Indian Army Day pics - Ed might like 'em

[Dave Danner]

A few photos, courtesy of Yahoo! News, from the 55th Indian Army Day Parade, Jan. 15:


Sikh soldiers from the Rashtriya Rifles:


From a Gurkha Regiment:


Rajput Rifles:


Gorkha Regiment:


More Rashtriya Rifles:


? officer:


? (something to do with roosters? )


Cheers,
Dave

[Tony Farrell]

Bloody hell! Swing those Arms Sgt. Gibbon! I can almost hear the screams of the Havildars up & down the square. And 4GR look a fine lot too. You can't beat a bit of colourful pageantry & some stirring music.

[David S]

Ouch

Don't you dislocate your arms doing that?????

Great looking soldiers!!!!!!

Why do 'foreign soldiers' always look sharper and march better than US soldiers??????

[Ed_Haynes]

Yeah, nice. In between Army Day and Republic Day (26th Jan, which includes the beating retreat ceremony) it is a good uniform-watching time to be in India. I was at both (all) last year, though most troops were on the border at the time, so it was less than usually interesting. This is the first time that Rashtriya Rifles will be centre-stage.

Think about swinging your arms that way over a 18-mile parade route. (And, yes, I am told by friends who do this silly stuff for a living that you really DO dislocate your shoulders reaching the desirable 180-degree extreme.)

A shame that a lot of the fellows are not wearing real medals, but tailor's copies. The Rajputana Rifles subadar-major shown in another photo has, apparently, no real medals, all tailor's copies:

1- Vishesh Seva Medal (Special Service Medal) - no bar, should have "Suraksha" for anti-insurgency/anti-terrorism service in Jammu and Kashmir, never issued without a bar, his has none

2- OP "Vijay" Medal - for the near-war with Pakistan in 1999 - not yet officially issued

3- Sainya Seva Medal (Military Service Medal) - for service in harsh conditions, never issued without a bar, his has none

4- 50th Anniversary of Independence Medal - issued, unnamed for enlisted, but the government is running really late in issuing (sound familiar?)



Almost certainly a tailor-made-up bar of four fake shiny fakes. (The kind of garbage that usually shows up on eBay.) It has, unfortunately, become stylish for the medals to all be so bright and shiny that they look like they came out of a gum-ball machine. Some military tailors have special rates on nickel-dipping medals. Look terrible and essentially destroy the medal, but who can argue with "military fashion". Many in service just want the sparkly medals, so they junk their real ones. (Sounds of throat-clearing....)

My two annas worth,

Ed

[Chris Boonzaier]

From General Sir John Gordans book, published in 1904...

OF all the many peoples of India none possesses for us greater or more varied historical interest than the Sikhs, a people who four hundred years ago as a reformed religious sect sprang from the ranks of the Jats, a numerous as well as the most important agricultural tribe in the Punjab, descended from the ancient Scythian Getae.

They stand out prominently as men of action who have preserved inherited racial characteristics foreign to Orientals, and evolved themselves by the strength of their own arms into one of the finest military types to be found anywhere. Their story furnishes a stirring and romantic chapter in the world's history, carrying the imagination back in full flight over the lapse of centuries.

Taking their rise among the disciples of the peaceful Nanak, a Jat Hindu religious reformer, they ultimately, under the pressure of persecution, became a community of warriors, who by the genius of a young Sikh chief, Ranjit Singh, were welded into a nation at the dawn of the nineteenth century. After they lost his strong guiding hand they struggled desperately with us for supremacy in several pitched battles on the Sutlej in 1845-46, when we found them indeed foemen worthy of our steel.

[Ed_Haynes]

Yes, a good example of the whole "Martial Races" imperial mythology. Only one step removed from Alfred Rosenberg's "Der Mythus des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts"!

Ed Haynes

[Chris Boonzaier]

But it makes very very interesting reading.
Have just finished "A matter of Honour" by philip mason, and he describes the lengths the British went to to get "the right sort" and how some of the regiments of the "wrong sort" showed them up.

The amount of energy and belief put by recruiters into getting the "kind" that they thought best matched what a soldier should be is amazing.

However, there is an inborn martial strain that folks overlook when they think of indians as 7/11 owners. They have a superb military history.

[Tony Farrell]

Not forgetting that ol' gag: 'What do you say to a Pakistani on Christmas morning? Two pints of milk & a Daily Telegraph please!'

[Ed_Haynes]

And the "caste handbooks" prepared by the Brits on each of the "Martial Races" (sort of a user's manual?) make, well, "interesting" reading. Many have been reprinted.

Ed Haynes

[Ed_Haynes]

Rehearsing for Republic Day (26 Jan)

[Chris Boonzaier]

Oh to be a street sweeper once that lot have been through !

