The Beating the Retreat ceremony will take place in Delhi on Tuesday, marking the end of this year’s four-day Republic Day celebrations. The Beating Retreat ceremony takes place at Vijay Chowk every year on 29 January.

This year, the spectators will be treated to 27 performances by the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the State Police and Central Armed Police Force (CAPF). Of these, 19 tunes have been composed by Indian musicians. They include ‘Indian Star’, ‘Paharonki Rani’, ‘KumaoniGeet’, ‘Jai Janam Bhumi’, ‘Queen of Satpura’, ‘Marooni’, ‘Vijay’, ‘Soldier-My Valentine’, ‘Bhupal’, ‘Vijay Bharat’, ‘Aakash Ganga’, ‘Gangotri’, ‘Namaste India’, ‘Samudrika’, ‘Jai Bharat’, ‘Young India’, ‘Veerta Ki Misal’, ‘Amar Senani’ and ‘Bhumiputra’.

The eight Western tune will be ‘Fanfare by Buglers’, ‘Sound Barrier’, ‘Emblazoned’, ‘Twilight’, ‘Alert (Post Horn Gallop)’, ‘Space Flight’, ‘Drummers Call’ and ‘Abide with me’. The event will draw to a close with the evergreen ‘Sare Jahan se Acha’.

As part of the security arrangements for the event, Metro services at two Yellow Line stations will not be available for a few hours on Tuesday. Entry and Exit at these stations will be closed as per the following schedule:

1. Udyog Bhawan: 2 PM to 6.30 PM

2. Central Secretariat: 2 PM to 6.30 PM

Also, a Delhi Metro statement said, entry and exit at Central Secretariat station would be allowed from Gate No. 1 only from 2 PM to 4 PM while rest of the gates would remain closed during this period. However, interchange of passengers from Line 2 to Line 6 (Kashmere Gate to Raja Nahar Singh) and vice versa would be allowed at Central Secretariat during this period, said the statement.

Normal services at both stations will be restored at 6:30 pm.

The Beating the Retreat ceremony takes place at the Vijay Chowk on 29 January every year. This year, 15 Military Bands, 15 Pipes and Drums Bands from Regimental Centres and Battalions are participating in the ceremony.

According to a Ministry of Defence statement, the principal conductor of the Beating the Retreat ceremony will be Cdr Vijay D’Cruz. The Army military bands conductor will be Sub Parwinder Singh, while the Navy and Air Force band conductors will be Master Chief Petty Officer Vincent Johnson and Junior Warrant Officer Ashok Kumar, respectively.

The conductor of the State Police and CAPF bands will be Insp Ganesh Dutt Pandey. Buglers will perform under the leadership of Sub Digar Singh and pipes and drums bands will play under the instructions of Sub Maj Dev Singh Thapa.

The Beating Retreat ceremony has a long history dating back to the early 1950s when Major Roberts of the Indian Army developed this display by the massed bands. Beating Retreat is a centuries old military tradition when the troops ceased fighting, put down arms and returned to the camps from the battlefield at sunset at the sounding of the Retreat.