The Amar Jawan Jyoti flame at India Gate in New Delhi will be extinguished on Friday — 50 years after it was lit to pay homage to the soldiers who had made the supreme sacrifice for the nation during India’s war against Pakistan in December 1971.
The flame will be merged with that at the Amar Chakra in the National War Memorial that was built about 400 metres away to honour all the soldiers, who had fought and attained martyrdom in all the military conflicts since Independence in August 1947.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the National War Memorial in February 2019.
An official said the Amar Jawan Jyoti would be extinguished at 4 pm on Friday and the flame would be ceremonially merged with that in the Amar Chakra shortly thereafter.
The iconic India Gate was constructed in 1931 by the British government as a memorial to 90,000 soldiers of the British Indian Army who died between 1914 and 1921 in the First World War and the Third Anglo-Afghan War.
The Amar Jawan Jyoti with the commemorative structure of a helmet and an inverted rifle was installed overnight under the Arch of India Gate in January 1972 soon after India’s victory in the war against Pakistan in 1971. The eternal flame was lit as the nation’s tribute to the soldiers, who had laid down their lives in the war, which had liberated East Pakistan into the new nation of Bangladesh.
The Presidents, Prime Ministers and the chiefs of the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force as well as the other dignitaries, including the foreign guests, have been placing wreaths at the Amar Jawan Jyoti on the occasion of the Republic Day every year since 1972, paying homage to the fallen soldiers.
The tradition, however, changed in January 2020 with the Republic Day ceremony beginning with the Prime Minister placing wreaths at the National War Memorial, instead of the Amar Jawan Jyoti.
The Amar Chakra or the Circle of Immortality at the National War Memorial has an obelisk with an eternal flame., symbolising the immortality of the spirit of fallen soldiers.
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