EVOLUTION OF INDIAN NATIONAL FLAG

        Ever Indian respects the national flag. But not many Indians can claim to know how the tricolor evolved over decades.

         The present flag underwent at least six radical changes from colours to symbols of authority on it between 1906 and 1947 when it was finally adopted by the onstituent Assembly as the National Flag. Jawaharlal Nehru introduced the resolution to that effect. The first flag in India is believed to have been hoisted on August 7, 1906, in the Parsee Bagan Square (Green Park) in Kolkata. The flag had horizontal stripes of red, yellow and green.

         The second flag to have been hoisted was by Madame Cama and her band of exiled revolutionaries in Paris in 1907. Some say that it was in 1905, though. This was very similar to the first flag and it was exhibited at a socialist conference in Berlin. Dr Annie Besant and Lokmanya Tilak hoisted the third flag in 1917 during the Home Rule movement. The Union Jack symbolized the ideal of Dominion Status.

      At a meeting of the All-India Congress Committee at Bezwada, now Vijayawada, in Andhra Pradesh in 1921,  Pingali Venkayya, a young man from Machilipatnam in Krishna Mandal, prepared a flag and took it to Gandhiji. It was red and green, representing the two major communities in India. Gandhiji suggested that a white strip to represent the remaining communities in the country and a ‘charkha’ be added. Thus was the tricolor born and it was hoisted.

       A committee of seven persons was appointed in 1931 to elicit opinion on the choice of a flag. It proposed a plain saffron flag with a ‘charkha’ in reddish brown. The All-India Congress Committee rejected the proposal. The same year a resolution was passed at the Karachi session of the All-India Congress Committee adopting a tricolor as the national emblem. It had three colors: saffron, white and green. No religious significance was, however, attached to the colors. They represented saffron for courage and sacrifice, white for truth and peace, and green for faith and chivalry. On July 22, 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru presented the national flag to the Constituent Assembly.

       This was the tricolour, but the “charkha” was substituted with the “Dharma Chakra” of Asoka, the wheel of the Law of Dharma. Dr Radhakrishnan said on the occasion: “Truth or satya, dharma or virtue, ought to be the controlling principles of all those who work under this flag. Again, the wheel denotes motion. There is death in stagnation. There is life in movement. India should no more resist change; it must move and go forward. The wheel represents the dynamism of a peaceful change…” On the same occasion, Jawaharlal Nehru moved the following resolution in the Constituent Assembly: ‘Resolved that the National Flag of India shall be horizontal tricolor of deep saffron (kesri), white and dark green in equal proportions. In the centre of the white band, there shall be a wheel in navy blue to represent the “charkha.” The design of the wheel shall be that of the wheel (charkha) which appears on the abacus of the Sarnath Lion Capital of Asoka.