During my summer vacation last year, I was at my aunt’s house watching television with my grandfather. It was hard to swallow that our former President, an eminent scientist and the one who got titled as the ‘Missile Man of India, was no longer with us. You are right, I am talking about Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, who passed away on July 27th last year, while addressing the youth of Shillong, Meghalaya. As we were watching the President, Prime Minister and our Army Chiefs paying their last homage to the departed soul, my grandfather asked me
“Did you notice anything in those officers’s salute”?
I turned to him and without a second thought, said “No”.
“Watch it”, he said pointing to the news coverage on television.
Till then, at least for me, the salute was all same for everyone, be it policemen or army men. On television I noticed the way how those officers were saluting. To my surprise, the chiefs of Army, Navy and Air Force were saluting differently.
A salute, as you all know, is the military way of paying homage, paying complements or showing respect to a person. The custom of salute evolved from Roman Era, where a citizen who wants to meet the mayor has to raise his hands, showing his palm, in order to clear that he owns no concealed weapons. This however grew into a mode of showing respect.
My grandfather, who is a ‘gold mine’ of information, told me that the Indian Army salutes with the Roman traditional style and objective, which is to show that they possess no hidden weapon in their palm, and that they can be trusted.
The Indian Navy salutes with an entirely opposite intention. The reason behind this actually seemed funny to me at first, but later when I thought about it, it did make sense. In olden days they had to participate in the maintenance of ships and their hands, most of the time, was covered with dirt and grease. They didn’t want to show their dirty hands to senior officers. So they saluted keeping their palms facing the ground. They felt that showing their greasy hands to senior officers was an act of showing disrespect.
The Indian Air Force, salute with their hand facing 45-degree up. Facing their palm 45-degree up means that they are towards the skies and they protect it.
Interestingly, their gesture was the same as the Army, until they changed it recently, so that each of the Armed Forces has their own distinctive style of salute.
These forces that guard our country from enemies on land, water and air may have different salutes, but motive is same. They sacrifice their lives so that we the common man can enjoy ours at peace. This Independence Day, let us remember the soldiers, freedom fighters and great leaders who strived to bring glory and fame to our country.
Jai Hind!