The Centre decided to drop one of Mahatma Gandhi’s favourite hymns “Abide With Me” from this year’s Beating Retreat ceremony as playing more Indian tunes would be appropriate in view of the ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’, which celebrates the 75th year of India’s Independence, government sources said son Sunday
“Abide With Me”, written by Scottish Anglican poet and hymnologist Henry Francis Lyte in 1847, had been part of the Beating Retreat ceremony since 1950. The Indian Army 1950 announced on Saturday that it has been dropped from this year’s ceremony
The sources said that the Centre wanted to include maximum number of Indian tunes and consequently, it was decided that only Indian-origin tunes will be played at this year’s ceremony on January 29.
The Centre had in 2020 also planned to drop “Abide With Me” from the ceremony but had 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For this year’s ceremony, the hymn has been replaced by the popular patriotic song “Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon”, which was written by Kavi Pradeep to commemorate the supreme sacrifice made by Indian soldiers during the 1962 Indo-China war
