Jammu and Kashmir State Forces

Jammu and Kashmir Rifles
Jammu and Kashmir Rifles Insignia
Active	1821–Present
Country	India
Branch	Indian Army
Type	Light Infantry
Role	Infantry
Size	19 battalions
Regimental Centre	Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh
Motto(s)	Prashata Ranvirta ("Valour in Battle is Praiseworthy")
War Cry	Durga Mata Ki Jai ("Victory to Goddess Durga")
Decorations	See below
Commanders
Colonel of the Regiment	Lt Gen Satish Dua
Insignia
Regimental Insignia	An oval embracing the sun, the State emblem. The Sanskrit inscription around the sun, which cannot be read on the regimental insignia above, translates as, "Ever Victorious in War"

The Jammu and Kashmir Rifles is an infantry regiment of the Indian Army. The Jammu and Kashmir State Forces were the only former Princely State Forces of India to be absorbed into the Indian Army as a distinct and separate Regiment. In 1963, the designation was changed to Jammu and Kashmir Rifles. After the conversion, the Ladakh Scouts came under the aegis of the Regiment, where it remained until raised as a separate Regiment in 2002.

The Jammu and Kashmir Rifles has a unique regimental history. Its antecedants go back to the Dogra Corps raised by intrepid Raja Gulab Singh of Jammu in 1821, under the suzerainty of Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Sikh Empire. General Zorawar Singh led daredevil campaigns in northern areas like Ladakh, Baltistan, Gilgit, Hunza and Yagistan, consolidating smaller principalities and making the northern areas a part of the expanding dominions of Gulab Singh. He also mounted a breath-taking invasion of Tibet in 1841.

After the establishment of Jammu and Kashmir as independent princely state under the British Paramountcy in 1846, these troops became the Jammu and Kashmir State Forces.

The Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir maintained a larger number of State Forces than any other ruler of an Indian State under the British Raj. These forces were organized into the Jammu and Kashmir Brigades. They comprised a bodyguard cavalry regiment, two mountain batteries, seven infantry battalions, one training battalions and a transport unit consisting of both pack and mechanized transport. Several of these units served with distinction on the North-West Frontier of India and overseas during the Great War. The state forces fought as Imperial Service Troops in both the First and Second World Wars (under their own native officers). They distinguished themselves in East Africa, Palestine and Burma.