Question

Trace the history of our national flag

Answer 1

The national flag is popularly known as Tiranga, which means "three colours" or "tricoloured". It is a horizontal tricolour in equal proportion of deep saffron at the top, white in the middle and green at the bottom. The ratio of the width to the length of the flag is 2:3. At the centre of the white band is a wheel with 24 spokes in navy blue colour that indicates the Dharma Chakra.

The history of the Indian National Flag over the years:

1904-06:: The history of the Indian flag dates back to pre-independence era. It was between 1904 and 1906 that the first Indian flag came into being. It was made by an Irish disciple of Swami Vivekananda. Her name was Sister Nivedita and after some time this flag came to be known as Sister Nivedita's flag. This flag comprised the red and yellow colours. Red signified the freedom struggle and yellow was a symbol of victory. It had the words "Bonde Matoram" in Bengali written on it. The flag also contained a figure of 'Vajra', weapon of god 'Indra', and a white lotus in the middle. The 'Vajra' is a symbol of strength and lotus depicts purity.

Indian flag in 1906: After Sister Nivedita's flag, another flag was designed in 1906. It was a tricolour with three equal strips of blue (top), yellow (middle) and red (lower). In this flag the blue strip had eight stars of slightly different shapes. The red strip had two symbols, one of sun and the other of a star and a crescent. The yellow strip had 'Vande Mataram' written on it in Devnagiri script.



1916: In 1916 Pingali Venkayya, a writer and a geophysicist, designed a flag with the intention to bring the whole nation together. He met Mahatma Gandhi and sought his approval. Mahatma Gandhi suggested him to incorporate a charkha as a symbol of economic regeneration of India, in the flag. Pingali created the flag from hand spun yarn 'Khadi'. The flag had two colours and a 'Charkha' drawn across them but Mahatma Gandhi did not approve of it as he was of the opinion that red represented the Hindu community and green Muslims, but the other communities of India were not represented in the flag.

Indian Flag in 1917 :The Home Rule League formed by Bal Gangadhar Tilak adopted a new flag in 1917, as at that time the Dominion status was being demanded for India. The flag had the union jack at the top, near the hoist. The rest of the flag contained five red and four blue strips. It had seven stars on it in the shape of 'Saptarishi' constellation which is supposed to be the sacred one for Hindus. It also had a crescent moon and a star at the top fly end. This flag did not gain popularity among the masses.

Indian Flag in 1921:As Mahatma Gandhi wanted all the communities of India to be represented in the flag of the nation, a new flag was designed. This flag had three colours. At the top was white then green and at the bottom was red. White symbolised minority communities of India, green Muslims and the red represented Hindu and Sikh communities. The 'Charkha' was drawn across all the bands symbolising the unification of these communities. The pattern of this flag was based on the flag of Ireland, another nation which was struggling to get its independence from Britain. Although the Congress Committee did not adopt it as its official flag but it was widely used as a symbol of nationalism in India's freedom struggle.

Indian Flag in 1931: Some people were not happy with the communal interpretation of the flag. Keeping this in view, a new flag was designed which replaced red with ochre. This colour signified the combined spirit of both religions as saffron was the colour of Hindu yogis as well as Muslim darvesh. But the Sikh community also demanded a separate representation in the flag or the complete abandonment of religious colours. This resulted in another flag by Pingali Venkayya. This new flag had three colours. Saffron was at the top followed by white in the middle and green at the bottom. The 'Charkha' was placed at the center. This flag was passed at the meeting of Congress Committee in 1931 and was adopted as the official flag of the Committee.

Indian Flag in 1947: When India got independence, a committee headed by Rajendra Prasad was formed to select the National Flag of India. The committee decided to adopt the flag of Indian National Congress, with suitable modifications, as the flag of independent India. As a result, the flag of 1931 was adopted as Indian flag but 'Charkha' in the middle was replaced by 'Chakra' (wheel) and hence our National Flag came into being. 

British India Flag 1858-1947:This flag introduced by British India in 1858. The design of the flag was based on western heraldic standards and it was similar to flags of other British colonies, including Canada and Australia. The blue banner included the Union Flag in the upper-left quadrant and a Star of India capped by the royal crown in the middle of the right half.