Battle and Theatre Honours in India
Prior to independence, battle honours were awarded to British Indian Army as part of the British military tradition. Awards prior to the takeover of the Presidency Armies by the Crown in 1858 were done by the Governor General in India or the respective Presidency government that the units belonged to.
The practice of awarding battle honours and theatre honours to the Indian Army continued after independence in 1947 and these honours continue to be listed against a regiment's achievements. Battle honours, but not theatre honours, are permitted to be emblazoned on the President's Colours, which have replaced the King's colours after independence.
Battle honour days are celebrated by a few units or regiments. Present battle honour days however pertain to battles for which honours have been won post-independence.
Some battle honours, granted prior to independence to units for battles or campaigns in India against the local rulers or nationalist forces, have been declared as 'repugnant' and are not celebrated or held in esteem.
The earliest battle to be commemorated in the history of the British Indian Army was Plassey in 1757 which was awarded in 1829 vide Gazette of the Governor General No 43.
Read more about this topic: Battle Honour
Famous quotes containing the words battle, theatre, honours and/or india:
“Any coward can fight a battle when he’s sure of winning, but give me the man who has pluck to fight when he’s sure of losing. That’s my way, sir; and there are many victories worse than a defeat.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“Glorious bouquets and storms of applause ... are the trimmings which every artist naturally enjoys. But to move an audience in such a role, to hear in the applause that unmistakable note which breaks through good theatre manners and comes from the heart, is to feel that you have won through to life itself. Such pleasure does not vanish with the fall of the curtain, but becomes part of one’s own life.”
—Dame Alice Markova (b. 1910)
“Vain men delight in telling what Honours have been done them, what great Company they have kept, and the like; by which they plainly confess, that these Honours were more than their Due, and such as their Friends would not believe if they had not been told: Whereas a Man truly proud, thinks the greatest Honours below his Merit, and consequently scorns to boast. I therefore deliver it as a Maxim that whoever desires the Character of a proud Man, ought to conceal his Vanity.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)
“There exists no politician in India daring enough to attempt to explain to the masses that cows can be eaten.”
—Indira Gandhi (1917–1984)