Guwahati Walking Tours - Discovering South Guwahati

Guwahati is known mainly for the Kamakhaya temple. Visitors to the city, also like to visit three other temples – Bashistha, Nobograha and Umananda. Most persons, even those living in Guwahati, are not aware of other places to visit in the city. This post is about places to visit in South Guwahati, which includes Dispur, the capital of Assam.

The image above shows sculpture of a Bhaona figure from the stage used for Sound & Light show at the Shrimanta Shankar Dev Kalakshetra, an important cultural centre located in South Guwahati.

Apart from the Kalakshtra, this visit will take you to a famous temple, the cathedral, some museums, an important cultural centre and to see some wildlife.

So let us start this visit with some general information about South Guwahati. All the places described in this post can be reached easily through public transport of the city – by buses that run along the G.S. road.

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT SOUTH GUWAHATI

Guwahati city started on the south bank of Brahmaputra river. In pre-independent India and for a few decades after independence, the whole of the north-east (NE) was part of Assam state and its capital was in Shillong.

In ancient times till around medieval period, it was known as Pragjyotishpura. During British times, it was called Gauhati. Since the NE was important for its tea gardens and timber, Gauhati was an important city for the British because of its river port and its railway station, that linked the north-east to the rest of India.

In 1972, the north-east was divided into different states including Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram. Shillong became the capital of Meghalaya, while Gauhati became the capital of Assam.

In 1973, its name was changed to Guwahati and Assamese Government decided to move its capital to the southern outskirts of Guwahati city, to Dispur.

Guwahati-Shillong road (G.S. road) is one of the main arteries of the city, starting from the Guwahati railway station in Paltan Bazar and going southwards for about 7 miles till Khanapara, where Assam meets Meghalaya and the terrain becomes hilly. The G. S. road in the city has four flyovers.

Coming from Paltan Bazar, the third flyover, Ganeshguri flyover, marks the boundary of old Guwahati and the beginning of Dispur. Thus, south Guwahati starts from Ganeshguri flyover, continues over Six Miles flyover and finishes at Khanapara, where G. S. road joins NH 37.

With the widening of G. S. road and the building of the flyovers, Dispur and Six Miles are no longer considered as outskirts of Guwahati, rather they are part of the main city.

GANESH TEMPLE OF GANESHGURI

I will start my walking tour from the famous Ganesh temple of Ganeshguri. It is located on the road underneath the Ganeshguri flyover, to the right if you are coming from Paltan Bazar.

Ganeshguri has a vibrant market and it has some of the famous restaurants where you can get traditional Assamese food.

Ganesh temple was built here to mark the entry to the city of Kamakhaya, one of the incarnations of Parvati, the consort of lord Shiva. According to the Hindu mythology, Shiva had left for a journey when Ganesh was born. When Shiva came back, he found the boy blocking his way, since the boy did not know his father. In anger, Shiva cut off the head of the boy. Only when Devi told him that he had killed his son, Shiva promised to bring the boy back to life, but in the meantime, animals had taken away boy’s head. Thus, Shiva sent his followers to bring back the head of first baby they could find and his followers brought him back the head of a baby elephant. Since then Ganesh has the head of an elephant.

Thus, the baby Ganesh of the Ganesh temple of Ganeshguri is guarding the entry to his mother’s town.

It is a small temple, with most of its statues being placed outside on its walls. Inside the temple, Ganesh is shown as a natural uncarved rock covered with vermillion. At different religious festivals, this temple and the whole area is crowded with believers.

I am more of a spiritual person and I do not feel particular devotion when I visit temples. Rather, I have an anthropological curiosity to understand the rituals. However, among all the Hindu gods, Ganesh is my favourite since I feel that he represents the unity of man and nature, and asks us to be respectful of the nature.

THE ZOO OF GUWAHATI

The same road of Ganesh temple, on the other side of the flyover will take you to Chandmari and the Guwahati zoo. (BTW, Assamese language lacks the ‘ch” sound of ‘church’, thus Chandmari is pronounced as ‘Sandmari’). To reach the zoo, you should take a bus from the Ganeshguri crossing.

The zoo of Guwahati has a beautiful location, with hills, forests and canals. Some water birds and animals have open enclosures separated by moats so that they can be seen properly without any barriers.

