A TWO-DAY festival showcasing the heritage and culture of India’s Armed Forces will be held on October 21-22 in Delhi. The Indian Military Heritage Festival will be hosted by the United Service Institution (USI) of India, a think tank set up in the 19th century. The first-of-its-kind festival is being organised in association with a news organisation at Manekshaw Centre, the USI said in a statement. “With 2022-2023 being the year of India’s leadership of the G20, the USI is proud to be working in tandem with the government of India’s strategic policies to affirm our position as a global powerhouse, a truly vibrant democracy, and a rising power that is working for the development of all countries in the Global South,” it said.

 

Despite a long and glorious military history and strategic culture going back many centuries, the general public is “largely unaware of the different facets of India’s military history, heritage”, the think tank said. The festival seeks to “address this gap” in the national discourse and cultural calendar, it added. Its activities will be driven towards enhancing understanding of the country’s rich military heritage and traditions; contemporary security and strategy concerns; and the push to achieve self-reliance in military capability through the Atmanirbhar Bharat programmes of the government of India, the statement said.