Remembering Ceremonies

The Gateway of India, a monument resembling an Ancient Roman triumphal arch, was built as an entrance to Bombay and all of India by the British before Indian independence in 1924.  It’s function as a landmark has switched from a symbol of British rule to Indian sovereignty.  It is also a conduit of Mumbai pride, as the site of three terrorist attacks and also known as the Mumbai’s Taj Mahal.  Today, it is Mumbai’s best-known tourist site.  However, on February 28, 1948, the Somerset Light Infantry, the last British troops to remain in India, passed through the Gateway in a historic ceremony.  However, neither the structure nor its name have physically changed since 1948, besides addition of the subjectively ugly Taj Tower that dominates its backdrop today.  Although the syntax of the Gateway of India has not changed, perhaps the semantics have.  With sovereignty and a resurgence of confidence, the Gateway of India is no longer a landing point for uninvited monarchs, but a window for Indians to look out at the world with pride.