Some enclosures of the zoo give an impression of being a safari park. For example, the elephant enclosure has a small pond at the edge of a dense green forest, and is very beautiful. However, here it is difficult to see the elephants unless they come out of the forest to drink water at the pond. Similarly, the raised up view-platform of the tiger enclosure is a good place to observe these animals, while ensuring visitors' safety.

Unfortunately, most enclosures in the zoo are old fashioned, ugly looking iron grills or nets. Many sign boards are missing and overall maintenance of the zoo seems to be poor.

Assam is full of wildlife and wildlife parks. Compared to that experience, visit to the zoo can feel a big let-down. With a bit of effort, Guwahati can have its own wildlife park inside the zoo, with a better view of the birds and animals. Perhaps, the zoo officials can visit the city wildlife park of Nairobi (Kenya) to get some ideas about how it can be done.

The zoo also needs to make more efforts to teach visitors about importance of nature and how to behave with the animals and birds.

ASSAM STATE ASSEMBLY AND SECRETARIAT

The Assam State Assembly, a short distance away after the Ganeshguri flyover, is not accessible to visitors because of safety concerns. This part of Guwahati is called Dispur. The place has armed police guarding it, so you can just look at it from far away.

Many Assamese are very particular about Dispur being their state capital and not Guwahati. However, it is difficult to tell the boundaries of Dispur. It is just one of the bus stops for the Guwahati buses.

BELTOLA MARKET

The road next to the State Assembly leads to an area of Guwahati called Beltola. The road connecting Beltola to Jayanagar holds a roadside market, especially a vegetable market, every Thursday and Sunday. Farmers and tribals from all around, including the neighbouring Meghalaya, bring their produce to this market. It also provides a glimpse into the wonderful biodiversity of India. You can see tens of variaties of each common vegetable here, something that does not exist in any supermarket.

In my opinion, this market represents a wonderful tradition and hopefully, the authorities will safeguard it and not destroy in their search for soulless ‘development’. The image above shows one of the market stalls at night.

I have read that Beltola was a small kingdom till early twentieth century and it had the palace of its king. However, in spite of asking to a lot of persons, I could not find more about the king of Beltola and his family house. Like so many old traditional heritage houses, replaced by concrete buildings, it is a part of the lost history of Guwahati.

CATHEDRAL OF GUWAHATI

The cathedral of Guwahati is located close to the Six Miles flyover, a short distance after Dispur, on the right side of the road. It is of a recent construction and has a utilitarian architecture, thus it is not very impressive from the outside. Inside, the paintings behind the altar and the coloured glass windows, make it look much better.

The cathedral is venue of a large gathering of the faithful in November each year for the festival of Christ King, when Catholics from all neighbouring cities and towns come here to hold a procession. The image above shows the Christmas lighting at the cathedral.

SHRIMANTA SHANKAR DEV KALAKSHETRA

Kalakshetra is one of the most important cultural centres of Guwahati. Inside, it has different museums, galleries, a daily Sound & Light show about history of Assam and has a rich calendar of cultural events.

Kalakshetra is located in Punjabari, on the road underneath the Six Miles flyover. It is a couple of kilometres from the flyover. Near the flyover, you can get a Punjabari bus which will drop you in front of its entrance.

The idea of setting up of the Kalakshetra was of Bhupen Hazarika, considered to be one of the most important contemporary cultural icons of Assam. It includes a beautiful ethnographic museum and an art gallery with works of contemporary Assamese artists. It also has a small but nice auditorium. The image below is from the ethnographic museum.

The above image is of a sculpture by Dhan Singh Basumaty from the art gallery of Kalakshetra.

During my stay in Guwahati, I was fortunate to be able to watch some wonderful cultural performances in Kalakshetra. Unfortunately, it does not have a proper website with updated information and a calendar of its cultural events. Thus sometimes I found that its beautiful events did not have a big audience, even if they were free, which was a great pity.

SHILPAGRAM

Shilpagram, located close to Kalakshetra is a venue for handicrafts exhibitions and trade fairs. It is a beautifully made structure with nice traditional buildings. It also has a small auditorium and an open air space, often used for music concerts.

The picture below has a singer of the NE music group called Soulmate during a performance in the open air theatre of Shilpagram.

CHINMOY MISSION AND THE FILM MUSEUM

Swami Chinmoy Mission and the Guwahati film museum are both located in the small lane next to Kalakshetra that takes you to Shilpagram.