[Ed_Haynes]

Yes, for all last year I had to cross that street on the way to the National Archives in New Delhi. For the week before the parade, when they were practicing, between the camels and the horses and the occasional elephant, it was "ripe".

For the actual parade, they have an army of sweepers following the Border Security Force (these guys), the Ganga Risallah (the old Bikaner Camel Corps), the 61st Cavalry (the merger of the remnants of all the Imperial Service Cavalry units), and the President's Body Guard.

Should be a streaming video of the parade on line this year. Will advise.

Ed Haynes

[Sebastian Bianchi]

"They have a superb military history."

Interesting, a “superb” military history, do you really think so? I’m not sure I would call it superb, adequate, may be, but not superb. I’m not up with Indian military history and may very well be proven wrong here, but in the last two centuries the only war that I know of in which India was solely involved in and won was the 1971 war with Pakistan. And although greatly successful for them, it was somewhat of limited regional conflict. They didn’t even have a revolutionary war since they walked their into freedom with Ghandi.

When I think of outstanding military history I think of France, England and Spain, who once held great empires; Germany and Russia, who held the world at check; China and the United States, who arguably hold the best armies in the world; and a step down but honorary mention to Austria, Italy and Australia, who were involved in many wars with distinction.

Not to insult the Indian army, but I hardly think of them as having a superb military history. I actually think of them as peaceful people.

[Chris Boonzaier]

Hi Seba,

It is a question of where you buy your history books. Booksellers are very careful to sell what they think the punters will buy, and books about Indian/Pakistani soldiers are not big sellers.

A few examples, we all know about how the Brits and French held back the Germans back in 1914-1915, few if any general histories mention that one third of the British line was held by Indian troops.
it is argued that without these men, the Germans could easily have broken through and ended the war in 1915. The indian troops (many did not get winter uniforms until december) were maybe not liked by the germans, but were respected

"With fearful shouting, thousands of those brown forms rushed upon us... at a hundred metres we opened a destructive fire which mowed down hundreds but in spite of that the others advanced... in no time they were in our trenches and truly those brown enemies were not to be despised. With buttends, bayonets, swords and daggers we fought each other and we had bitter hard work"

Indians are credited with discovering the "bombing up the trench" tactic where you break into the trenc, then fight up the zigzag with bayonet and handgrenade duells.

In fact, the citations for bravery medals are sometimes the most impressive you can find.
"Naik soandso killed 4 germans with the bayonet, until the blade broke off, then he carried his CO back, alhough wounded in 5 places" kind of thing.
The WW2 citations are often a treat to read, lots of "jumping out of the bush and attacking the group of japanese just with his sten gun" kind of thing, and some of the ones to medics for saving men under fire are also very impressive indeed.

But, back to the "where you buy your history books" thing. It is sure, the shops are there to make money. Go the the worlds largest bookstore in toronto, now that it has been bought out by a US bookstore chain. Try and find a book about the Boer war (one of canadas largest military involvements..... there were 2 when I was last there, At foyles in London... there are probably over 100.)
Taking that thought further, Because there were no south Africans in Burma in WW2 you seldom find a mention of the CBI theater in south African books on WW2. Now, as no American troops served in the Middle east in WW1 the whole campaign in the desert falls through the cracks of WW1 Literature as sold in north America.
Although the Brits and Aussies were there, most of the campaign was Indian/pakistani troops and they fought very well indeed. I will pull a thread up again with the Corps of guides. They also fought in german East africa.

In WW2 India supplied the biggest volunteer army, 2.5 million men who fought in North Africa, Italy and the CBI theater, The japanese hated them, and vice versa, there was some very bitter fighting.

There ae many Indian/Pakistani regts that have traditions and battles that are as impressive as the Ghurkas, only difference is that the Ghurkas are still in the spotlight because they are still serving Britain.

"They didnÂ’t even have a revolutionary war since they walked their into freedom with Ghandi. "

Ghandi had the worlds hardest job to keep it that way. But you just need to see the selection of campaign medals for the 19th century to see how often the British had to fight for the chance to stay.

And the first half of the 20th century was pretty hefty as well. If you think the war in Afghanistan is hard in 2002, think of the decades that Indian/Pakistani troops fought on the north western frontier, where almost 100% of the transport mules had to be replaced in a month because of the conditions in the mountains.

"The indians were trained soldiers, but they had been trained almost entirely for frontier warfare. Snipers bullets, the charge of fanatical tribesmen, the ambush in the lonely pass, a murderous rush on a dark night-of these they had much experience. cold and heat, long marchs, hunger and thirst, with these they were familiar."

The history is long and very impressive, but the books are hard to find.

[Chris Boonzaier]

Another thought, Many people who fought beside them said that the Turks were the hardiest and best soldiers in the Korean war.

Try and find a mention of them in any histories? Once again, the victors may write the history books, but the publishers edit them for their target market.