Dancers and musicians from the Military Tattoo and Fringe festivals gathered on Calton Hill in Edinburgh to mark 70 years of India’s independence Times photographer James GlossopIndians around the world marked 70 years of independence yesterday with celebrations and remembrance of the hundreds of thousands who died in partition. Narenda Modi, the Indian prime minister, led commemorations in Delhi with an hour-long speech from the Red Fort where the Union Jack was replaced with the Indian tricolour on August 15, 1947, to symbolise the end of British rule. “We may have grown up in despair, but now we have to move ahead with confidence,” Mr Modi said in an hour-long speech vowing to end corruption. The Indian leader also promised to defend the country from foreign threats amid a two-month border standoff with China in the western Himalayas and disputes with Pakistan over Kashmir. Mr Modi accused Kashmiri separatists of “scheming”…

Source: The Times August 16, 2017 00:11 UTC