I am not sure if the film museum is open for visitors. All the times I passed in front of it, it was closed.

KHANAPARA SPORTS COMPLEX

Khanapara sports complex is located on G.S. road, about one kilometre after the Six Miles flyover, on the right side of the road. A couple of times, I saw cultural programmes in the stadium hall of this complex, but never saw it being used for any sports meets.

The grounds of the sports complex are a popular venue for trade fairs, handicrafts shop fairs and Bihu celebrations, like the handloom fair shown in the image below.

SCIENCE MUSEUM

The Science Museum of Guwahati is located on a small side-road of G.S. road on the left side, a little after the new Vivanta Taj hotel building. The science museum is full of things to discover, both for children and for adults.

Some things of the museum are quite low-brow, including the “deforming mirrors”, where you can look at your deformed shapes and laugh at yourself (predictably, the low-brow things are very popular with the visitors!). Other things are more high tech.

Outside the museum, the gardens have many other things to see including an aeroplane and some robust machine models to understand functional mechanics, such as the pulleys in the image below.

VETERINARY GROUNDS

The grounds of the veterinary college of Guwahati, some fifty metres further down the road from the Science Museum are venue for big events such as the republic day parade and the annual horticulture fair.

Every morning and evening, the road near the veterinary grounds is closed to traffic and hundreds of local residents use it for their morning or evening walks. The house of the chief minister of Assam is located on the hill, just behind the veterinary grounds. This area also has the office of the Assam Public State Commission while the veterinary college on the G. S. road has the Khanapara post office.

Finally, the nearby Khanapara-NH crossing has buses, shared taxis and other vehicles for all the major towns of the north-east.

CONCLUSIONS

If you have only a little time for sight-seeing in Guwahati, you can give a miss to most of the places described in this post. However, if possible, you should at least visit Kalakshetra.

Like many cities of India, Guwahati also has antiquated laws regarding photography for entry in many places presented in this tour. Rather than accepting and using the selfie culture and photography for providing free publicity through social networks, they prohibit photography and ask persons with cameras to pay extra. In a world where everybody clicks pictures with their smartphones, is it really logical to ask persons with cameras to pay?

Let me end this visit with a question. The image above has some of the famous Indian scientists from the Science Museum. When I saw the statues shown in this image, I was able to recognise only Raja Ramanna and Homi Bhabha. How many Indian scientists can you recognise in this picture?

If you are looking for information about other places to visit in Guwahati or in the NE, check the list of my blog-posts on this theme on my Travels page.

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Monuments to celebrate freedom, peace and dignity

During my travels I often see monuments built to remember and celebrate events that have marked the history of the countries and their people. These monuments can be about freedom from colonialism, freedom from despots and oppressive regimes, finding a safe sanctuary where their families can live with dignity and hopes for peace. This post is about such monuments from different parts of the world.

The Uhuru monument (Freedom monument) from Nairobi, Kenya (Africa) shown in the picture above is a good example of what makes the freedom monuments. Usually it has freedom fighters, national flag, common men and women of the country and symbols expressing hopes for peace and prosperity. Most such monuments have some of these elements.

In this photo-essay, I have taken the significance of "freedom" in a wider sense, and thus, the events represented in this post are very different. We may not even consider all of them as "freedoms", some could even be monuments made by regimes to showcase false freedoms that are missing from their daily realities.

This post is the second part of a photo-essay that had focused on war monuments. With this brief introduction, lets start with liberty monuments from Africa.

FREEDOM MONUMENTS FROM AFRICA

The image below shows another part of the Uhuru monument in Nairobi (Kenya) where the dove symbolizes the desire of the people for peace and prosperity. The Uhuru monument celebrates the freedom of Kanya from the colonial rule.

The image below is from Robben Island in Cape Town (South Africa) where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years. It was taken in the courtyard where Mandela used to break stones, shown in the central picture in this image. Mandela is a symbol of freedom from tyrannies and injustices through peaceful protests, along the path of non-violence shown by Mahatma Gandhi.

The next image is of the President's house from Bissau (Guinea Bissau) in west Africa. The house was damaged during the military coup followed by a civil war that took place in Guinea Bissau around 1998. 10 years later the house still showed the signs of the war and was abandoned, though a fragile democracy had returned to the country. Guinea Bissau had won freedom from colonialism in the 1970s.

