NEW DELHI: The hymn ‘Abide with me’ which endeared itself to Mahatma Gandhi and has been a part of the Beating Retreat ceremony since 1950 will not be played this year. All the tunes included in the list are of Indian origin, according to a brochure released by the army on Saturday.
‘Abide with me’ has been replaced by the popular patriotic song ‘Ae mere watan ke logon,’ written by Kavi Pradeep to commemorate the sacrifices made by Indian soldiers in the 1962 India-China war. In 2020 also there were reports of the tune being dropped but no such decision was taken.
The calming and alleviating hymn was written by Henry Francis Lyte in 1861 and it was set to tune by William Henry Monk. The retreat tune will continue to be ‘Sare jahan se accha.’
Twitterati reacted sharply to the dropping of the hymn. “Abide With Me’, Gandhi ji’s favourite hymn, dropped from Beating Retreat. There is no end to the hate,” said one. “new India, No Amar Jyothi, no Abide With Me during the Beating Retreat. Sicko’s BJP,” Congress leader Ajoy Kumar tweeted.
The move to drop the hymn from this year’s ceremony comes days after the decision to merge the Amar Jawan Jyoti flame at India Gate with the eternal flame of the National War Memorial. The merger took place during a brief ceremony on Friday.
Beating Retreat is an old military tradition of troops disengaging from the battle at sunset. A total of 44 buglers, 16 trumpeters and 75 drummers will perform this year.