Happy Indiapendence Day
Amritsar, Punjab, India
So today is I-day, aka Independence day or India day. It's pretty much the same as every other day here, hot and sweaty and crowded. The real hot nationalistic action occurred last night over at the border in Wagha. Yesterday was P-day (Pakistan day - although I & P became independent simultaneously, they changed their national days so as not to be the same as the other) so it was a big deal over there too. Thus the evening flag ceremony at Wagah, the only official land border crossing between the two and where the flags are simultaneously lowered by each side's border troops in tandem, was the place to be yesterday.
Accordingly I hauled my ass out there for what was a suffocating shoving match even by South Asian standards. The border is in the middle of a wide road with huge reviewing stands on the india side facing two gates, which has not-so-huge but still large stands on the Pakistan side., and two flags (indo & pak) right in the middle in no-mans-land-istan between the two gates. By mutual agreement, the flags are simultaneously lowered around 6:45 each evening so that neither flies while the other doesn't.
So when you arrive you work your way through the teeming mass to try to get a spot as close to the border as possible. The crowd is wild, especially since it is I-day weekend, and there's a live band playing tunes to whip them up. The border guards are all about 6-5 or taller and wear absurd, vaguely 19th C. British style hats and sashes and vehemently blow whistles at people in the crowd, as gangs of younger males tend to stand up and dance which results in the occasional near confrontation from another gang seated behind the dancers. This has limited success as the ceremony starts as pretty much everybody, regardless of creed or caste or nationality, in my case (though I have been mistaken for Indian a few times), leans on and shoves each other towards the border.
The ceremony (described even better here w/picture) itself consists of precision absurd marching at high speeds by the border guards on both sides. If a military conflict were ever to revolve on the ability to sychronize speed march fifty yards with little jump steps, the Indians and Pakistanis have established complete superiority. The flags are lowered in synchronicity while the Indian crowd chants and screams "Hindustan! Hindustan! Jai Hind!" and the Pakistani crowd reciprocates. Afterward, the gates are shut and then the crowd, which has been moving up despite frantic whistling by the guards, surges forward in jostling waves as close to the fence as they can get ( i got maybe 20 yards away when I got sick of the human cattle stampede and gave up - which is about as close as I'll get to Pakistan which is too bad as there are certain high mountain regions thereof that I wish I could see, but its also a bit of a relief). The same thing looks like it's happening over in Pakistan except everybody's wearing white shalwar kameezes instead of sikh turbans, and there seems to be even more frantic running and retreating. On the whole though, the crowd is fairly good natured given that its bitter enemies are across the way and the whole thing seems sort of tongue in cheek, with more waving at the other side than cursing.
Tonight I head to Dehli where I'm going to hole up at the Intercontinental and figure out what to do next and hopefully try not to sweat for a while.
So today is I-day, aka Independence day or India day. It's pretty much the same as every other day here, hot and sweaty and crowded. The real hot nationalistic action occurred last night over at the border in Wagha. Yesterday was P-day (Pakistan day - although I & P became independent simultaneously, they changed their national days so as not to be the same as the other) so it was a big deal over there too. Thus the evening flag ceremony at Wagah, the only official land border crossing between the two and where the flags are simultaneously lowered by each side's border troops in tandem, was the place to be yesterday.
Accordingly I hauled my ass out there for what was a suffocating shoving match even by South Asian standards. The border is in the middle of a wide road with huge reviewing stands on the india side facing two gates, which has not-so-huge but still large stands on the Pakistan side., and two flags (indo & pak) right in the middle in no-mans-land-istan between the two gates. By mutual agreement, the flags are simultaneously lowered around 6:45 each evening so that neither flies while the other doesn't.
So when you arrive you work your way through the teeming mass to try to get a spot as close to the border as possible. The crowd is wild, especially since it is I-day weekend, and there's a live band playing tunes to whip them up. The border guards are all about 6-5 or taller and wear absurd, vaguely 19th C. British style hats and sashes and vehemently blow whistles at people in the crowd, as gangs of younger males tend to stand up and dance which results in the occasional near confrontation from another gang seated behind the dancers. This has limited success as the ceremony starts as pretty much everybody, regardless of creed or caste or nationality, in my case (though I have been mistaken for Indian a few times), leans on and shoves each other towards the border.
The ceremony (described even better here w/picture) itself consists of precision absurd marching at high speeds by the border guards on both sides. If a military conflict were ever to revolve on the ability to sychronize speed march fifty yards with little jump steps, the Indians and Pakistanis have established complete superiority. The flags are lowered in synchronicity while the Indian crowd chants and screams "Hindustan! Hindustan! Jai Hind!" and the Pakistani crowd reciprocates. Afterward, the gates are shut and then the crowd, which has been moving up despite frantic whistling by the guards, surges forward in jostling waves as close to the fence as they can get ( i got maybe 20 yards away when I got sick of the human cattle stampede and gave up - which is about as close as I'll get to Pakistan which is too bad as there are certain high mountain regions thereof that I wish I could see, but its also a bit of a relief). The same thing looks like it's happening over in Pakistan except everybody's wearing white shalwar kameezes instead of sikh turbans, and there seems to be even more frantic running and retreating. On the whole though, the crowd is fairly good natured given that its bitter enemies are across the way and the whole thing seems sort of tongue in cheek, with more waving at the other side than cursing.
Tonight I head to Dehli where I'm going to hole up at the Intercontinental and figure out what to do next and hopefully try not to sweat for a while.
posted by Miguel V | 5:47 PM
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