Doon defence acadamy to Ima

Demands for an Indian Military training academyEdit

During the Indian Independence Struggle, Indian leaders recognized the need for a local military institution to meet the needs of an armed force loyal to sovereign India. The British Raj was reluctant to commission Indian officers or to permit local officer training. Until World War I, Indians were not eligible for commission as officers in the Indian Army.

Following the experiences in World War I, where Indian soldiers proved their mettle, Montague-Chelmsford Reforms facilitated ten Indians per year to undergo officer training at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.^[1] In 1922 the Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College (now known as the Rashtriya Indian Military College or just RIMC) was set up in Dehradun to prepare young Indians for admission to Sandhurst.^[2][3] The Indianisation of the Army started with the commissioning of 31 Indian officers. Among this first batch of officers to be commissioned was Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw, who became the Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army in 1969 and later the first Indian Field Marshal.^[4]

Despite demands, the British resisted expansion of the Indian officer cadre. Indian leaders then pressed for the issue at the first Round Table Conference in 1930. Eventually, the establishment of an Indian officer training college was one of the few concessions made at the conference. The Indian Military College Committee, set up under the chairmanship of Field Marshal Sir Philip Chetwode, recommended in 1931 the establishment of an Indian Military Academy in Dehradun to produce forty commissioned officers twice a year following two and a half years of training.^[5]

Inauguration to IndependenceEdit

The Government of India transferred the erstwhile estate in Dehradun of the Indian Railways' Railway Staff College, with its 206-acre campus and associated infrastructure, to the Indian Military Academy. Brigadier L.P. Collins was appointed the first Commandant and the first batch of 40 Gentleman Cadets (GC), as IMA trainees are known, began their training on 1 October 1932. The institute was inaugurated on 10 December 1932, at the end of the first term by Field Marshal Chetwode.^[5]

In 1934, before the first batch had passed out, then Viceroy Lord Willingdon presented colours to the academy on behalf of George V. The first batch of cadets to pass out of the Academy in December 1934, now known as the Pioneers, included Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw,^[6] General Muhammad Musa^[7] and Lieutenant General Smith Dun, who became the Army Chiefs of India, Pakistan, and Burma, respectively.^[8]

Through the first 16 regular courses that passed out of the academy, until May 1941, 524 officers were commissioned. But the outbreak of the Second World War resulted in an unprecedented increase in the number of entrants, a temporary reduction in the training period to six months and an expansion of the campus. 3887 officers were commissioned between August 1941 and January 1946, including 710 British officers for the British Army. The academy reverted to its original two and a half year course of training at the end of the war.^[9]

Post-IndependenceEdit

Following the Independence of India in August 1947, a number of trainers and cadets left for Britain and Pakistan. Brigadier Thakur Mahadeo Singh, DSO, was appointed the first Indian Commandant of the academy.^[10]

In late 1947, the Chiefs of Staff of the Indian Armed Forces following the recommendation of a 1946 committee headed by Field Marshal Claude Auchinleck, decided to initiate an action plan to commission a new Joint Services training academy. In the interim, they decided to conduct Joint Services training at the IMA. The IMA was renamed the Armed Forces Academy and a new Joint Services Wing (JSW) was commissioned on 1 January 1949, while training of Army officers continued in the Military Wing.^[11][12]

The academy was renamed as the National Defence Academy (NDA) on 1 January 1950, ahead of India becoming a Republic. In December 1954, when the new Joint Services training academy was established in Khadakwasla, near Pune, the NDA name along with the Joint Services Wing was transferred to Khadakwasla. The academy in Dehradun was then rechristened as Military College.

Brigadier M.M. Khanna, MVC was the first IMA alumni to be appointed Commandant of the IMA at the end of 1956.

In 1960, the academy was renamed back to its founding name, as the Indian Military Academy. On 10 December 1962, on the 30th anniversary of the academy's inauguration, the second President of India, Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, presented new colours to the academy.

From 1963 until August 1964, following the Sino-Indian War, the duration of regular classes was truncated, emergency courses were initiated and new living quarters for cadets were added. However, unlike previous wars, the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965and that of 1971 did not disrupt academy training or graduation schedules.

In 1976, the four battalions of the IMA were renamed the Cariappa Battalion, Thimayya Battalion, Manekshaw Battalion and Bhagat Battalion with two companies each in honour of Field Marshal Kodandera Madappa Cariappa, General Kodandera Subayya Thimayya, Field Marshal Sam Manekshawand Lieutenant General Premindra Singh Bhagat, respectively. On 15 December 1976, then President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed presented new colours to the IMA.

In 1977, the Army Cadet College (ACC) was moved from Pune to Dehradun as a wing of the IMA. In 2006, the ACC was merged into the IMA as it's Siachen Battalion.

By its 75th anniversary in 2007, IMA had trained over 46,000 officers commissioned into armies of the world, including Angola, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Burma, Ghana, Iraq, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Nepal, Nigeria, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Tonga, Uganda, Yemenand Zambia besides those of United Kingdom, Pakistan, and India.^[13]