Which one of the following is the oldest Central Paramilitary Force in India?

Correct — C, The Assam Rifles. The force was raised in 1835 as the Cachar Levy to police the Assam frontier, and it has run continuously since — renamed the Assam Frontier Police in 1883, the Assam Military Police in 1891 and the Assam Rifles in 1917. Nothing else on the list is remotely as old: the CRPF dates from 1939 and the BSF from 1965, so the Assam Rifles predates the next-oldest option by more than a century.

• (a)The Central Reserve Police Force — Raised in 1939 as the Crown Representative's Police and given its present name by the Central Reserve Police Force Act, 1949. It is the largest and the oldest of the forces the Home Ministry raised for itself, which is why it is the tempting answer, but it is a century younger than the Cachar Levy.
• (b)The Border Security Force — Raised on 1 December 1965, right after that year's war, so that one force rather than a patchwork of state armed police would hold the Indo-Pakistan border. It is the youngest of the three big border forces here, not the oldest.
• (d)The Commando Battalion for Resolute Action — CoBRA is not a separate force at all. It is a jungle-warfare and guerrilla-tactics specialisation raised inside the CRPF from 2008 for the Left-wing-extremism theatre, so it cannot predate its own parent force.

The Central Armed Police Forces are the Union's own uniformed forces under the Ministry of Home Affairs — CRPF, BSF, CISF, ITBP, SSB and the Assam Rifles. They are police organisations, not the Army, though the older habit of calling them 'paramilitary' survives in question papers such as this one.

Date the forces to their originating cause and the order falls out on its own. The Assam Rifles began as a colonial levy for the Assam hills in 1835; the CRPF answered the unrest of 1939; the BSF answered the 1965 war; the ITBP answered 1962 and the CISF the security of public-sector plants. A candidate who reaches for the biggest or best-known force picks the CRPF and loses the mark.

• Assam Rifles, 1835, raised as the Cachar Levy; Assam Frontier Police 1883, Assam Military Police 1891, Assam Rifles 1917.
• It is the only Indian central armed police force under dual control — administration with the Ministry of Home Affairs, operational control with the Army under the Ministry of Defence.
• Its present charge is the India-Myanmar border and counter-insurgency duty in the North-East.
• CRPF 1939 (renamed 1949), BSF 1 December 1965; CoBRA is a CRPF battalion type raised from 2008.

• Assuming the largest force is the oldest — the CRPF is the largest, the Assam Rifles the oldest.
• Treating CoBRA as an independent force when it is a specialised CRPF formation.
• Reading 'paramilitary' as meaning the Army's reserve; in India the CAPFs are police forces under the Home Ministry.

Asked as the oldest, the largest, the border guarded, or the ministry in charge — the same six forces sorted a different way each year.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Assam Rifles is under the operational control of which one of the following?

  • (a)Ministry of Home Affairs
  • (b)Indian Army under the Ministry of Defence
  • (c)Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region
  • (d)Government of Assam

  Answer(b) Indian Army under the Ministry of Defence — administration rests with the Home Ministry, operational control with the Army, the only such split among the CAPFs.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Border Security Force was raised in the wake of which event?

  • (a)The 1962 war with China
  • (b)The 1965 war with Pakistan
  • (c)The 1971 war and the creation of Bangladesh
  • (d)The Kargil conflict of 1999

  Answer(b) The 1965 war with Pakistan — the BSF was raised on 1 December 1965 to replace state armed police on the border.