Celebrates the establishment of the Republic of India on January 26th, 1950 when its new Constitution took effect.
The parade at New Delhi is, bar none, the most colorful military parade in the world, although this year the elephants aren’t behaving, so they won’t appear.
Here’s the official site, and, as the Wikipedia entry is really pathetic, here is a tourist site with more information.
On-line Opinion Magazine featuring annoyed rumblings from the leading edge of the Baby Boom firmly tied to a reality-based world.
Established: 21 November 2004
The opinions expressed in Comments are those of the individuals making them. Truly absurd comments and opinions are subject to being cruelly mocked, but "flame wars" will take place on someone else's dime.
Your first comment, all comments with extensive links, and random comments that the software decides it doesn't like for no discernible reason will be held for moderation.
[Be aware that for unknown reasons the software rejects comments shorter than 15 characters, so if you want to leave a short comment fill the gap with periods ........]
15 comments
A shame about the elephants. My Indian cube-mate one cubicle over was disappointed too, he said it wasn’t the same without the elephants. I pointed out that children on top of elephants weren’t my idea of something safe, and he agreed. But tradition, y’know. Even if it’s only a 58-year-old tradition :-).
– Badtux the Multiculturalist Penguin
There is nothing worse than tradition – doing something because it has always been done, except when it wasn’t.
They definitely added to the color of the parade, although it didn’t need much more color.
I was not aware of that.
Comrade Kevin´s last blog post..Treatment Update
Well… the elephants are misbehaving because they lost the election in America. Or maybe because they’re tired of being connected to the failed neocon agenda. Or to twits who think of party first then their pockets? Revolting against tradition?
Go elephants!
ellroon´s last blog post..The Audacity of Dopes
There are a lot of great festivals around the world that the taxpayers have permitted me to see from time to time, when people weren’t shooting at me, CK.
Well, I don’t think anyone ever asked elephants if they approved of the use of their image, and it is possible that they have just discovered lawyers and labor unions, Ellroon. This might be an elephant job action, and the government is suppressing the news.
There are a lot of great festivals around the world that the taxpayers have permitted me to see from time to time, when people weren’t shooting at me, CK.
Heh! True dat. 😉 😀
Well… proves that Elephants are indeed smarter than Humans. Not hard… a turnip is smarter than some humans I think. 😉 LOL
Well, there are slow turnips that shouldn’t be allowed to become even Senators from Alabama, which is a pretty low threshold.
Well, there are slow turnips that shouldn’t be allowed to become even Senators from Alabama, which is a pretty low threshold.
The last shall be first, and the first Shelby last…
Most Indian holidays mean that I receive some sort of spicy food from Indian friends. This one, regrettably, was an exception. Still, I lift my glass to another nation that parted ways with the UK and became a republic.
Steve Bates´s last blog post..Krugman Debunks The Cheap Shots
I certainly hope someone put the parade on a cable channel, because it really is an amazing show. We have really boring uniforms in our services. The Indian military is definitely not afraid of color for their parade dress uniforms.
Reminds me of the War Nerd commenting on the Indian Army and whether they have any intention of going to war over Kashmir again:
But it’s hard to believe the Indian Army has the right spirit when you see them drilling in those wacky uniforms, doing the Monty Python moves they got from the British. Goosestepping, swaggersticks, little mustaches — it’s pathetic. You keep looking around for John Cleese as officer-in-charge.
Heh.
— Badtux the Easily-amused Penguin
Badux´s last blog post..Economy still heading down…
Their regular troops aren’t bad, but they lack experience, and don’t get enough training. They really should go for more peace keeping missions to get some kind of experience for their officers and NCOs before they have their next dust up with Pakistan.
They really need to do some force modernization, like providing dedicated helicopters for their Special Forces units.
The Indian military tradition is, of course, British in origin. It is easy to forget that Indian troops were the troops that won most of Western Africa for the British Empire and were the backbone of the British Army in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia during WWI and WWII. And, incidentally, were most of the “British” troops that invaded Afghanistan and got their butt kicked (twice) in the 19th century — British officers, Indian troops.
Which unfortunately was the usual case — British officers, Indian troops. So the Indians learned a lot about swaggersticks and little mustaches and how to put on good parades, but their knowledge of actual leadership of forces in combat… ehh. Theoretical, for the most part. They’ve done their best to import British military tradition. But like most things British that they’ve imported, their take on it maybe sometimes misses the point… but damn, they sure know how to put on a good parade!
Badux´s last blog post..A stranger
Yes, their officers and NCOs really need some real world experience, because the troops know how to fight.
It’s not really the experience thing, so much as the lack of any real homegrown leadership tradition, in my opinion. In the U.S. military I’m most familiar with the USMC. There are some old (and some not-so-old) and enduring traditions in the USMC that embody an institutional memory of what it means to be a leader of Marines as well as what it means to be a Marine, traditions passed down through the years from one generation of Marines to the next whether that generation ever experienced combat or not. There are some similar traditions in the Indian Army, but mostly about how brave their soldiers were when they obediently went off and did some damnfool thing that got them killed because their idiot British officers ordered them to do it. I.e., traditions about how to be a brave and good SOLDIER, but not all that relevant to how to be a good LEADER of soldiers.
Anyhow, that’s my theory there, and you probably have had more contact with Indian officers than I have and a better-informed opinion of how loony or accurate that theory sounds. Sounds good as we babble here on the Internets anyhow :-).
– Badtux the Observant Penguin
They do follow the British model, but it is the model from World War II, and there is a lot of class built into the system. The problem I have with the NCOs, is that they seem to feel their main job is discipline and they don’t act on their own initiative. They waste a lot of time waiting for orders, when they know what to do. It gets annoying when you know you are working with really intelligent people, but they wait for an idiot to provide instructions. It is really bad in the technical fields.