Tiranga: The Journey of our National Flag

“When we honour our flag, we honour what we stand for as a nation—freedom, equality, justice, and hope.” 

Every sovereign nation has a flag to represent it. A flag is not just a piece of cloth, it is the symbol that stands for freedom and sovereignty. Our flag, the 'Tiranga', is not only the representation of our pride or political ideologies, but is also the symbol of our unity, our heritage, and our aspirations as a free nation. As someone rightly said, a flag is the history of a nation. Our national flag also had a long historical journey through which it evolved to its present form. 

In the early phase of the Indian freedom struggle, the people of India did not have any flag to represent the nation. The idea of a national flag first emerged during the time of the Partition of Bengal. To implement the British political theory of "Divide and Rule", the partition of Bengal was declared on 19th July 1905. The Bengal Presidency was divided on communal lines by separating Muslim majority Eastern Bengal from the Hindu majority western Bengal. Bengalis staged a vehement opposition to this communal ploy to weaken the Indian national aspiration. Indian leaders and nationalists all over the country also supported the Bengali Cause and soon the protest took a radical shape, especially in Bengal. Amid this protest, a young student leader named Sachindra Prasad Bose of Ripon College, in association with another radical Bengali named Hemchandra Das Kanungo designed a flag with three horizontal bands of equal width—orange, yellow, and green. The word Vande Mataram was written in the middle, in the Devnagari script. This flag was unfurled on 7th August 1906, at Parsi Bagan Park Square of Calcutta. This flag, known as the 'Calcutta Flag', was the first attempt to unite Indians under a single flag. However, in 1911, Bengal was re-united again, reversing the partition, and slowly the "Calcutta Flag" was erased from public memory. 

The second attempt to provide the Indian Nation with a flag of their own was made in faraway Germany in the year 1907. Hemchandra Das Kanungo went to Paris in 1907 to learn the technique of assembling bombs from the exiled Russian revolutionaries. During his stay in Europe, he met Madam Bhikaji Cama, who was going to attend the Second Socialist Congress in Stuttgart, Germany. Madam Cama and Hemchandra Das together modified the "Calcutta Flag' and designed a new flag with three horizontal bands of equal width—green, yellow, and red. The colours represent Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, respectively. The crescent moon and the sun in the flag again represent Islam and Hinduism, respectively. The eight lotuses in the flag represent the eight provinces of British India. The words 'Vande Mataram' in the Devanagri script were in the middle. Madam Cama delivered a rousing speech at the Stuttgart Congress on August 22 1907 describing the mismanagement of the famine situation by the British in India and appealing for human rights, equality and autonomy from the British Rule. In the same venue, Madam Cama also unfurled a flag of the Indian people, that she called "the flag of Indian Independence". W.E.B. Du Bois wrote his famous novel ' Dark Princess ', inspired by Madam Cama's courageous activities in the Congress of Stuttgart. 

In the year 1917, the Home Rule Movement was at its peak. The leaders of the movement, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Annie Besant, were arrested by the British. Annie Besant was kept under house arrest for more than three months in Birla House in Ooty. During the house arrest, Besant designed a 'National Flag' and hoisted it on the Birla House premise. The flag had a union jack within it. 

Far from these political upheavals, a young boy of 19 years, from Bhatlapenumaru village in Andhra Pradesh, named Pingali Venkayya joined the British Indian Army and went to fight in the Second Boer War (1899–1902) in South Africa. Here he first came to know about Mahatma Gandhi and met him too. Indian soldiers also had to salute the British flag, the Union Jack, every time they were on duty. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, during his stay in South Africa, young Pingali first realised the need for a National Flag for the Indians. After returning back, he joined the 1906 Congress Session in Kolkata and opposed the idea of hoisting the British National flag at the Congress Session. Pingali Venkayya expressed his desire to design a national flag for the Indians. However, nobody pay hid to him.  

In the subsequent years, Pingali started working on an Indian National flag and designed some 25 different draft flags based on Indian culture, heritage, and history. However, the top leaders did not give much importance to the Indian flag. In the year 1916, Pingali Venkayya even published a book in Telegu, titled ' Bharatha Desaniki Oka Jatiya Patakam' with 30 draft designs of a prospective Indian National Flag.

Pingali Venkayya's big day came when Mahatma Gandhi attended the AICC Session at Vijaywada on March 31st 2021. It was in that Congress Session that Mahatma Gandhi requested Pingali Venkayya to submit a draft design for an Indian National Flag. Pingali Venkayya submitted a two-coloured khadi flag with Green and Red bands and a 'charkha' in it. The Red and Green represented the Hindu-Muslim Unity in the country. However, Mahatma Gandhi suggested to add a white band above, to represent other religions and sects in the country. Soon this flag became the National Flag for Indians and was used in all activities of the Indian freedom struggle. 

After ten years, in 1931 AICC reordered the colours and changed red with saffron, and officially adopted the flag as the national flag of India with a smaller "Charkha" in the middle.  

However, the same flag was also used as the official flag of the Congress Party. Therefore, many members of the Constituent Assembly started questioning, how the flag of a political party be the flag of a free, sovereign country. Pandit Nehru, the most powerful political figure at that time, was also in agreement with the opposition, and he gave young bureaucrat turned freedom fighter Badruddin Tayabji the responsibility to find a new National Flag as early as possible. Soon a flag committee was also constituted under the chairmanship of Dr Rajendra Prasad. The committee invited designs from all the prominent art schools, designers and artists. Lots of people submitted their draft designs, but the committee was not impressed by any. 

Finally, the Committee decided to modify the existing flag originally designed by Pingali Vankayaa. They remove the word "Charkha" with the word "Dharma Chakra' of Asoka in black colour, and also clarified that none of the colours in the flag has any communal significance. Badruddin Tayabji's wife Suraiyaa Tayab, being an artist, made a draft design of the flag as decided by the Committee, and a model flag was sewn under her supervision at Edde Tailors & Drapers in Connaught Place. The flag was submitted to Mahatma Gandhi for his approval. Mahatma Gandhi changed the colour of the Asoka Chakra from black to navy blue. And with that our national flag reached its finality. 

The Indian national flag in its present form was adopted on 22nd July 1947 by the Constituent Assembly. Within a month, India became a free and sovereign nation with a new flag to proudly represent its millions of people of different shades and shapes and their centuries-old culture and civilization.