It seemed that some of its islands had become a convenient transit point to manage drugs towards Europe, with the complicity of some military persons. For me, this building in Bissau was a symbol of difficulties of finding peace and freedom for the people, when more powerful interests prefer to continue wars and poverty. Thus it is not a real freedom monument but a symbols about its absence.

FREEDOM MONUMENTS FROM THE MIDDLE EAST

The two monuments from the Middle East in this post are both from Palestine. The first one shows the rotor blades of a ship that had tried to force its way through the Israeli blockade of the sea around Gaza. For me it symbolizes the continuing struggle of Palestinian people for their freedom.

The second image from Palestine is of the flag monument from Ramallah in the West Bank showing a boy climbing a pole to hoist the Palestinian flag.

While the Palestinians fight for their liberty from the Israeli occupation, some parts of Palestine also seem to be going towards a more conservative version of Islam, that curtails the civic liberties, especially of the women and minority groups like gays and lesbians.

Thus the fight for freedom, peace and dignity can be seen at different levels - against others and also against our own societies.

FREEDOM MONUMENTS FROM ASIA

I have selected three images of the freedom monuments from India. The first one shows a statue of Veeranga Jhalkari Bai from Jhansi during the war with the British in 1857.

I like this image for different reasons - first of all, because it represents an ordinary soldier. Most of the recorded history is about kings and queens and India is no different. Thus, when history mentions the Indian freedom fight of 1857, it is mostly about nobles and royals like Laxmi Bai and Nana Saheb. Jhalkari Bai had dressed up as the queen during the war, allowing the real queen (Rani Laxmi Bai) to escape.

Another aspect of the 1857 freedom fight is about who wins the war and writes the history. Thus, while Indians talk of the 1857 war as their freedom struggle from the British, British historians call it "mutiny" or "rebellion".

The second image from India is of the monument depicting Mahatma Gandhi's Dandi march in 1930, when he had launched the protest against the British by challenging their law that prohibited Indians from making the salt. It was a key event in India's freedom struggle and it brought common persons into active protest against the British. This monument is in New Delhi.

The third image of freedom monuments from India is again from New Delhi - a 27 metres (60 feet) long national flag on a a 63 metres (207 feet) high pole in the central park of Connaught Place was placed in March 2014, and has quickly become one of the most photographed monuments of Delhi.

The next freedom monument is from Tien-a-men square in Beijing, showing China's war against the nationalist forces and the role of chairman Mao Tse Tung in shaping the destiny of the country.

Reading the history of events in late 1950s and early 1960s, including the personal testimonies of persons affected by it, Mao's Cultural Revolution led to freedom of the peasants and atrocities against its thinkers, artists and philosophers.

Thus, we can discuss if that event and the monument representing it can be called a "freedom monument" but without doubt, it was a period that had a profound impact on the lives of millions of persons.

The next image is from the Parliament square in Ulaan Baator in Mongolia showing the monument to Changis Khan, considered a symbol of national pride.

Thus persons symbolising national pride and freedom in one country, can also be seen as oppressors or invaders by other countries.

The next two images are from Manila in Philippines. The first image shows Lapo Lapo, an indigenous leader who is considered the first freedom fighter for the liberation of Philippines from colonialism.

The second image from Philippines is from a park in central Manila where statues of different leaders who played an important role in the liberation struggle and building up of the nation, are displayed.

The last image from Asia is from Vietnam - the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum in Hanoi. On one hand, the fight between south Vietnam supported by USA against the communist regime in north Vietnam, was supposedly for freedom from communism. But for the Vietnamese, it was the fight for freedom of a small country against the mighty forces of a powerful nation.

For most of twentieth century, the overt and covert wars waged by USA with support from its Western allies against communists regimes, were usually waged as "wars for freedom". On the other hand, the communist regimes justified the curtailing of civic liberties to liberate the poor peasants from the oppression of their own rich classes, sometimes leading to immense disasters as in Cambodia.

Those kinds of wars have become less important in the recent histories because even communist regimes have embraced capitalism. Only future will tell if these changes will lead to real freedoms for people or they will only substitute oppressors, equally ruthless against the poor persons and their environments in their quest for profits.

FREEDOM MONUMENTS FROM NORTH AMERICA

The next 3 images are from New York in USA. The first monument is the Irish Hunger monument from the Battery park, that remembers the journey of thousands of Irish immigrants to USA to escape the great famine in Ireland between 1847 to 1852.

