India’s annual National Day parade has been attended by an American president for the first time.<br /><br /> Barack Obama was guest of honour among the thousands who braved pouring rain in Delhi to witness the flamboyant display of the South Asian nation’s military strength and cultural diversity.<br /><br /> The holiday celebrates the adoption of India’s first constitution on 26 January, 1950 – two and a half after India won independence from British rule.<br /><br /> Obama’s highly symbolic visit and warm welcome the US president received from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reflects the rapidly warming relations between the two countries.<br /><br /> Only just over a year ago, at the end of 2013, there was tension between Delhi and Washington when an Indian diplomat was arrested in New York.<br /><br /> For a whole decade the US had no relations with Modi who was even refused a US visa in 2005 following bloody anti-Muslim rioting three years earlier in the state of Gujarat, where the Hindu nationalist was Chief Minister.<br /><br /> Thi
