{"id":35505,"date":"2018-10-31T17:54:17","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T12:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=35505"},"modified":"2018-10-31T17:54:17","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T12:24:17","slug":"patriot-games-at-attari-wagah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/patriot-games-at-attari-wagah\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriot games at Attari-Wagah"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/todays-paper\/tp-opinion\/patriot-games-at-attari-wagah\/article19531231.ece\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Patriot games at Attari-Wagah<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Context<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the past 70 years, the display of respective nationalisms at the border has become far more aggressive, dramatic, and hateful. The well-choreographed hurling of the slogans \u201cBharat Mata ki Jai\u201d and \u201cJio jio Pakistan\u201d at each other not only reduces the India-Pakistan relationship to a juvenile shouting match but, more importantly, encourages people to belittle and disrespect each other\u2019s sense of nationhood in praise of one\u2019s own.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The retreat ceremony at the Attari-Wagah border over the years<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The retreat ceremony currently is less of a celebration and more about condescending the other.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Following Partition, and the creation of the two states in 1947, the Wagah-Attari border, a short drive from Lahore and Amritsar, remained a trade and transit point between the two countries.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During the heydays of India-Pakistan relations in the mid-2000s, it was decided to allow trucks to go to designated points on either side of the border for unloading cargo.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today, there is more formalized trade between the two countries than there is transit thanks to severe visa restrictions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Attari border was managed by the Indian Army in the first few years after Independence and later managed by the Punjab Armed Police before the BSF eventually took over after its creation in 1965.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When the retreat ceremony began in 1959, the joint Check Post was marked by a few painted drums, two flag masts and a rubble of stones astride the Grand Truck Road that stretches from Calcutta to Peshawar.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During the early decades, the flag-lowering ritual was a low-key affair that had an almost negligible audience and spartan seating arrangements, a far cry from the grand infrastructure and pavilions that can accommodate as many as 10,000 people today.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Scenario post Kargil war<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India\u2019s 1999 victory over Pakistan in Kargil made all the difference, as well as the opening up of the Indian media space in the preceding years.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since Kargil, the Attari-Wagah border has become a tourist destination and consequently led to the expansion of infrastructure on both sides.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unlike the India-Pakistan wars of 1965 and 1971, when the ceremony was temporarily halted during the conflicts, it continued during the duration of Kargil.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Given that Kargil was India\u2019s \u2018first televised war\u2019, it also brought about several changes in the way we relate to war, peace and of course the \u2018enemy\u2019, Pakistan.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Post-Kargil, the ceremony started reflecting carefully choreographed elements of hostility and resentment towards the enemy \u2018other\u2019 across the white line at Attari.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A quick glance at post-Kargil films such as Gadar:Ek Prem Katha (2001), The Hero: Love Story of a Spy (2003), and LOC Kargil (2003) demonstrate how Kargil has influenced our notions of nationalism and the sources and definitions of national security threats.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the years, the ceremony has become hostile and dramatized with the guards displaying intimidating gestures, stomping their feet and exchanging angry glares across the large iron gates, much to the delight of the cheering crowds.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2010, BSF and Pakistan Rangers agreed to do away with some of the overt aggression, yet the angry gestures of stomping, thumping and glaring nonetheless remain an integral part of this theatrical ceremony.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are ritualistic exchanges of sweets and occasional hugs between the BSF and Pakistani Rangers on special days such as August 14-15 and Diwali\/Eid. During times of tensions, this practice is often suspended.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Behind the stomping and angry glares then, there is a certain cordiality that exists on the Attari-Wagah border, and that in a sense is what makes it even more ironical, and a theatre of the absurd.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Display of nationalism turning into Bollywood music<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The retreat ceremony today is not just a daily exercise in the display of nationalism and military vigour.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the years, it has become a heady cocktail of Bollywood music, businesses flashing their tri-coloured advertisements, souvenir shops selling patriotic memorabilia, and LCD screens displaying the sponsors of the event. Nationalism is good business too.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Popular film actors are often seen at the venue promoting their films and connecting with the crowds, besides adding to the nationalistic atmosphere.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The retreat ceremony at the Attari-Wagah border, a well-rehearsed exchange of insults, is a constant, daily, reminder of our hostility towards each other as against the idea of each other\u2019s nationhood, and the inhabitants of the two nations.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Seventy years may not be a long time in the lives of two post-colonial nations, but the 70th anniversary of freedom is a good time to start accepting each other\u2019s existence as sovereign independent entities.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India needs to accept Pakistan\u2019s tryst with its destiny and what it does with it, and vice-versa.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Patriot games at Attari-Wagah Context Over the past 70 years, the display of respective nationalisms at the border has become far more aggressive, dramatic, and hateful. The well-choreographed hurling of the slogans \u201cBharat Mata ki Jai\u201d and \u201cJio jio Pakistan\u201d at each other not only reduces the India-Pakistan relationship to a juvenile shouting match but,&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/patriot-games-at-attari-wagah\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Patriot games at Attari-Wagah<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704672868},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35505\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}