21-07-2025
The fiercest border fight: High kicks, mustache twirling and very long flagpoles
For India and Pakistan, size really does matter. At least when it comes to flagpoles.
For years, the rival nations have indulged in elaborate, and competing, flag-lowering ceremonies at a border crossing called Wagah. Every day at sunset, paramilitary soldiers on both sides show off their patriotic fervor with energetic high kicks and foot stomping, while crowds cheer and chant slogans from opposing stadiums that directly face each other across the border fence.
The ritual has fueled an escalating game of one-upmanship, which has only ratcheted up since May, when the two nuclear-armed neighbors clashed in a four-day conflict that tipped dangerously close to full-blown war.
'We cannot be seen any lesser than the Pakistan side—in height, in bearing," said Himanshu Yadav, assistant commandant in India's Border Security Force posted at the Wagah border. 'This is why very fine men get sent here."
Tensions ran high even after a cease-fire deal. For a few days after peace resumed, some Indian soldiers broke long-established parade protocols by waving their fists repeatedly toward the Pakistani side and hurling insults, said Lt. Col. Azam Shah, commander of the Pakistan Rangers at the Wagah border.
They 'would abuse [a Ranger] and say, 'you are a banana' or anything like that," Shah said. The calm returned, he said, after the two sides held a formal meeting on proper decorum.
Commandant Vishal Singh, leader of border forces on the Indian side, denied any knowledge of the matter. Any challenges issued by India, he said, came down to feats of athleticism, not politics.
'It's always competitive when you lift your legs—who can lift much higher?" Singh added.
Over the decades, the two countries have sunk millions of dollars—and a lot of sweat and torn ligaments—into turbocharging the razzle-dazzle with glossier production values, fancier venues and bigger crowds.
The coveted title of tallest flagpole has bounced back-and-forth. In 2017, India installed a 360-foot pole, which was overshadowed just a few months later when Pakistan erected a 400-foot version. Six years later, India regained the top spot with a 418-foot pole.
'It is a golden day of my life," India's transportation minister told local media at the inauguration ceremony.
Not to be outdone, Pakistan is constructing a new stadium modeled after a historic gate built during the Mughal era. The $11 million project, slated to wrap up next month, will triple seating capacity to 25,000, entertain tourists with a state-of-the-art museum and cocoon guests in comfy green rooms.
The existing flagpole will be extended to 450 feet.
The Wagah border, located between Amritsar, India, and Lahore, Pakistan, has been the main land crossing since Partition in 1947, when Britain ended its colonial rule and divided British India into India and Pakistan.
The origins of the nightly ceremonies date to independence. Armed forces on both sides of what was once a single Punjab province, known for farming and for its burly inhabitants' martial prowess, carried out simple flag-lowering rituals at the village of Wagah, now split in two. In the 1970s, the two countries began to coordinate their drills in a spirit of friendship following the 1971 India-Pakistan war. Things quickly became competitive.
Efforts have been made over the years to tone down the aggression. In 2010, the nations agreed that their guards would shake hands for longer, and would smile instead of scowl. But the guidelines have sometimes been ignored when the icy relationship turned hot.
On a recent evening, while construction workers scurried around Pakistan's new stadium, a few hundred people sat in the stands chanting 'Hail Pakistan!" and 'Allah is great!" Their cheers were drowned out by thousands of spectators in India, shouting 'Long Live India" and singing along to Bollywood songs extolling the virtue of patriotism.
Divya Gupta, a 51-year-old homemaker from New Delhi, insisted that a reunion trip with childhood friends included a stop at the border to pay respect to India's protectors.
Guidelines require the soldiers to shake hands and to smile at one another. But aggression dominates most of the ritual: Soldiers pump their fists in the air, defiantly bulge their eyes and aggressively twirl their mustaches.
'Especially after everything India and Pakistan went through, our patriotism levels just goes higher," said Gupta, wiping tears from her eyes.
Two female soldiers from each side—one in khaki uniforms, the other sporting black hijabs—started off the parades. Men followed, kicking their legs skyward and stomping their feet. At the border gates, which have remained closed since the conflict, Indian soldiers flexed their biceps toward Pakistani soldiers, who mirrored the gesture.
A phalanx of soldiers later pumped their fists in the air, bulged their eyes defiantly and aggressively twirled their mustaches. Occasionally, one stopped to adjust a turban topped with a peacock-like plume.
Both countries agree on the basic qualities necessary for a stellar performer: tall, athletic and preferably mustachioed.
Big mustaches are encouraged and, for Pakistan Rangers, required.
Shah, the commander of the Pakistan Rangers at the Wagah border, is 6-feet tall, and said his height is the minimum for a parade soldier. Male soldiers are also required to grow a mustache. As an incentive, they are allotted a special allowance to buy oils and ointments to maintain tiptop follicle health. A staff barber trims their hair for free.
'My men have some really thick mustaches," Shah said. 'It makes a person more dominating. It adds masculinity to any male."
India strongly encourages facial hair but doesn't mandate it. Nor does it require all men to exceed 6 feet, though only a handful of soldiers fall below that threshold.
'The bigger the better," Singh said. 'It looks good."
Write to Shan Li at
