The China Mail - Mechanical elephants, homemade howitzers as India turns 75

USD -
AED 3.67302
AFN 68.25057
ALL 83.483156
AMD 381.28666
ANG 1.789699
AOA 917.000079
ARS 1331.517198
AUD 1.533989
AWG 1.8025
AZN 1.701624
BAM 1.678416
BBD 2.011225
BDT 121.225644
BGN 1.67595
BHD 0.377008
BIF 2970.239245
BMD 1
BND 1.281665
BOB 6.898002
BRL 5.460296
BSD 0.996082
BTN 87.455643
BWP 13.436429
BYN 3.278753
BYR 19600
BZD 2.000841
CAD 1.373185
CDF 2890.000319
CHF 0.80513
CLF 0.02484
CLP 974.449633
CNY 7.18315
CNH 7.18171
COP 4044
CRC 504.348796
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 94.626544
CZK 21.049902
DJF 177.384543
DKK 6.39439
DOP 60.621404
DZD 130.329582
EGP 48.458546
ERN 15
ETB 138.442414
EUR 0.85684
FJD 2.253799
FKP 0.751467
GBP 0.74803
GEL 2.697767
GGP 0.751467
GHS 10.509197
GIP 0.751467
GMD 72.501278
GNF 8640.311728
GTQ 7.643755
GYD 208.398948
HKD 7.849455
HNL 26.182027
HRK 6.455199
HTG 130.732754
HUF 341.080505
IDR 16297.85
ILS 3.43782
IMP 0.751467
INR 87.689003
IQD 1304.93922
IRR 42124.999693
ISK 122.350144
JEP 0.751467
JMD 159.191257
JOD 0.709001
JPY 147.258498
KES 128.901322
KGS 87.449956
KHR 3990.988091
KMF 422.49885
KPW 899.94784
KRW 1382.949742
KWD 0.30545
KYD 0.830112
KZT 535.217311
LAK 21550.46277
LBP 89250.942919
LKR 299.682905
LRD 199.72281
LSL 17.746006
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 5.421084
MAD 9.036657
MDL 16.918898
MGA 4406.722934
MKD 52.80344
MMK 2099.311056
MNT 3591.43546
MOP 8.053619
MRU 39.734309
MUR 45.350304
MVR 15.405187
MWK 1727.246592
MXN 18.59456
MYR 4.228506
MZN 63.960054
NAD 17.746006
NGN 1525.150182
NIO 36.657011
NOK 10.16617
NPR 139.928686
NZD 1.679882
OMR 0.384488
PAB 0.996082
PEN 3.542113
PGK 4.136416
PHP 57.210499
PKR 282.843731
PLN 3.660896
PYG 7460.963815
QAR 3.631534
RON 4.347702
RSD 100.350056
RUB 80.000386
RWF 1440.873964
SAR 3.752576
SBD 8.217066
SCR 14.635046
SDG 600.507518
SEK 9.604135
SGD 1.283585
SHP 0.785843
SLE 23.103011
SLL 20969.503947
SOS 569.31256
SRD 37.035999
STD 20697.981008
STN 21.025441
SVC 8.715614
SYP 13001.372255
SZL 17.742745
THB 32.299026
TJS 9.31359
TMT 3.51
TND 2.935899
TOP 2.342099
TRY 40.682075
TTD 6.75297
TWD 29.816023
TZS 2472.503383
UAH 41.441389
UGX 3556.272608
UYU 39.974254
UZS 12476.132039
VES 128.747751
VND 26215
VUV 119.124121
WST 2.771506
XAF 562.925172
XAG 0.026298
XAU 0.000296
XCD 2.70255
XCG 1.795214
XDR 0.700098
XOF 562.925172
XPF 102.345818
YER 240.449806
ZAR 17.74998
ZMK 9001.199098
ZMW 22.935654
ZWL 321.999592
  • SCU

