Amar Jawan Jyoti to be merged with National War Memorial flame

At 1554 hours today, Air Marshal Balabadra Radha Krishna, Chief of Integrated Defence Staff, in the absence of serving Chief of Defence Staff will merge the flames of Amar Jawan Jyoti with the eternal flame at the National War Memorial in a ceremonial function.

According to South Block officials, the merger of flames will be done in an elaborate ceremony which begins at 3:30pm with the arrival of CISC at the Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate. The flame will be moved in a torch to National War Memorial along with Guard Contingent and the two flames will be merged.

The merger of flames was done as the Amar Jawan Jyoti was lit up in 1972 after the 1971 Indo-Pak war under the India Gate, which is a memorial to 90,000 soldiers of the British Indian Army who died between 1914 and 1921in the World War I, in France, Flanders, Mesopotamia, Persia, East Africa, Gallipoli and the Third Afghan War. While the Amar Jawan flames represent the immortal soldier, the India Gate is representative of Colonial India.

The National War Memorial, unveiled on February 25, 2019, honors and represents soldiers of Indian military who fought conflicts for independent India. The name of armed forces personnel killed during the armed conflicts with Pakistan and China as well as 1961 war in Goa, Operation Pawan in Sri Lanka and other operations including Rakshak in UT of Jammu and Kashmir are inscribed in the memorial in golden letters. This allows the near and dear ones of the fallen brave heart as well as the public to pay respects to the fallen warrior.

The decision to merge the two flames was taken as there cannot be two war memorials in close proximity to each other and it is the National War Memorial which represents independent India and eternal soldier.