Chandigarh: In a striking display of national pride and symbolic one-upmanship, India will unveil a towering flagpole at the Sadqi border in Punjab’s Fazilka district on August 15, to fly the tricolour higher than its rival Parcham-e-Sitāra-o-Hilāl, fluttering across the border at Sulemanki, some 200 metres inside Pakistan.Independence Day onwards, this nearly 200-foot-high pole will hoist a 40-by-60-foot flag on ceremonial occasions, and a slightly smaller 32-by-48-foot-version routinely. The new galvanised iron flagpole – whose foundation was laid in January – will dwarf the 165-foot tall flagstaff on the Pakistani side, turning a quiet and remote border post into a potent stage for visual nationalism.This vertical rivalry of using flags as instruments of soft power and visual propaganda, remains a vivid and enduring example of symbolic posturing between the rival neighbours, embodying national prestige and competition.The new and higher flagpole at Sidaq echoes a similar contest at Wagah earlier, where a 360-foot flag was hoisted in 2017, briefly billed as India’s tallest, only to be surpassed by one taller installed soon after by Pakistan.Border Security Force (BSF) personnel during a cycle rally organised at the Attari-Wagah Border, in Amritsar district, Punjab, Saturday, May 31, 2025. Photo: PTI.Thereafter, in 2021, India increased the height of its Wagah flagpole from 360 to 410 feet, with the express purpose of dwarfing the taller, adjacent Pakistani flag flying atop a 400-f00t high mast. According to news reports from Lahore at the time, Pakistan planned on topping this imminently, but had not done so as yet.This continuing flagpole competition soon escalated bizarrely into a further spectacle of supersized flags – each aiming to eclipse the other across the border. Yet the towering banners proved no match for the region’s fierce winds, which routinely shredded them within weeks, leaving the nationalist theatre tangled in a costly, unresolved dilemma.Each day, as dusk falls, India stages three charged flag-lowering ceremonies along its Punjab border with Pakistan: at Wagah, near Amritsar, Hussainiwala at Firozepur and at Sadqi. Here, elite Border Security Force (BSF) personnel and those from the Pakistan Rangers, specially shortlisted for their height and overall statuesque stature, face off in a theatrical ritual of discipline, defiance, and patriotism.All three observances, however, were suspended during Operation Sindoor in early May and only resumed later that month, albeit in a toned-down format.The usual ceremonial protocols were altered: the border gates on either side, for now, remain closed throughout the flag-lowering proceedings, and the traditional handshake between BSF and Pakistan Ranger troops at its conclusion had also been discontinued.Of this flag-retreat triad, the most renowned and theatrical ceremony unfolds at Wagah, where border guards on either side engage in a flamboyant spectacle of synchronised drills, high-kicking goose-steps, and choreographed aggression.BSF personnel during the retreat ceremony at the Attari-Wagah border, near Amritsar, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. Photo: PTI.Thousands of spectators throng specially erected stands each evening as blaring patriotic music and booming emcees stoke duelling chants of ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ on either side. The atmosphere is electric, theatrical and carnivalesque, but beneath the spectacle lies a ritual of nationalism, patriotism and feelings of superiority.After the border gates shut at sunset, Pakistani and Indian nationals, separated by a few hundred yards of no-man’s land, shout out to each other extolling the performance of their border guards as well as their respective country’s overall superiority.By contrast, the event at Hussainiwala is marked by solemnity.Located near the site where freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev were cremated on the banks of the Sutlej River, the ceremony here is deeply emotional. The crowd is smaller, but often more reflective and emotionally engaged, given the proximity of the National Martyrs Memorial. The overall atmosphere is relatively subdued, blending patriotism with a sense of sacrifice, and the Hussainiwala ceremony is where nationalism is less about rivalry and hostility, and more about remembrance.The least known – but increasingly significant – flag-lowering ceremony is held at Sadqi, 14 km from Fazilka and 150 km south of Wagah. Initiated in April 2017, it followed a BSF-Pakistan Rangers agreement to jointly conduct a daily 40-minute retreat drill, mirroring the formats at Wagah and Hussainiwala.Locals who had attended ceremonies at Wagah and Sadiq said that the basic difference between the two was more than stylistic, reflecting differing perceptions of the border. Wagah, they said, was ‘undiluted theatre’, where the border was a grand stage for the display of patriotism, rooted in spectacle. But the absence of loud crowds and televised coverage at Sadqi, on the other hand, made the spectacle feel less performative and more ceremonial in the true sense.And though the Sadqi ceremony mirrored Wagah’s in form – with marching troops and the lowering of flags – it lacked its choreographed belligerence. There were no grandstands, no floodlights, and often few spectators. The authorities had once flirted with the idea of elevating Sadqi to a Wagah-like spectacle to boost tourism, but the plan was quietly shelved, largely for logistical reasons and Sadiq’s remoteness.The overall posturing at Sadqi was subdued-goose-stepping was minimal and the atmosphere more reflective than raucous. As one eyewitness said, it felt less like a spectacle and more like a ritual – a quiet reminder that even in hostility, certain courtesies and formalities prevailed.Historically, too, the Fazilka-Sulemanki sector that was a fierce battleground during the third India-Pakistan war in 1971, is steeped in memory. It is home to sites like the Asafwala War Memorial that honours those who fell fighting. Yet, the Sadqi ceremony, the same eyewitness added, appeared to ‘avoid jingoism’ and remain centred more on history and less on politics and rivalry.While this ‘flagpole-war’ in conclusion may seem a mere symbolic contest, it is laden with psychological, emotional, and nationalistic undertones-especially in the perennial Indo-Pakistani rivalry that transcends borders and battlefields, seeping into people’s everyday lives on either side of the border.Nowhere is this more potent than in divided Punjab, where Partition drew the bloodiest lines and memory remains inseparable from politics nearly eight decades after Partition. Consequently, India’s decision to raise the tricolour higher than Pakistan’s at Sadqi and Wagah is more than a mere spectacle; it is a soaring assertion that the bilateral clash continues permanently in the sky.