India round up part two - Border Madness

On the morning of 6th January we went to take another look at the Golden Temple and then went onto Jallianwalla Bagh. This was the site in 1919 where the British opened fire on a gathering of men, women and children, killing 327 and injuring 1100 - although the figures change depending on whose version of events you read. The massacre came at a time of unrest in India, the country having given much to the British war effort in WW1, including the lives of 43,000 Indian soldiers and wanting independence in return. It's now a peaceful garden with an eternal flame and a hall of martyrs, which contained some moving stories from that night. They have also preserved a wall that shows the bullet holes.


We went on to the Ram Bagh which is a large park, that houses a museum about Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who was the first Maharaja of the Sikh Empire (crowned 1801) and was also known as Sher-e-Punjab (The Lion of the Punjab). He was basically responsible for vast land (re)aquisition for India, he was also responsible for the gilding of the Golden Temple. The museum itself was really good, lots of panoramas and a lifesize display of various military victories. We had to leave before the end of the exhibition though as there was a power cut.

After a good lunch at a dark restaurant (more power cuts) we drove out to the Indian/Pakistan border for the daily closing ceremony. We split into two lines (security checks for the men and women are carried out separately here in India) and when they opened the gate, all hell broke loose, with people hurrying through to the stadium seating (I reckon it seats about 2000 and all seats were filled). As we got nearer, we were pulled out of the line and taken around the back. Uh-oh we thought, what have we done? Turns out we were going through an additional security check (they tried to make Liam go through the female entrance, because of his long hair :) and were led into the VIP stand! Before the ceremony started, lots of women and children jumped onto the road and started dancing to the music playing over the PA. Some men tried to join them but were sent back to their seats. A warm up guy came out to get the crowd ready for some patriotic cheering and shouting at the Pakistani crowd (which consisted of about 50 people as far as we could see; the Indian side definitely outnumbered them). The ceremony itself is bizarre. Lots of crazy marching, shouting, jeering, cheering, heckling and general mayhem. If you'd like to see what happens at the ceremony, watch the Sanjeev Bhaskar BBC clip on YouTube (much better than Michael Palin's)

This was all followed by the now obligatory photoshoots for Cliff and Liam.