Indians join in an impromtu dance during the flag lowering ceremony at the border with Pakistan. (Aili McConnon)

After putting our bags down in our hotel in Amristar and feeling rested from a five-hour train ride from Delhi, our group drove to Wagah to observe the ceremonial closing of the border with Pakistan.

In the last several years, the border between these two rival nations has been opened up; transnational train service was launched this year and people pass through the border crossing here on a daily basis.

On Sunday, the gathering of several thousand Indians to watch soldiers from both countries lower their respective flags, was a moment of celebration. The ceremony has become more of a tourist attraction in recent years rather an epicenter of international hostility.

Nirmal Singh Bishad drew cheers from the crowd when he ran back and forth down the road leading to the border with an Indian flag larger than his adolescent body. But his act of joyous patriotism was not an act of aggression toward Pakistan, he insisted.

“They are our friends,” he said, “not our enemies.”

As the Indian troops prepared to approach the gate, the crowd chanted “Hindustan Zindabad,” which in Hindi means, “Long live India.” The Pakistani crowd just yards away chanted in Urdu, “Pakistan Zindabad,” or “Long Live Pakistan.”

Men danced in the path leading up to the border to Indian music before the flags were pulled down just before sunset. The Indian troops stomped with such ferocity and marched with such exaggerated exuberance it drew chuckles from the crowd.

“It is fake aggression,” Delhi-based journalist Mannika Chopra said in reference to the stern faces the Indian troops give to their Pakistani counterparts. “It’s a tourist thing.”

The arbitrary border between the two countries was designed by the same colonial force, Britain, which exploited the subcontinent for its resources. The two countries inherited these borders when they gained independence from Britain in August 1947. The riots that resulted from partition ended in nearly 2 million deaths in this part in India.

While many people on both sides of the border today came to celebrate their countries rather than to show aggression toward one another, Chopra explained that there are deeper tensions. Pakistani President Pervez Musharaff and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have both worked to open up this border due to the post-9/11 political climate and international pressure, but both have to appease important constituents to maintain their political power. Musharaf must play to the interests of Islamic extremists and Singh must recognize the interests of right wing, Hindu nationalists.

That is why there are two faces of the ceremony on the border. For the Indian tourists coming from as far away as the capital of New Delhi and the southern city of Chennai, the meeting of green clad Indian soldiers with black clad Pakistani soldiers is a source of both entertainment and national pride. But with India’s new nuclear deal with the United States there is the possibility for a rise in tension that would give the soldiers seemingly acted hostile nature a little bit of sincerity.

"It’s bizarre,” Chopra said.