The second image is of the Immigrants monument that expresses the feeling of freedom among the immigrants from different parts of the world on reaching the American shores. I have preferred to show this rather than the better known "Statue of liberty" to talk about immigration and freedom.

Every years, hundreds of thousands of persons try to escape from oppressive regimes or from poverty, to more developed countries. On the other hand, the receiving countries almost always look at these immigrants as "problems" and try to block their entry. Every month, hundreds of people die trying to cross from Mexico to USA or from North Africa to Europe.

"Illegal" immigrants are considered a problem in many parts of the world, including in India, and thus it is not easy to find monuments celebrating the immigrants.

The third image from New york is of the monument to the people who had died in the September 11 attacks in 2001. Increasingly terrorism and killing of civilians is an increasing problem in different parts of the world and it is rare to find monuments remembering the victims of such attacks.

When faced with relentless oppression by a powerful regime, some times people justify terrorism, and say that terrorism is a "freedom struggle" of those without power. Personally I do not agree with this view point - I feel terrorism and killing of civilians can never be justified because blood baths never lead to justice and peace, they only lead to a different group of oppressors.

FREEDOM MONUMENTS FROM CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICAS

The next 3 images are about persons who played an important role in the liberation of countries in South and central Americas but these monuments are from New York (USA).

The first monument is to Jose de San Martin who played an important role in the freedom of Argentina from the Spanish colonialism.

The next monument shows Jose Marti Perez, a national hero from Cuba, who was a poet, journalist and revolutionary philosopher.

The third image from New York is of the Simon Bolivar monument, who is considered a national hero in many countries of Latin America including Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador.

The next three images are from Brazil in South America. The first image shows the peace monument in Goiania (Goias) that is an hour-glass shaped construction carrying small pieces of earth from different countries of the world.

The next image shows the Flag monument from San Paulo in Brazil, built to celebrate 4th century of foundation of San Paulo city.

To me, this monument also symbolizes the power of time to cancel part of our unpleasant memories - if we think of the Amerindian people living in Brazil before the arrival of colonialists and of the African slaves brought by them, we can also see it as a monument to remember the killing of Amerindians and slavery.

The third image is from Salvador in Bahia state of Brazil and presents the monument remembering Zumbi dos Palmares, a slave brought from Africa who led the rebellion against the colonialists.

The last image from the Americas is from Quito in Ecuador, presenting the national monument, expressing the subjugation of natives under the colonial rule.

FREEDOM MONUMENTS FROM EUROPE

Different European countries were responsible for the colonialism in Asia, Africa and the Americas. However, many of them also had histories of their own struggles for freedom.

The first image in this section is from Vienna in Austria and shows the Roman general Marc Antony riding a chariot pulled by lions. A commander of Julius Caesar, Antony became the ruler of eastern provinces of Roman empire and had an affair with the Egyptian queen Cleopatra. Thus, this monument is not about freedom but about empire building and shows that the struggles for freedom have a very long history.

The next 3 images are about the changes in Eastern Europe over the past 2 decades. The first image is of a ruined house from Rijke in Croatia, that can be considered as a symbol of the different wars that characterized the breaking up of Yugoslavia.

The next image is from Prague in Czech republic and shows the monument of the victims of the communist regime.

The third image regarding Eastern Europe has a piece of the Berlin wall displayed in Cape Town in South Africa.

The next image is from Dublin in Ireland and shows the statue of Jim Larkin, a Trade Union leader.

During the twentieth century, trade unions played an important role in promoting freedoms by improving the lives of factory workers. The recent years have seen a dismantling of trade unions in different parts of the world under the impact of globalization and corporate capitalism.

At the same time, in some countries, the trade unions are no longer representing informal or irregular workers, but are seen as safeguarding the interests of those who already have good jobs.

The last image of this post is from Como in Italy and shows a statue of Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was instrumental in unification of Italy in the nineteenth century.

 CONCLUSIONS

The monuments to freedom, peace and dignity come in different shapes and sizes. Sometimes the ideas they represent are more complex and can even be seen as monuments to injustices, massacres and oppression.

A key event missing from the images in this photo-essay is that of a holocaust memorial.

On the other hand, our cities can present us living monuments of how our freedoms are often under attack. For example, these monuments do not talk about women - the violence against women, their genital mutilation, the abortion of female embryos, forcing women to wear burkas and cover their bodies in the name of religion or traditions. These monuments also do not talk about indigenous people fighting for their rights, being displaced from their homes without proper compensation or rehabilitation.

