Khalanga War Memorial, War memorial in Dehradun district, India.
Khalanga War Memorial is a war memorial in Dehradun, India, made up of two obelisks standing side by side along Sahastradhara Road. Each structure is dedicated to a different side of the same battle, with separate inscriptions marking the dead from both camps.
The site is connected to a battle fought here in 1814, when a small group of Gurkha soldiers held their position for weeks against a much larger British force. After the fighting ended, the British put up the first monument, and a second was added later to honor the Gurkha defenders.
The memorial is one of the few places where two former enemies are honored side by side on the same ground. Visitors can read the inscriptions on each obelisk and see how both sides of a conflict are given equal recognition.
The memorial stands along Sahastradhara Road and is easy to reach from central Dehradun. It is maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India, so the grounds are generally kept in good order and accessible during the day.
It is rare for a winning army to put up a monument for those it defeated, yet that is what the British did at this site. The Gurkha defenders had continued fighting without water and with almost no supplies, which left a strong enough impression on British commanders to act on it.
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