India Gate missing its heartbeat

THE 1971 war marked the coming of age of the Indian military after the fiasco of 1962 and a significant improvement witnessed during the 1965 war. The Amar Jawan Jyoti was installed at India Gate in New Delhi. It served as a reminder of the deeds of brave Indians. There was live telecast of the Prime Minister paying homage to them every year before the Republic Day parade. India Gate became synonymous with the Amar Jawan and became a part of folk culture. The lay citizen came to pay respects and thereafter took in the unique festive environment that had evolved after the commissioning of the ‘eternal flame’.

Children played merrily, balloon sellers peddled their wares and tourists clicked pictures with India Gate and its ‘eternal flame’ in the background. Movies were shot there, and the patriotic feelings of citizens found a unique way of expression. Remember the popular song “Apni toh paathshala, masti ki paathshala...” from the cult movie ‘Rang De Basanti’, in which a group of youngsters drive around the India Gate, saluting the ‘eternal flame’?

The commemoration of the 1971 war now happens at the National War Memorial (NWM), as the ‘eternal flame’ of India Gate has been moved and merged with the ‘eternal flame’ at the NWM. The war memorial is all-encompassing and does justice to Indians who made the supreme sacrifice in every war since Independence. Their names are etched in its hallowed portals, and one cannot but get emotional seeing their near and dear ones in tears on spotting their names — what memories and thoughts must be passing through their minds.

On this Vijay Diwas, too, wreaths were laid at the war memorial by representatives of a grateful nation. The same would have happened at India Gate also if the ‘eternal flame’ was present there. An added advantage would have been that the common man, too, would have got a chance to pay his respects due to its easy accessibility to one and all — something missing in the NWM due to its location. Be that as it may, the solemnity of Vijay Diwas is not reduced one bit by the site of the commemorative place — it is just that India Gate had a ‘common man feel’.

So, as the nation commemorated the iconic happening on December 16, this writer, who was a Class XI student 53 years ago, could not but remember being glued to All India Radio and listening to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi inform the world, “Dacca is the free capital of a free country.” Little did she realise that India Gate’s ‘eternal flame’ would imbue that World War I monument with a nationalistic cult status — and a unique ‘India Gate feeling’ that, alas, is now missing.