Beating the Retreat: India

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This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content.

2016

The Times of India, Jan 30 2016

Beating retreat from tradition

The Beating Retreat ceremony in 2016 held at Vijay Chowk on 29 Jan evening saw a break from tradition. For the first time, there were bands from Delhi Police and central police forces apart from the massed bands of the three services. Also, there were Indian percussion and stringed instruments that held the audience in thrall till the end of the ceremony. The event officially ended the 67th Republic Day celebrations, which itself began with a departure from tradition when a French military contingent marched down the Rajpath for the first time. This time there were 15 military bands and 18 pipe and drum bands from across the various regimental centres and battalions. 26 compositions were played of which 20 were composed by Indians. There was a rendition of A R Rahman's `Bharat HumkoJaan Se Pyaara Hai' from the film Roja on Indian instruments like the tabla, sitar, santoor and flute. The bands of BSF , ITBP and Delhi Police played symphonies like `Samvidhan', ` Abhinandan' and `Cariappa', much to the liking of the general audience. Patriotic songs from Bollywood movies, both old and new, got the audience to hum along. One of the most liked performances was by Navy drummers who got the crowds on their feet with their modish and disciplined banging of the head as they played ` Admirals Ensignia-II' composed by US Prasad. Major Karun Khanna (Retd) of Hodson's Horse, a veteran of the 1965 and 1971 wars, called it “absolute nonsense“ and an unfortunate thing to have happened. He had co-ordinated the Beating Retreat ceremony in 1974, 75 and 76.