Remembering soliders: War memorials from around the world

This post is about war memorials - monuments to remember the soldiers who had died in the wars.

My feelings about the wars are ambivalent - memorials to the dead soldiers bring a node to my throat and I love visiting war cemeteries. However, I am also against the wars. Gandhi ji and his ideas about non-violence have been my inspiration. I remember being part of the protest march in London against the Bush-Blair decision to attack Iraq.

Yet I believe that some times, especially when dictators, fascists and fundamentalists of different colours and ideologies kill their people, wars can be necessary.

Let me start this photo-essay with the picture of a dying soldier from a war monument in Verano cemetery in Rome (Italy). It is my favourite image about the war memorials - it shows the moment of the death of a soldier, as his heart stops beating, his eyes turn unfocused and his body starts to fall down.

Another reason for my ambivalence about wars and soldiers is the way they treat civilian deaths. The deaths of soldiers are considered more important and they are mourned, while the civilians killed "by mistake" or as "necessary collateral damage" are usually forgotten, or sometimes even depicted as terrorists or their accomplices. The way we give values to lives of different people is very unequal.

I also feel that usually wars and violence do not solve any problems - rather, while they solve somethings, they invariably create new problems. I also suspect that most recent wars, though presented as humanitarian efforts to "liberate people" or to "stop despots and mass murderers", were for gaining and controlling power and resources.

This photo-essay is about the war monuments built to remember the soldiers killed in wars. I am also working on a second part of this photo-essay about the other victims of wars and people who fight for their rights. As you can imagine, putting together that second photo-essay is much more difficult because we hardly ever build monuments to remember ordinary persons, except for the victims of some big events like holocaust or the people killed in the 9-11 terrorist attack.

WAR MONUMENT FROM INDIA

I grew up looking up to two of my uncles, brothers of my mother, who were soldiers in the Indian army. Seeing them in the military uniforms and hearing their stories about the wars, shaped my initial ideas about nationalism, patriotism and protective role of the men in the society. Even today, though women can also become soldiers, the common public image of the soldiers remains anchored to masculinity.

The most important Indian war monument is called the "Amar Jawan Jyoti" (Immortal light of the soldier). It is located at India Gate in New Delhi. India Gate was built in 1921 to remember the soldiers from Indian regiments who had died as a part of the British army in the first world war. Its walls carried the names of the officers of Indian regiments.

In 1971, after the India-Pakistan war that led to the creation of Bangladesh, it became "Amar Jawan Jyoti" with the construction of a black slab with an upside down gun and ever-lit flame underneath the arch of Indian Gate.

The next image is also about Indian soldiers. It is from the second world war and is from Forli in Italy. It shows a Sikh soldier holding an injured Italian soldier. This monument is built next to one of the biggest cemeteries of Indian soldiers in Italy.

If you are interested in reading more about the Indian soldiers and their cemeteries in Italy during the second world war, you can read my post on this theme written in 2011 in my Hindi blog.

Though many more Indian soldiers have died in different wars over the past decades, I am not aware of any other war monuments In India.

WAR MONUMENT IN USA

The image from New York, is the marine soldiers' monument from the second world war, built at the tip of Manhattan as you look towards the statue of Liberty.

Another important war monument in USA that I had visited was in Washington DC, near the Lincoln statue - Vietnam Veterans memorial. How ever, I do not have any images from visit.

I have also heard about the Arlington national cemetery and the US Marine War memorial, but I did not get an opportunity to visit them.

MEMORIALS FOR THE GERMAN AND AUSTRIAN SOLDIERS

A large number of German and Austrian soldiers had also died during the first and the second world wars. However, I do not remember seeing any war memorial about those soldiers. This may be partly due to the defeat of Germans (and Austrians) in the both the world wars.

In Germany, to remember the Nazi past is also problematic so perhaps those soldiers remain unacknowledged in the national monuments. How ever, I must confess that I haven't been to many places in Germany and Austria, so perhaps some war memorials may be there about which I am unaware.

Soldiers fighting for the "wrong" side and those who are defeated, hardly ever get any monuments. History decides who will be remembered and in which way. Just to remember that even Germans and Austrians had died in the two world wars, the next image has the ruins of an Austrian soldiers' outpost in the mountains in north Italy. Though this is not a formal monument, but I wanted to acknowledge them in this post.

