A salutation is considered as the highest form of respect which is generally given to defense personnel and police officers. If you watched Republic Day Parade or Independence Day Parade, you can clearly notice that the Indian Air Force, Indian Army, and Indian Navy salutes in a different way.
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1. Indian Army
Indian Army personnel salutes with open palms facing the person to be saluted. They salute with open palms in order to show that they are not carrying any weapons and the other person can trust them.
2. Indian Air Force
Indian Air Force personnel salute with their palm at 45 degrees from the ground. This new type of salutation was implemented from March 2006. Before that, an Indian Air Force salute was similar to that of the Indian Army salute. They salute with their palm at 45 degrees to the ground because it shows the progress towards the skies. Another reason is it is close to their motto of ‘Touching the sky with glory.’
3. Indian Navy
Indian Navy follows a very old cultural origin of saluting with the palm at 90 degrees facing the ground and to the forehead. They salute this way because – in olden days, sailors used to work on ships like machinery work and operating levers. Due to this, their hands used to get greasy and dirty, so they started saluting with their palms facing down to their seniors as a mark of respect.
