00:04I was born in Argentina, land of Diego and Lionel and of the boys of the Malvinas whom I will
00:09never forget.
00:10The verse in this Argentina celebration song you just heard included a shout out to the young Argentinians who died
00:16in the Malvinas.
00:17So in this video I will tell you not only about that war but also about how the Gurkhas who
00:22once fought the Argentinians on the battlefield fell in love with Argentina, the football team.
00:29There's actually a pretty popular legend from the Falklands war that Argentine soldiers were so afraid of the Gurkhas that
00:34some fled their positions before the Gurkhas ever got closed.
00:38Today in Nepal, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Gurkha homes across India's northeast many of those same communities cheer for Argentina to
00:46win the World Cup.
00:47It sounds like folklore and some of it is but the best parts really happened.
00:52The year was 1982. Argentina invaded the Falklands that they call the Malvinas.
00:57It's a British-held territory that both countries claimed.
01:00Now Britain sent a task force nearly 13,000 kilometers across the ocean and in May that year aboard the
01:05Queen Elizabeth II,
01:06sailed the 7th Gurkha rifles.
01:09Men recruited from Nepal's hills, many with family in Darjeeling where the British once ran recruitment depots.
01:14Now famous worldwide for their courage and for the cookery. The reputation landed before they did.
01:21Stories raced through Argentine ranks. The Gurkhas take no prisoners. They slit throats in the dark.
01:27They leap into foxholes clutching live grenades. The twist? Most of it was not British propaganda alone.
01:33Historians say the wildest stories came from Argentina's own tabloid press and terrified Argentina's own teenage conscripts.
01:40The reality? The Gurkhas never fired a shot on that war. They were shelled, wounded by shrapnel and their only
01:45fatality came 10 days after the surrender while clearing the battlefield.
01:49But the fear was real. Captain Nirmal Rai, a Gurkha sent to the Falklands, recounted his most vivid memory of
01:55the war while speaking to the BBC World Service years later.
01:57His unit had captured Argentine medics left behind with the wounded. And these guys, they drew their cookeries, right?
02:04The prisoners apparently froze, certain that they would be beheaded.
02:07What the Gurkhas were really trying to do was cut their shoelaces and they needed the shoelaces to tie the
02:12hands of their Argentinian prisoners.
02:14So did the Gurkhas end the war? No. Argentina surrendered because its defences around Port Stanley collapsed.
02:18But the myth just refused to die. And then came football. In 1986, as televised football started to make inroads
02:25into South Asia,
02:26Diego Maradona conquered these hills the same way he conquered Kolkata, Kerala, Ghoa and Bangladesh.
02:32Maradona became an heirloom. Messi inherited him. Families that gathered around radios for one now paint their faces sky blue
02:38and white for the other.
02:39War decided which flag the Gurkhas fought under. Football decided which flag they celebrate.
02:44Tell us if there is a story behind how and why you are an Argentino supporter. Like and share the
02:48video and follow us on Instagram.
02:49I'm Anisha Dikari. Thank you for watching The Culture Project On More.
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