To mark the culmination of the Republic Day celebrations, the customary Beating Retreat ceremony was held at Rajpath, Delhi on Saturday. This year the main attraction of the ceremony was the drone and laser show. A thousand drones lighting up the sky in various formations over Vijay Chowk left the audience spellbound at the 73rd Beating Retreat ceremony. The 10-minute drone show was planned to commemorate 75 years of Independence.
Martial musical tunes with Indian fervour were also the flavour of the ceremony. Twenty-six performances enthralled the spectators with foot-tapping music played by the bands of the Indian Army, Navy, Air Force, and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF).
Besides, the massed band played Tunes of newly-inducted "Aye Mere Watan Ke Logon", composed by C Ramchandra, and lyrics by Kavi Pradeep. The song was written to commemorate the supreme sacrifice made by the Indian soldiers during the 1962 India-China war. It is for the first time, the Republic Day's Beating Retreat ceremony's hymns 'Abide With Me' have been replaced with 'Ae Mere Watan ke Logon'.
"Beating Retreat" is a centuries-old military tradition dating from the days when troops disengaged from the battle at sunset. As soon as the buglers sounded the "Retreat", the troop ceased fighting, sheathed their arms, and withdrew from the battlefield.
It is for this reason that the custom of standing still during the sounding of 'Retreat' has been retained to this day. Colours and Standards are cased and flags lowered at "Retreat".
