The National Flag of India, commonly known as Tiranga, represents the hope and aspirations of the people of India and is a symbol of our national pride.
By Pragya Kothari
The flag is a symbol of a country’s values and pride which differentiates it from the rest of the world. It is an identity of the people in front of the world and is connected with patriotic emotions. The National Flag symbolizes the norms, values, beliefs, and rules of the nation and its people.
The importance of the flag and waving it outside the homes and offices is an important tool to express patriotic emotions and love for the country. The National Flag of India, commonly known as Tiranga, represents the hope and aspirations of the people of India and is a symbol of our national pride.
The National Flag has three equal, parallel, and rectangular stripes of Indian saffron (kesari/saffron) at the top, white in the middle, and Indian green at the bottom. A navy blue colored Dharma Chakra or “Wheel of the Law”, also called Ashoka Chakra, with 24 equally-spaced spokes is placed in the center of the white band. This Wheel has been derived from the Lion Capital of the Great Mauryan emperor Ashoka which was discovered at Sarnath near Varanasi.
The flags designed by Sister Nivedita (left), a disciple of Swami Vivekananda, came into being in 1905.
Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's Vande Mataram written in the Devanagari script.
This flag was hoisted on August 22, 1907, by Madam Bhikaji Cama (left) in Stuttgart, Germany.
The evolution of the Indian Flag represents the freedom struggle of India. The first Indian flag came into being in 1905. It was made by Sister Nivedita, an Irish disciple of Swami Vivekananda. The words Vande Mataram in Bengali script were written on it. The flag also contained a figure of Vajra in the middle, the weapon of the Hindu deity, Indra.
In 1906, another flag, a tricolor, was designed with three equal stripes, green at the top, yellow in the middle, and red at the bottom. This flag had symbols of the Sun and a crescent along with eight half-opened lotuses. This flag had the words Vande Mataram written in the Devanagari script, and it was hoisted by Sir Surendranath Bannerjee at Kolkata to mark the unity of India against the
Partition of Bengal.
Another version of the tricolor was developed in the year 1907 by Madam Bhikaji Cama, Veer Savarkar, and Shyamji Krishna Varma. This flag had three bands – green at the top, saffron in the middle, and red at the bottom with Vande Mataram in Devanagari script on the center band. This flag was hoisted on August 22, 1907, by Madam Bhikaji Cama in Stuttgart, Germany who became the first person to hoist the Indian Flag on foreign soil.
In 1921, Pingali Venkaiah a young man from a small village in Andhra Pradesh, designed the Indian Flag at the insistence of Mahatma Gandhi. The flag had three bands with a large charkha superimposed on all three bands. In 1931, a modified tricolor came into existence with three bands – saffron at the top, white in the middle, and green at the bottom, with a Charkha in dark blue color imprinted on the middle band.
Pingali Venkayya, the designer of India’s Swaraj (Freedom) Flag. His original design is shown in the top right-hand corner of the stamp.
A rare stamp of Azad Hind (free India).
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The Jai Hind stamp was issued on December 15, 1947.
In 1943, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, the Supreme Commander of the Indian National Army (INA), adopted the Purna Swaraj Flag but substituted the spinning wheel with an image of a springing tiger. The tiger image symbolized the strength of the Indian people and their indomitable will to fight. The design was replicated on stamps, which were printed in 1943 at Reichsdruckerei in Berlin. However, these were never sent to India for postal service.
In 1947, the India National Flag in its present form was adopted in a meeting of the Constituent Assembly on July 22, 1947. Leading a group of 70 women, Hansa Mehta presented the first National Flag of independent India to Dr Rajendra Prasad, the Chairman of the Constituent Assembly, in the Parliament on midnight of August 14-15, 1947.
It first served as the National Flag of the Dominion of India from August 15, 1947, to January 26, 1950, and, thereafter, as the National Flag of the Republic of India. In modern times, the Government envisages to transform the relationship between the National Flag and citizens to be personal rather than formal and institutional, so as to evoke a sense of patriotism in the hearts of the people.
The Har Ghar Tiranga campaign has been initiated by the Government to propagate this idea and to inspire the citizens to hoist the national flag at home. We salute the spirit of the Indian National Flag and recognize the sacrifices of all freedom fighters and unsung heroes who contributed to the rise of free and independent India and the evolution of the Indian Flag, and also, the Department of Posts to issue stamp on the evolution of the Indian Flag, a symbol of national pride of the entire nation.
The Har Ghar Tiranga campaign is a government initiative to inspire citizens to hoist the Tricolor at home. (Photo courtesy: Govt of India)
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(The writer is a Fellow, Royal Philatelic Society, London)
(All Photos courtesy: Pragya Kothari, FRPSL)