    0.0000

    12.72

    0%

  • JRI

    0.0800

    13.34

    +0.6%

  • BCE

    -0.3100

    23.25

    -1.33%

  • NGG

    0.0200

    72.3

    +0.03%

  • CMSD

    0.0300

    23.54

    +0.13%

  • BCC

    -3.8500

    82.92

    -4.64%

  • GSK

    -0.5700

    36.75

    -1.55%

  • RBGPF

    1.0800

    76

    +1.42%

  • RIO

    0.3900

    60.09

    +0.65%

  • CMSC

    -0.1200

    22.95

    -0.52%

  • SCS

    0.0300

    15.99

    +0.19%

  • RYCEF

    0.1700

    14.5

    +1.17%

  • VOD

    0.2000

    11.3

    +1.77%

  • BTI

    0.5600

    56.4

    +0.99%

  • AZN

    -0.8800

    73.6

    -1.2%

  • RELX

    -1.7800

    48.81

    -3.65%

  • BP

    0.2800

    33.88

    +0.83%

Mechanical elephants, homemade howitzers as India turns 75
Mechanical elephants, homemade howitzers as India turns 75 / Photo: © AFP

Mechanical elephants, homemade howitzers as India turns 75

India marked the 75th anniversary of independence on Monday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi giving a speech from Delhi's historic Red Fort, which was decorated with portraits of freedom fighters and guarded by mechanical elephants.

Text size:

Following a 21-gun salute, reportedly executed using howitzers made domestically for the first time under Modi's "Make In India" industrial strategy, the prime minister said Indians should shed "colonialism in our minds and habits".

"Hundreds of years of colonialism has restricted our sentiments, distorted our thoughts. When we see even the smallest thing related to colonialism in us or around us, we have to be rid of it," Modi said in a 90-minute speech from the ramparts of the fort in the Indian capital.

Wearing a cream-coloured turban speckled with the colours of the Indian flag, Modi also said India should crush the "termite" of corruption and nepotism, follow an "India First" mantra and ensure that "in speech and conduct, we do nothing that lowers a woman's dignity".

"Self-reliant India is the responsibility of every citizen, every government, every unit of society," he said.

The "Jewel in the Crown" of the British Empire became independent in 1947 after two centuries of colonial occupation and exploitation.

With Britain in dire financial straits at the end of World War II -- in which about 90,000 Indian soldiers died -- the country was hurriedly split in two: Muslim-majority Pakistan and a mostly Hindu India.

- Partition -

This precipitated one of the biggest-ever movements of humanity as millions of people, uprooted from areas their families had inhabited for generations, rushed to be on the right side of the new border.

It also unleashed a cataclysm of sectarian violence in which at least a million people were killed. Entire trains full of people were massacred and huge numbers of women were raped.

More blood flowed and millions of others shifted 24 years later when East Pakistan, backed by India with Soviet support, fought a war of independence in 1971 to become Bangladesh.

At Partition, the disputed region of Kashmir was also split between India and Pakistan, with the Himalayan territory the spark for two of the nuclear-armed rivals' three wars and numerous skirmishes since.

India's population has soared from around 340 million to 1.4 billon today, and the country is projected to overtake China as the world's most populous nation this decade.

But while the economy is one of the world's largest -- and fastest-growing -- millions remain mired in poverty and Modi's government is struggling to create jobs for its booming population.

Women are often marginalised and suffer high levels of sexual violence, while the often oppressive and inescapable system of Hindu caste hierarchy still continues to apply in much of the country.

India's waterways and its cities are among the world's most polluted and the country is the third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, with its "net zero" target date 48 years from now.

When it comes to religion, independent India's founders strove to ensure that all Indians could practise their faith but that there was a clear separation between state and religion.

But many, particularly among India's about 200 million Muslims, fear that these ideals are under attack by Modi's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), many of whose supporters espouse Hindu hegemony.

K.Lam--ThChM