Indian Army honours families of Kargil bravehearts
New Delhi, June 10 (UNI) As part of a series of events spanning nearly one and a half months to commemorate the 26th Kargil Vijay Diwas, the Army on Tuesday honoured the families of 65 bravehearts, including Captain Vijayant Thapar (Vir Chakra), by visiting their homes and paying tribute to their supreme sacrifice during the war.
Marking the solemn occasion, the Army stated that this initiative is a heartfelt tribute to the families of those who made the supreme sacrifice for the nation. By personally visiting the homes of the martyrs, the Army aims to remind citizens of the unmatched courage and devotion displayed by these valiant soldiers in service of the nation.
The Army said that army officers visited Captain Thapar's residence in Noida and met his parents and honoured them by giving a letter of thanks and a memento.
Army officers also honoured the families of more than 60 other bravehearts across various parts of the country. This included the wife of Rifleman Anusuya Prasad (Vir Chakra) in Delhi, the wife of Havildar Basti Ram in Jaipur, the parents of Lance Naik Gurmel Singh in Kurukshetra, the wife of Naik Anand Singh in Vaishali Nagar, Rajasthan, and the family of Havildar Hari Om (Sena Medal) in Dehradun.
On the occasion, the Army expressed its deep respect and solidarity with the families, stating, 'It is our duty and sentiment to assure them that the sacrifice of our brave soldiers has not been in vain. The families of our martyrs are not alone — the Indian Army is their family, and we stand with them always.'
The Army's gesture has moved the families emotionally, reinforcing the message that the nation continues to honour and remember its heroes with pride and gratitude.
These commemorative activities will continue until Kargil Vijay Diwas on July 26, a day etched in the memory of the nation. It marks the successful culmination of Operation Vijay in 1999, when the Indian armed forces recaptured key positions in Kargil that had been occupied by Pakistani intruders.
Observed every year, Kargil Vijay Diwas is a tribute to the indomitable spirit, courage, and sacrifice of India's soldiers who defend the country's borders with unwavering dedication.
UNI RBE PRS
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India Today
30 minutes ago
- India Today
How Caste, a word of Spanish origin, redefined Indian social order during British rule
One word that still thrives in India and continues to challenge society is caste. The word originated in Spain and was later used by Portuguese, and it was the British who institutionalised it within the Indian derived from casta, is now deeply linked with India's ancient social structure, the varna system, in which esoteric individuals based on the work performed and, by extension, their place in per the Rig Veda, the varna system divided society into four main groups: Brahmins, the learned class; Kshatriyas, the rulers and warriors; Vaishyas, the merchants and landowners; and Shudras, those who did manual labour. Outside this structure were those considered 'untouchables.' The first official Indian census was conducted in 1871, well before independence. It recorded over 2,500 castes. These caste listings included all professions -- for example, Sonar, a term for goldsmiths, was listed as a backward the 1931 census, the number of recorded castes had risen to over 3,000. This was the last time a caste-based census was held -- pre- or though caste -- a word not native to Indian soil -- became the most defining social construct of the land, shaping society for over two centuries, how did this happen? What changed and divided Indian society so deeply that it is now difficult to separate from it?advertisementWas Indian society fragile from the beginning, or did it evolve over time, with the differentiation of work and social categories outlined in the varna system becoming more rigid? These are the questions scholars and academics have long sought to answer. Specimen of various described castes(Image: Wikimedia Commons) VARNA, JATI, AND CASTEThe varna system, as mentioned in the Rig Veda, is thousands of years old and outlines how society and work were structured. Though there were four main varnas, epics like the Mahabharata and Ramayana offer examples of how these identities could born a Kshatriya, was later revered as a Rishi due to his conduct. The story of Eklavya is often cited -- denied training by Dronacharya due to his varna, Eklavya's father, Hiranyadhanu, nonetheless served in King Jarasandha's army, showing that lower-caste individuals were not excluded from warfare or Indian texts, jati -- meaning birth -- is often mentioned less often than varna, but the concept is more complex. While varna divided society into four broad categories, jatis represented thousands of lineage- or occupation-based groups, though endogamous (a practice of marrying or mating within a specific group, such as a