Beating
Retreat
I
After witnessing on Doordarshan HD channel the grand
spectacle of Beating Retreat presented by the massed bands of the Army, Navy
and Air Force, I was desperate to share my excitement with my friends and
relatives, my next door neighbours and colony residents. I called quite a few
on their mobiles and landlines, I peered through the doors of my neighbor to
see if their TV was on and went to the colony park which usually is the meeting
ground for gossip among all the colony residents. To my disappointment, not one
whom I spoke to had watched the closing ceremony. The government offices had
closed for half a day to enable people to watch this spectacular march of the
armed forces to the lilting tune of high class music, dressed in colourful army
costumes. It was as much a feast for the eyes as it was for the ears. The
flautist’s soulful rendition of Ragupati
Raghav complemented by the patriotic number Saare Jahan se Accha and the moving Christian hymn Abide with Me were the piece de
resistance of the evening while the tunes of the opening number Jahaan daal daal par and the peppy jazz
segments in the middle were truly a delight to the listeners. One does not need to be a connoisseur of
music to enjoy this ceremonial euphony. But what was the most striking aspect
of the music feast was the precision with which the men in their uniform marched
to and fro the Rajpath swaying in sync with the tunes they played. Vijay Chowk
flanked by the north and south blocks and the Rashtrapati Bhavan on one side and India Gate
on the other resounded to the music of the buglers
and bagpipers, drummers and trumpeteers.
Even the new CM of Delhi was present though he was lost in
writing on a small pocket note book. Despite his trademark muffler, he could
not have been deaf to the music though he never raised his eyes to watch the
spectacle in front of him. Probably he felt that it was only for Khas admi and
their corrupt tribes. But I was grateful for the visual and aural delight it
gave me and the feelings of tenderness,
joy and patriotism that it aroused in me. To me the sound of the march and the
sweetness of the music gave thoughts that often lie too deep for tears.
The perfection and precision that we see in this ceremony is
an index of the discipline of the armed forces. There is a rare beauty in discipline
and order. The bandmaster’s signal with the stick was the ultimate law for the
players who had to render the musical notations in sync with their march. Every
player and every drummer knew the precise timing of when to begin, when to stop,
and what notes to play. Such coordination is not possible without a strict
adherence to the roles assigned to each one of them. This is team work where
there is no question of one-upmanship on display. The arrival of the president
in the horse drawn buggy was the signal to start the evening ceremonies. As all
the eyes turned to the President at the saluting base, faint strains of music
emanated from the Raisina Hill from the massed bands. The unfurling of the
flag, the National Anthem and the march of the armed forces followed in
succession and there was no break in the presentation of the spectacle even by
half a second.
II
I could see the difference between what I saw of Beating
Retreat (on the TV screen) and what I
saw last week near Rail Bhavan where an unruly crowd broke all barricades to
join their Chief Minister who was sitting on dharna. Despite the CM’s claim
that his protest was only with his cabinet ministers to pressurize the Central
government to suspend two police constables for disobeying his minister’s
orders and sticking to their police manual, the aam admi crowd surged ahead
because they had been told that the entire police is bad and they cannot act
as law enforcers. Can the right to
express one’s imagined or real grievance supercede citizens’ duty to abide by
law and order? Can the police en masse
be called corrupt, inefficient, brutal, high-handed, depraved etc because they
are under the Home Ministry of the Central Government? Will the same venal
force(as the police is made out by the Delhi Chief Minister) become efficient,
gentle, polite, ethical and virtuous if they come under the state government?
Such crass and wilful disobedience on the part of a surging
crowd near Rail Bhavan under the protégé of Angry Activist Party has put paid
to any semblance of order in society. We see citizens’ behaviour on the Indian roads
every day. The moneyed rich in their
Mercedes and Audis, Sonatas and Skodas,
while waiting for the signal to change roll down their glasses to throw away a
chocobar wrapper or a wafers packet before honking their way through cars with
lesser status symbol. As a free citizen, we exercise our right to litter the
streets, pathways, walkways because we are the lords and masters of every
millimeter of our motherland. We feel it infra dig to stand in queues as
jumping the queues is a sign of our famed masculinity and privileged
superiority. We spit on the roads as though we wish to lay a red carpet to all
other users of the road. This is our understanding of democracy that valorizes
freedom of action and expression, unmindful of our actions and language that
are used. We indulge in ruffianism and goondaism mainly to seek media attention
and the spotlight. The Shiv Sainiks have taken law into their hands and broken
the toll booths because they felt they had the right not to pay toll tax. In
bringing down Babri Masjid and burning libraries because of resentment
against a writer with a different ideology, we often pride being a law unto
ourselves. We uphold the right to the
law of jungle under the sprawling umbrella of the right to freedom. The
politicians have vitiated the social sphere further by calling their opponents
as swindlers and rapists of the Indian treasury much to the delight of the
media. The media is happy to have sound bytes that vilify every other
person except itself.T he new entrant to the political arena, AAP prides itself
on being anarchist and therefore has a right to flout law and order in the name
of unconventional politics. AAP will not
allow any point of view other than what it holds and if anyone opposes, it
feels it has the right to let loose
anarchy. The recent racist taunts at Ugandan women by an AAP minister has
resulted in people taking law in to their hands to kill a young man from
Arunachal Pradesh as belonging to another race. Prof Deepankar Gupta writes
that “ it is violence, both physical and
verbal, that invites anarchy more than anything else, whether or not such acts
happen in the killing fields or in parliaments. Remember also, some of the most
ruthless leaders in modern times were elected to power. This is why liberal
democracy is not just about votes, but more about non-violence. If there is a
striking family resemblance between anarchists and dictators it is because
violence was mother’s milk for both of them.” It is time for all educated ,
thinking and well meaning Indians to take a leaf from the Velvet revolution of
East Europe, where serious men and women who knew what freedom means
–particularly freedom of the mind -used their minds to recover their lost
freedom and sought a decent communicative language adequate to their
aspirations for justice. They used their knowledge to talk sense, to talk
freely and to bring about a brighter future. They were educated, cultured,
civilized and disciplined and they inspired fellow citizens not by rabble
rousing speeches, not by painting everyone black, not by promising the manna
that is nowhere in the horizon but by their personal discipline in their words
and actions.
Watching the army’s spectacular march and music, I could not
help comparing the civilian disorder with the military discipline. If there was
beauty, it was there in the ceremonial Beating Retreat. If there was a fusion
of order and creativity, it was there in the armed forces’ march and music. If
there was patriotism, it was there that stirred the national pride in us. The
mass bands showed why our armed forces live up to the ideal of being Saare Jahan se accha .What a pity that
for the many innumerable millions of Indians for whom the national broadcaster had televised this show on its HD channel, all the above-order, beauty, creativity,
patriotism and discipline –do not exist.
It is time for
reflection. The unruly chaos we see around us has to be reined in. We should
understand the difference between Beating Retreat and beating the retreat. The
former is a ceremonial march of the armed forces to the barracks after a spectacular
display of their discipline, order and might. The latter means retreating in
shame and cowardice after being defeated.
Let us resolve to beat the retreat from chaos and unruliness
that stems from a cacophony of cries shouting for our rights. Let every citizen make it a duty to watch
Beating Retreat and be inspired by its discipline and order and love for the
nation. If Patriotism is the food of Beating Retreat, let the Music play on.
No comments:
Post a Comment