“Abide With Me” dropped from the Beating Retreat event this year

Tags: National News

The Centre decided to drop one of Mahatma Gandhi's favourite hymns "Abide With Me" from this year's Beating Retreat ceremony on January 29 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.

• "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.
• For this year's ceremony, the hymn has been replaced by the popular patriotic song "Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon", which was written by Kavi Pradeep to commemorate the supreme sacrifice made by Indian soldiers during the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.
• Beating Retreat marks the end of nearly week-long festivities of Republic Day, which used to begin on January 24. But this year, the celebrations will begin on January 23, the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.
• The brochure released by the Indian Army on Saturday listed 26 tunes that will be played at this year's ceremony by 44 buglers, 16 trumpeters and 75 drummers at Vijay Chowk.
• This year, a Kumaoni tune from Uttarakhand, Channa Billauri, has made it to the list.