caste, ethnic group, religious group), varied across Dumont, a French anthropologist, linked jatis to religious purity and pollution, but others argue their origins are more secular, rooted in economics, politics, and jatis are often associated with jobs, they have not strictly limited occupational roles. Genetic studies suggest jatis practiced endogamy since the Gupta period, possibly are not exclusive to Hindus -- they are found among Muslims, Christians, and tribal populations, without one single hierarchical English word caste, now so commonly used in the Indian context, did not originate here. It came by way of Portugal. When the Portuguese first made landfall in India in the year 1498, they applied word 'casta' -- a term used for lineage or stock -- to describe the many birth-bound communities they English language took this word in by 1613, and it Sumit Guha, in his account Beyond Caste, writes of how Portuguese became a seafaring tongue, spoken in distant corners of Asia. Through this language, the West began to make sense of Indian life or tried time, the British would carry out that task further. Guha notes that 'casta' spoke first of blood -- of purity in animals, then people which derived from the concept of purity of blood, limpieza de imagined that a community's worth could be preserved by guarding the bloodline, especially through the modesty of its women. Dr Ambedkar with the leaders of 'Scheduled Caste Federation'. Scheduled Caste Federation Conference, Nagpur (Image: Wikimedia Commons) Anthropologist Morton Klass reminds us that there is no true match for the word caste in any Indian tongue. The Iberians, shaped by their own worldviews and prejudices, used casta to rank peoples they met -- first in Asia, then in the the Brisitsh engaged more with Indian society, they began to see it through their own them, India's jatis seemed like ordered groups, made to preserve ancestry. This view suited the world they came from -- a world where bloodlines and hierarchies mattered Portugal and Spain were deep in the trade of enslaved people only made such ideas more historian Charles Boxer once observed that the beliefs the Iberians carried -- whether by sea, cross, or sword -- did not fade quickly. For many years, race and rank walked hand in hand. The echoes, perhaps, still CASTE CENSUS AND ORIGIN OF NEW JATISWhen the British arrived in India, they stepped into a land full of rich traditions, local customs, and complex social networks. After centuries of invasions and changes in power, Indian society had become layered and diverse -- very different from what the ancient texts once community had its own way of life, and it was unlike anything the British had dealt with make sense of this diversity and to rule more efficiently, the British started recording details about the people. This led to the first complete census of India in 1871. It wasn't just about counting people -- it was about sorting them into groups based on caste, religion, occupation, and other like Sumit Guha believe that this was the first major step in giving caste a rigid and official place in Indian census didn't just reflect what society looked like; it shaped how people came to see themselves and each also recorded each individual's caste, religion, occupation, and age. These accounts went on until 1941 and had one major impact -- Britishers began defining how people came to be viewed in was fluid and dynamic began to become fixed on paper. Specimen of caste in India (Image: Wikimedia Commons) One sociologist, Michael Mann, has stated that these censuses were more of what the British required to govern rather than what the Indians British rarely knew how things actually operated here, so they relied on older religious writings and counsel from higher-caste leaders -- particularly Brahmins -- to determine how to document Indian British realised that if everyone could be put into tidy compartments, it would be possible to manage such a large nation. But not always.A Brahmin in Bengal, for instance, was more like other Bengal castes than like Brahmins elsewhere -- so the concept of one definite 'Brahmin' identity didn't quite Brahmin identity was there before the British, but it wasn't always rigid or were allowed to shift between roles, and there was openness for change. But once the British began inserting caste into official documents, it started to become more fixed and less accessible to why some authors think that the British didn't only document caste -- they assisted in forming what it was. Others think caste existed naturally but concur that the British made it more rigid in human let's pose the big question: did the British have a hand in establishing India's caste system, or did they reformulate it to suit their means of domination? That's something historians still debate Watch
India.com
38 minutes ago
- India.com
What is agro terrorism, how dangerous it is and how will it change future wars? Is India at risk?
