The Assam Rifles (AR) is a Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) of India, often called the "Sentinels of the North East," with a sanctioned strength of over 63,000 personnel across 46 battalions. It holds the distinction of being India's oldest paramilitary force, tracing its origins to the Cachar Levy, a militia established by the British in 1835 to protect settlements and tea gardens against tribal raids in the Assam region. The force received its current name in 1917.
The primary mechanism of the Assam Rifles is its unique dual control structure, which is a long-standing point of contention. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) holds the administrative control, which covers aspects like salaries, infrastructure, recruitment, and retirement policies under the rules for CAPFs. However, the operational control, including deployment, posting, and transfers, rests with the Indian Army under the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The force is commanded by a Lieutenant General from the Indian Army.
The AR's core role is maintaining law and order and conducting counter-insurgency operations in the Northeast, and it is the designated force for guarding the Indo-Myanmar border. The dual control structure has been debated since a Group of Ministers (GoM) recommended placing the AR under the complete control of the MHA in 2001, a proposal opposed by the MoD. More recently, the MHA has proposed merging the AR with the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) or taking full operational control, but the Army has resisted, arguing the current system works well for counter-insurgency. Recent changes include the deployment of AR personnel outside the Northeast to the Jammu region for the first time in 2024, with two battalions being replaced by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Manipur.