In the late afternoon, we set off with Usman and his brother to the lowering of the flags ceremony at the Wagah Border. The Wagah Border is the only road crossing border with India, where each day a ceremony takes place in which the Pakistani Rangers and the Border Security Forces of India take down their flags at 6 PM in front of cheering home crowds. When we got closer to the border, we had to go through at least three checkpoints. At one of the checkpoints, each car had to empty its passengers and a Ranger would pat down each person for security. Yet, after we left our car the Rangers let our car go without a full search because we had Americans/foreigners/'white people' in the back.
The ceremony itself was the highlight of the trip thus far. The Pakistani Rangers, dressed in all black uniforms, are massive and intimidating, as are the Border Security Forces of India who we could partly see across the border. The ceremony is choreographed, as each side's forces mirror the others with marching, stomping, and intimidating looks and moves. There are yelling competitions between each side's announcers to see who can yell the longest. The forces also compete while untying the rope to the flag, though not when bringing it down as the flags descend simultaneously.
The Pakistan crowd yells "Pakistan, Zindabad!", meaning long-live Pakistan, as the Indian crowd yells a counter in Hindi. Each side also has a form of cheerleaders, consisting of older men who pump up the crowd by leading cheers and waving each respective flag. As it ended, ourselves and others got to take pictures with the Rangers.
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the description makes it sound like an almost friendly interaction between the two countries. was this your impression at all? and what does the rest of the border consist of? I assume it's not unprotected.
ReplyDeleteIt could definitely be described as a friendly rivalry, unique to this single border crossing. The relationship between India and Pakistan remains tense overall and the rest of the border is guarded heavily by both sides. The day we went to watch the ceremony, there were even reports in the Pakistani media about a Pakistani soldier being killed by unprovoked shooting from Indians across the border. Many Pakistanis perceive a double standard in the West because incidents like this against Pakistan don't make the news there, but incidents against India would result in Pakistan being labeled as a "terrorist state."
ReplyDeleteEven though passions are high on both sides of the Wagah Border, the rivalry there has largely been reduced from hostility to the friendly competition of a sporting event. The Indians even join the Pakistani cheer out of respect (though Usman is slightly embarrassed that the Pakistani side doesn't reciprocate). It was good for us to witness this nationalism firsthand because it plays such an important role in relations between the U.S. and Pakistan.