Kohima War Cemetery

In the spring of 1944, the Japanese army's advance into India was halted at Kohima in some of the most desperate fighting of the Second World War — a battle so pivotal it has been voted Britain's greatest battle, ahead of Waterloo and D-Day. Much of it was fought at close quarters across the garden and tennis court of the Deputy Commissioner's bungalow, now within the cemetery grounds; the white lines of that tennis court are still marked in the lawn.

The Kohima War Cemetery, maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, rises in terraces up Garrison Hill, with more than 1,400 immaculate headstones of the Allied dead among clipped lawns and flowering cherry trees. At its foot stands the memorial bearing one of the most famous epitaphs of the war: 'When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today.'

It is a place of great dignity and quiet, and one of the most moving historical sites in India. For many visitors — Indian, British, Japanese and Naga alike — it is the emotional heart of a trip to Nagaland, all the more so during the Hornbill Festival season each December.