations, and an Army-officered chain of command is what keeps the two in step. Press and policy commentary also points to a quieter factor, the senior posts the force offers Army officers.
Neither extreme is a clean fix. Moving the force wholly to the Home Ministry would cut the command link its counter-insurgency work depends on, and moving it wholly to the Defence Ministry would put a border guard outside the ministry that runs India’s other border guards. It is wise to read the dual control as a working compromise that needs clearer rules on service conditions and command, not as a mistake one decision can undo.
What Is Changing on the India-Myanmar Border?
The biggest change since 2024 is on the border itself. Visa-free movement has given way to a pass system and fencing has begun, with the Assam Rifles running the crossing points.
The Free Movement Regime (FMR) let people living near the border cross without a visa, because the same communities live on both sides of it. The practice is old: the MHA’s 2005-06 annual report proposed cutting a customary 40 km band to 16 km on either side through an agreement with Myanmar. The record since 2024:
- January 2024: the MHA set up a Department of Border Management.
- 8 February 2024: the MHA decided to scrap the FMR and, since the Ministry of External Affairs was still in the process of ending it, recommended its immediate suspension.
- March 2024: the CCS gave in-principle approval to fence the rest of the Myanmar border; press reports in September 2024 put the cost at about ₹31,000 crore.
- December 2024: an MHA letter set out a border pass, a single-entry pass for residents within 10 km, valid for a stay of up to seven days and issued by Assam Rifles personnel at 43 designated crossing points. Mizoram began enforcing it from 31 December.
- 15 March 2025: the force’s battalion headquarters moved out of central Aizawl to Zokhawsang, about 15 km away, in the Union Home Minister’s presence.
- 17 December 2025: the government told the Lok Sabha that 9.214 km of the border had been physically fenced.
That 9.214 km is about half of one percent of 1,643 km. The MHA’s 2024-25 report shows where the next stretches are coming from:
- about 151.61 km of fence work awarded or in progress;
- a 20.862 km fence and road in Churachandpur, Manipur, given to the Border Roads Organisation;
- two 1 km pilots of a hybrid surveillance system, one each in Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, built by the Assam Rifles.
Politics on the ground is mixed. Groups in Mizoram and Nagaland have publicly opposed the end of free movement and the fencing, since kin live across the line, and in 2024 the Manipur government asked for a dedicated border force for its Myanmar-facing districts in place of the Assam Rifles. How these questions sit in the wider relationship is covered in India-Myanmar relations, and the latest round of bilateral security talks in India-Myanmar border talks on security and intelligence sharing.
None of this has changed who commands the force. It marked its 191st Raising Day on 24 March 2026 in Shillong under Lt Gen Vikas Lakhera, still describing itself as the “Sentinels of the North East”.
How to Study Assam Rifles for Exams
The topic sits in GS Paper III, under security challenges in border areas and the various security forces and their mandate, with a spillover into GS Paper II through India-Myanmar relations. It is tested less as a standalone force and more as a working example of border management: Mains 2020 GS Paper III asked “Analyze internal security threats and transborder crimes along Myanmar, Bangladesh and Pakistan borders including Line of Control (LoC). Also discuss the role played by various security forces in this regard.“
Seven facts carry most answers:
- Raised in 1835 as the Cachar Levy; named the Assam Rifles in 1917.
- Administrative control with the MHA since 1965; operational control with the Army since the 1962 war.
- Governed by the Assam Rifles Act, 2006, which repealed the 1941 Act; section 4 sets out its three roles.
- Headquarters in Shillong; the Director General is a serving Army Lieutenant General.
- Guards the 1,643 km India-Myanmar border, which touches four northeastern states and no others.
- 47 battalions including 1 NDRF battalion; authorized strength 66,411.
- Free movement band cut from 16 km to 10 km, with a seven-day border pass, from December 2024.
Four confusions cost the most marks, and each has a clean way out:
- CAPF or not? It is usually grouped with the CAPFs, but the MHA lists it separately as a Central Paramilitary Force and the 2026 CAPF Act leaves it out. “Central force under the MHA” is always safe.
- Army or not? It isn’t part of the Army. It is an armed force of the Union under its own Act, commanded by Army officers.
- 1835 or 1917? 1835 is when it was raised; 1917 is when it got its name.
- 16 km or 10 km? 16 km was the old free movement band; 10 km is the border-pass band from December 2024.
The fastest way to fix the force in memory is against its siblings on the other land borders:
| Force | Border it guards | Raised | Operations run by | Head | Headquarters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assam Rifles | India-Myanmar | 1835, as the Cachar Levy | Army | Army Lieutenant General | Shillong |
| BSF | India-Pakistan and India-Bangladesh | 1965 | MHA | IPS officer | New Delhi |
| ITBP | India-China | 1962 | MHA | IPS officer | Delhi |
| SSB | India-Nepal and India-Bhutan | 1963, as the Special Service Bureau | MHA | IPS officer | Delhi |
The NSG is the odd one out in this family: a counter-terror strike force with no border to guard, which is why it rarely belongs in a border-management answer.
The Assam Rifles rewards the reader who studies it as a case rather than a fact file. If you can explain why it has two masters and why that has outlasted every attempt to change it, you have a concrete Northeast example for any border-management answer.
