The ‘Beating Retreat’ is a centuries-old military tradition dating back to the days when soldiers withdrew from the battle at sunset. With the sound of the trumpet, the soldiers stopped fighting and left the battlefield, gathering their weapons.
The year 1961 was a special year for the Beating Retreat. Britain’s Queen Elizabeth was the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations that year. She addressed the people of Delhi in a function at Ramlila Maidan. That year, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appointed the head of the Military Music Department at the Army Headquarters, G.A. Roberts to prepare for the grand Beating Retreat ceremony. Roberts, who belonged to the Anglo-Indian community of Delhi did not disappoint Nehru. He choreographed the Beating Retreat Ceremony brilliantly. Since then it is believed that the nature of Beating Retreat 2016 has not changed.
After 2016, in addition to the three wings of the Army, the band of Delhi Police was also added to the Beating Retreat. Then the tadka of Bollywood music also started pouring in. Former Vice Chief of Army Staff Vijay Oberoi had also protested at his level on this change. He said that the Beating Retreat was being made a spectacle. Vijay Oberoi had a leg amputated in the 1965 war.
The tune of ‘Abide with Me’, one of Mahatma Gandhi’s favourite Christian praise songs, was dropped from the ‘Beating Retreat’ ceremony held on January 29 this year. The tune has been a part of the Beating Retreat ceremony since 1950. This information was received from a brochure released by the Indian Army on Saturday. The Centre had in 2020 also planned to drop “Abide With Me” from the ceremony, but later retained it after an uproar. For this year’s ceremony, the hymn has been replaced by the popular patriotic song “Ae mere watan ke logo” which was written by Kavi Pradeep to commemorate the supreme sacrifice made by the Indian soldiers during the 1962 war. It is a song with massive universal appeal and it imbibes a sense of sacrifice and respect for those brave hearts.
Scottish-Anglican poet Henry Francis Light wrote Abide with Me in 1847. The tune has been a part of the ‘Beating Retreat’ festival since 1950. The brochure states that this year’s celebrations will conclude with ‘Saare Jahan Se Achcha’.The beating retreat usually ended with the tune ‘Abide with Me’. The brochure also lists 26 tunes that will be played at this year’s celebrations at Vijay Chowk.
According to the brochure, the 26 tunes that will be played in this year’s ceremony are ‘Hey Kancha’, ‘Channa Bilauri’, ‘Jai Janma Bhoomi’, ‘Nritya Sarita’, ‘Vijay Josh’, ‘Kesariya Banna’, ‘Veer Siachen’. , ‘Hathroi’, ‘Vijay Ghosh’, ‘Ladaku’, ‘Swadeshi’, ‘Amar Chattan’, ‘Golden Arrows’ and ‘Swarna Jayanti’.According to the brochure ‘Veer Sainik’, ‘Fanfare by Burglars’, ‘INS India’, ‘Yashaswi’, ‘Jai Bharti’, ‘Kerala’, ‘Hind Ki Sena’, ‘Step Steps’, ‘Drummers Call’ ‘Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon’ is also part of the 26 tunes that will be played on the evening of January 29.
Cover Image by twitter.com/@IAF_MCC