The next war memorial is from Vienna in Austria but it is not about Austrian soldiers - rather, it is for commemorating Soviet soldiers and was built by the occupying Russian army in 1945.

This monument is to remember the death of 17 thousand Soviet soldiers who had died in the siege of Vienna. It is called the "Heroes' Monument of the Red Army".

WAR MONUMENT FROM FRANCE

I did travel to different parts of France and I remember seeing some war memorials, but those journeys were much before I had discovered my passion for photography. Thus I do not have many images of the French war memorials.

The next image shows a small memorial of the second world war from the tiny town of Divonne les Bains in the south of France. The monument carries the list of the persons from the city who had died in the war.

WAR MEMORIALS FROM LONDON, UK

London also has different monuments to remember the persons dying in the first and the second world wars.

Another of my personal favourites is the British monument in London for the animals who died during the world wars.

WAR MONUMENTS IN BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

Brussels is surprisingly full of war related monuments, from the first and second world wars. The next four images show some of those monuments that I noticed during a brief visit to the city.

WAR MONUMENTS FROM ITALY

My interest in the war monuments started in Italy and thus, this is the section with largest number of images in this post.

Our house in the north-eastern Alpine city of Schio (Vicenza), is very close to what was once the border between Austria and Italy. During the first world war, fierce fighting had claimed lives of young men from almost all towns and villages of this part of Italy. Around Schio, I am always struck by the war memorials in the villages and the small towns, invariably having a list of local lads who had died in the first or second world wars.

The next 5 images of war memorials are from places near Schio, remembering soldiers from the first world war. The places are Sant'Antonio, Arsiero, Forte Maso, Asiago and Bassano del Grappa.

The "Ossary" at Sant'Antonio is located at Pian delle Fuggazze, the old Austrian-Italian border on Pasubio mountain, and contains bones and remains of hundreds of soldiers who died here.

Arsiero is a tiny town at the entry to Tonnezza and some valleys hidden behind the mountains. Beyond Tonnezza, the road leads to Altopiano Fiorentino, that was another of the border post that saw fighting in the first world war.

Forte Maso has an old war building hidden among the trees in the mountains on the way to Pasubio mountain. A telescope, old pictures of the war, a restaurant and the beginning of a mountain trail to go up the mountain, mark this place. The image below shows one of the old war pictures from Forte Maso.

The beautiful mountain city of Asiago has a huge arch in white stone, at the top of a hill. The base of the hill contains hundreds of tombs containing the bones or remains of the soldiers.

I am especially fond of the "war memorials" from Bassano del Grappa that have pictures of young soldiers fixed on the trees.

The next 3 images are from Bologna, showing the monuments about different wars. The first monument is about first world war and is from Certosa cemetery.

The next image is about a war in 1848 when Bologna was able to defeat Austrian army that occupied the city as allies of the Vatican Government. It is known as the 8 August monument.

The 3rd image is of the memorial for the soldiers who died in the second world war and is from Certosa cemetery in Bologna. The sculptures are by Stella Korczynska and Genni Mucchi.

The next image is from Redipuglia in Fruili region of Italy, not far from the border with Slovenia and Austria, where thousands of soldiers from the first world war are buried.

The next image is a monument to Francesco Baracca, an ace pilot in the first world war. This monument is in the city of Lugo, where he was born.

Finally the last image from Italy is from the Marine Soldiers' monument in Verano cemetery of Rome.

CONCLUSIONS

Apart from India and USA, all the images of war memorials to the dead soldiers in this post are from Europe. In different other countries of South America, Africa and Asia, I do not remember seeing any war memorials.

To conclude this photo-essay, the final image is once again of the monument to the Soviet soldiers from Vienna.

So what do you feel about war monuments? I feel that war monuments are useful mainly for building patriotic feelings so that young men and women feel encouraged to give their lives for military services.

During the wars and in the years immediately after the wars, there is a lot of patriotic build-up and rhetoric around soldiers. However, once wars are over, countries often forget them quickly. In many countries, ex-soldiers with physical and psychological disabilities are ignored and marginalized.

Some years ago, I remember watching a Bollywood film called "Dhoop" that had shown the callous behaviour of Indian bureaucracy towards the family of a dead soldier. I wonder if that kind of situation is unique to countries like India?

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