PRINCE KUMAR
Ranchi, Jan 25: Mahatma Gandhi’s favourite hymn ‘Abide With Me’ will not be played in the state as this year’s Beating Retreat Ceremony will not be held due to Covid-19.
For the second consecutive year, all the programs held inside the Governor House on the occasion of Republic Day are cancelled including the Beating Retreat Ceremony.
ADC to the Governor Maj Apurv Sharma said that all the programs are cancelled due to Covid-19. Taking precautionary measures because of Covid-19, no programs will be organised inside the premises of the Governor’s House.
A day after the eternal flame at Amar Jawan Jyoti was shifted to the National War Memorial, the Central government dropped ‘Abide With Me,’ the somber highpoint of the conclusion of the Republic Day celebrations.
Penned in the pre-modern world by Henry Francis Lyte, a Scottish Anglican minister and son of a naval captain, the hymn, which is known for its simplicity and somber theme, is often sung to English composer William Henry Monk’s evocative tune Eventide, and has been a fixture in the Indian Beating Retreat ceremony since 1950.
It is always the last piece to be played by the brass bands before the troops recede up Raisina Hill to the tune of poet Allama Iqbal’s Saare Jahan se achha.
Played at dusk, this is also the last piece before the retreat buglers bring down the Indian flag.
In 2020, reports had emerged about the hymn being dropped from the Beating Retreat Ceremony and being replaced by poet Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s Vande Mataram.
Following criticism, the hymn was played in 2020 and retained in 2021.
