Indian Flag History
Our national flag is a symbol of India’s independence and a divine tool to proclaim the unity of the country by uniting the people of different castes, creeds, sects and cultures under one flag. To know its history, design and meaning of colors see here….
Our national flag is a symbol of India’s independence and a divine tool to unite people of different castes, creeds, sects and cultures under one banner and proclaim the unity of the country. The history of this national flag adds to the dignity of the country.
History of Indian Flag Begins The concept of Indian flag came between 1904-1906 before independence. It was prepared by Sister Nivedita, an Irish disciple of Swami Vivekananda. It was later called Sister Nivedita Flag. It was red and yellow in color and had “Bonde Mathoram” written on it which means Vande Mataram.
Another flag was designed in 1906. It had blue, yellow and red colors on the flag with blue at the top and 8 stars. Vande Mataram was written in Deva script on the yellow paint. On the red stripe was a picture of the sun and the crescent moon. In the same year another flag was created which was orange yellow and green in color and had eight half lotuses called Calcutta Flag or Lotus Flag.
In 1907 Madam Bikaji Rustam Kama, Vinayak Damodar Sarvakar and Shami jointly designed a flag. Madame Cama hoisted this flag on 22 August 1907 at Stuttgart, Germany and became the first Indian flag to be hoisted on foreign soil. From this incident onwards it was referred to as the Berlin Committee flag.
In 1916 author Pingali Venkaiah designed another flag with the purpose of uniting the entire nation. When he went for Mahatma Gandhi’s approval, Gandhiji suggested using the charaka in the flag as a symbol of the country’s economic revival. Pingali created a flag from hand-woven yarn khadi. Charaka was depicted in the middle of it. But Gandhiji did not accept it because it had red and green colors, red representing the Hindu community and green representing the Muslim community and not the other communities of India.
In 1917, the Home Rule League, formed by Balagangadhar Tilak, adopted a flag. The flag had the Union Jack at the top. The flag had 7 stars and a crescent moon surmounted by another star but it was not popular among the masses
In 1921 a new flag was designed as per Gandhiji’s idea with white at the top followed by green and red at the bottom which represented all the communities in India. Charaka was depicted in it. This flag was used as a symbol of nationalism in India’s freedom struggle.
The communal interpretation of this earlier flag was disagreeable among some, so Pingali Venkaiah made another flag which had saffron on the top, white on the back and green on the bottom with a Charaka depicted in the centre. This flag was presented before the Congress Committee in 1931 and was adopted as the official flag of the Committee.
A few days before the country became independent, on July 22, 1947, a meeting was organized on the constitution of independent India. There the national flag tricolor was presented in front of everyone for the first time. It was adopted with the change of flag made in 1931. In the middle of the Ashoka cycle, the spinning wheel was removed. This chakra has 24 lines. From August 15, 1947 to January 26, 1950, the national flag was presented as the Dominion of India. When the Constitution came into effect in 1950, it was declared the national flag of the independent republic. .
Our national flag is popularly known by its name ‘Trianga’. Tiranga in Hindi means three colors and half. In this, saffron is a symbol of courage and sacrifice. White is a symbol of peace, honesty and purity. Green is a symbol of prosperity, vitality and life. Ashoka Chakra shows the dynamism of life
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has set standards for flag manufacture. Every little matter concerning its construction, its cloth, its thread, its color, its proportion, everything according to the rule, even the matters concerning its flight are written in the rule.