No more 'Duty Unto Death' for the BSF
By: Anshuman G Dutta

Date: 2009-11-03

Place: Delhi
Border Security Force removes English version of motto, reverts to Hindi. Officers say the word 'death' in the phrase was affecting jawans The Border Security Force (BSF), the largest border guarding force in the country, has had a change of motto. Alarmed by the negative psychological effect the BSF's motto in English, 'Duty Unto Death', was having on its jawans, the force has silently removed it from use. Now, only the original Hindi version, 'Kartavya Jeevan Paryant' is being promoted.

"It happened sometimes back. Now our motto will be read only in the national language as 'Kartavya Jeevan Paryant,'" said a senior BSF official, wishing anonymity. He said the English version of the motto has been permanently removed from all use. "The motto of a force is printed everywhere. It finds a place on writing pads, calendars, diaries, cutleries and vehicles etc. It is a part of the daily life of the troops and gets recognised as the nature of the force," said the officer.
Interestingly, no one in the BSF remembers the exact date and sequence of events under which 'Duty Unto Death' got recognised as the English version of 'Kartavya Jeevan Paryant.' "It took over the original motto in Hindi and you will find the English version almost everywhere. But recently, it started appearing as if the force is promoting death instead of other factors required to excel in the profession," said a junior officer from BSF, wishing anonymity. Though the motto change had been planned earlier as well, this time the organisation has silently gone ahead with its plans. "The change is definite but gradual. We have started to replace the English version with the Hindi one, but it may take some time," said an officer. "The exercise may look insignificant to an outsider but for our jawans it matters a lot. They believe in the ethos of the force and live their lives by it. While English has never been their preferred language of communication, they were particularly wary of the 'death' message," said the officer. Death or life?An incident in Jammu and Kashmir highlighted the mental strain of a BSF jawan for believing in the motto written in English. A few years back after a BSF convoy faced an IED blast in J&K, militants circled the word 'death' in the motto with pebbles. "Similar incidents were reported from other areas also where militants attacked our men, convoys and camps. Later we realised that the motto instead of motivating our jawans was being used by militants to target their psychology. In fact it's almost derogatory that we were promoting death as our motto while it should have been duty throughout our lives," said the officer.