Frequently Asked Questions
When was Assam Rifles established?
The Assam Rifles was established in 1835 as the Cachar Levy, a militia of about 750 men raised by the British to protect tea estates and settlements in Assam. It passed through several names as a frontier police force and was renamed the Assam Rifles in 1917, in recognition of its service in the First World War. That unbroken line from 1835 is why the Home Ministry calls it the oldest paramilitary force in India.
Assam Rifles comes under which ministry?
It comes under two ministries in different ways. The Ministry of Home Affairs has administrative control, which covers its funding and recruitment, while the Army, under the Ministry of Defence, has operational control and supplies its senior officers. This dual control dates from the 1960s, when the Army took operational control after the 1962 war and administration moved to the Home Ministry in 1965.
Is Assam Rifles part of the Indian Army?
No. It is a separate armed force of the Union created by the Assam Rifles Act, 2006, with its own riflemen and its own courts. The confusion comes from its command, because the Director General is a serving Army Lieutenant General and Army officers on deputation hold most senior posts.
Is Assam Rifles a CAPF?
It depends on whose list you read. It is commonly grouped with the Central Armed Police Forces, but the Home Ministry’s annual report lists five CAPFs and then the Assam Rifles separately as a Central Paramilitary Force. The Central Armed Police Forces (General Administration) Act, 2026 also covers only the five and leaves the Assam Rifles out.
Which border does Assam Rifles guard?
It guards the 1,643 km India-Myanmar border, which runs through four northeastern states from Arunachal Pradesh in the north to Mizoram in the south. It took over this border from the BSF in the early 2000s under the ‘one border, one force’ principle. It also runs counter-insurgency operations in the Northeast and has a sector headquarters in Jammu and Kashmir.
What is the Assam Rifles Act 2006?
It is the law that constitutes and governs the force, and it replaced the Assam Rifles Act, 1941. Section 4 makes the Assam Rifles an armed force of the Union for border security and counter-insurgency, and the force may also act in aid of civil authorities to keep law and order. The Act vests control in the Central Government without naming a ministry, which leaves the dual control to executive decision.
Why is Assam Rifles called the Sentinels of the North East?
‘Sentinels of the North East’ is the force’s motto, and the Home Ministry uses the same phrase to describe it. A sentinel is a guard on watch, which fits a force that has spent almost its whole history in the hills of the Northeast. Its other popular title, ‘Friends of the North East People’, reflects the local role it claims for itself.
What happened to the Free Movement Regime on the India-Myanmar border?
In February 2024 the Home Ministry decided to scrap the Free Movement Regime, which had let border residents move up to 16 km across without a visa. From December 2024 a border-pass system took its place, letting residents within 10 km cross for up to seven days through designated crossing points. Assam Rifles personnel issue the passes at those points.
Practice Questions
Prelims
1. Consider the following statements about the Assam Rifles: 1. It was raised in 1835 as the Cachar Levy. 2. Its Directorate General is located in New Delhi. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer: (a) It was raised as the Cachar Levy in 1835, and its headquarters is in Shillong, not Delhi.
2. Consider the following statements: 1. The Ministry of Home Affairs has administrative control of the Assam Rifles. 2. The Army has operational control of the Assam Rifles. 3. The Assam Rifles is one of the forces covered by the Central Armed Police Forces (General Administration) Act, 2026. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer: (a) The 2026 Act covers five CAPFs, and the Assam Rifles is not in its schedule.
3. Which one of the following groups of states shares a land border with Myanmar?
- (a) Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram
- (b) Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Mizoram
- (c) Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura
- (d) Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya
Answer: (a) The 1,643 km border runs through Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram.
4. Under the border-pass system introduced on the India-Myanmar border in December 2024, residents living within what distance of the border may cross on a pass?
- (a) 5 km
- (b) 10 km
- (c) 16 km
- (d) 40 km
Answer: (b) The pass covers residents within 10 km; 16 km was the older Free Movement Regime band.
5. Consider the following statements about the Assam Rifles Act, 2006: 1. It describes the Assam Rifles as an armed force of the Union. 2. It repealed the Assam Rifles Act, 1941. 3. It limits the force to border guarding and bars counter-insurgency work. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer: (a) Section 4 expressly includes counter-insurgency operations in specified areas, so statement 3 is wrong.
Mains
- Cross-border movement of insurgents is only one of the several security challenges facing the policing of the border in North-East India. Examine the various challenges currently emanating across the India-Myanmar border. Also, discuss the steps to counter the challenges. (15 marks, 250 words) Previous year: Mains 2019, GS Paper III.
- The dual control of the Assam Rifles by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Army has survived every reform attempt since 2001. Critically examine the case for placing the force under a single ministry. (15 marks, 250 words)
- Explain the principle of ‘one border, one force’ and assess how far it has been achieved on India’s land borders. (10 marks, 150 words)
- The replacement of the Free Movement Regime with a border-pass system on the India-Myanmar border tries to balance security with the kinship of border communities. Discuss. (10 marks, 150 words)
- Fencing of the India-Myanmar border has begun but covers only a small part of its length. Examine the physical and social obstacles involved and suggest complementary measures. (15 marks, 250 words)