Representational Image/AI-generated Agro-terrorism: Terrorism is often called the scourge of the modern world which has metamorphosed into more lethal and deadlier forms, even as countries have developed security mechanisms to deal with terror threats. While terrorism based on religion, politics, and ideology, is commonplace, a new kind of terrorism has reportedly been uncovered in the United States, and has been dubbed as 'Agro-terrorism' by American law enforcement agencies. Agro-terrorism case uncovered in US According to reports, a rare case of Agro terrorism was uncovered in the US by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), leading to the arrest of two Chinese nationals. The federal investigating agency said a lethal strain of Fusarium graminearum– a fungus pathogen known to cause fusarium head blight, a destructive disease on wheat and barley– from the two Chinese citizens. The FBI believes the fungal pathogen was smuggled to the US from China, and was meant to be used as a weapon in what they call 'agricultural terrorism'. Notably, Fusarium graminearum is known to cause crop losses worth billion of dollars globally each year. What is Agro-terrorism? Agro-terrorism is a very rare and sophisticated form of terrorism in which terrorists, usually state-sponsored non-state actors, target the agriculture of a rival state by using pathogens like fungi, viruses, etc to destroy crops. These biological weapons are released into the fields in a clandestine manner, and over time cause large-scale damage to crops, even destroying entire yields. Fusarium graminearum, is one of the most lethal fungal pathogens known to man, and can cause crop failures of cereal crops like wheat, barley, maize. How Agro-terrorism could shape future wars? While rare, Agro terrorism is not unheard of during modern times. For examples, in 1943, Nazi Germany released waves of beetles of over agricultural land in Britain, causing large-scale damage to potato crops, with entire yields being lost in several cases. As per experts, Agro terrorism is designed to hurt the economy of an enemy nation, and trigger internal discord by engineering artificial food insecurity due to crop failures. Is India at risk? Even though India has emerged as a manufacturing powerhouse in recent decades, the countries largely remains an agrarian economy with nearly 43 percent of its 1.4 billion population still dependent on agriculture, according to a 2022-23 survey. Thus, Agro terrorism poses a major risk to India, as terrorists, backed by the Pakistani-state, could use this deadly method to engineer an artificial food crisis and hurt the Indian economy.
United News of India
an hour ago
- United News of India
Lakhs of devotees throng Puri to witness grand royal bathing of Trinity at Sri Jagannath Temple
Puri, June 11 (UNI) Lakhs of devotees thronged the grand road of this pilgrim city on Wednesday to witness the magnificent royal bathing ceremony and the 'Hati Vesha' of Lord Jagannath, his elder brother Balabhadra, and their sister Devi Subhadra of the Sri Jagannath Temple. The royal bathing ceremony, popularly known as Snan Purnima, is considered a major ritual preceding the famous Car Festival or Rath Yatra of the deities. As per tradition, the holy triad was ceremoniously escorted from the Ratnasinhasan in the sanctum sanctorum of the main temple to the Snana Vedi in the early hours of Wednesday by the Daita servitors in a grand 'Pahandi' procession, accompanied by chants of 'Jai Jagannath.' The air resonated with the music of drums, cymbals, bugles, and ghanta as the Daita servitors — a special group known as the protectors of the deities — carried the deities to the bathing altar located in the outer temple complex. The bathing altar is a large raised platform overlooking the grand road and facing east. The priests consecrated the holy water drawn from the sacred golden well inside the temple complex. A total of 108 pitchers of water, blended with aromatic herbs and sandalwood, were used for the bathing ritual. The water was manually drawn by the servitors from the golden well of the temple. Of this, 35 pitchers were used for bathing Lord Jagannath, 33 for Balabhadra, 22 for Subhadra, and 18 for Sudarshan. After the bathing ceremony, the deities were dressed, and Gajapati King Dibyasingh Deb, the foremost servitor of the Lord, arrived in a ceremonial procession from the palace to perform the Chhera Pahanra (sweeping around the deities atop the Snana Vedi). A special set of servitors adorned the deities in the 'Hati Vesha' or elephant attire, symbolising their incarnation as Lord Ganesha. The deities were offered bhog before the public darshan of the deities during the 'Sahanamela', which will continue from 7:30 pm to 10:30 pm. Late in the night, the deities will be taken to a secluded chamber in the temple called the 'Anasar House' (room for the sick) in a similar 'Pahandi Bije' procession. Here, Lord Jagannath, along with Balabhadra and Subhadra, will recline for fifteen days, believed to suffer from fever following the holy bath. During this fortnight, the temple's Vaidya (doctor) will treat the deities with herbal medicines, and they will be served fruits as their diet by the Daita servitors. Public darshan of the deities will be prohibited during these fifteen days. However, devotees visit the Alarnath Temple, about 23 km from Puri, where it is believed that Lord Jagannath manifested during this period. As part of the security arrangements, 450 officers and 70 platoons of police forces have been deployed, said Central Range IG S Praveen Kumar. Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, along with senior officials, visited the Puri Srimandir and participated in the Mangala Alati, the 'Pahandi Bije,' and had a darshan of the presiding deities. Majhi expressed his satisfaction with the rituals and the security arrangements made for the smooth conduct of the Snana Yatra. The Chief Minister said the Rath Yatra, scheduled to be held on June 27, would be conducted smoothly with the blessings of Lord Jagannath. UNI DP ARN
