Maha Bharat: Episode 47

Tiranga: Why is India’s flag the way it is?

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The Tiranga or our tri-coloured flag is among the first few things that comes to mind when you think of India. But this was not what our national flag looked like when it was originally created, and guess what, it went through many different iterations and several years to get the design right.

This episode traces the history of our flag and how we got to our beloved ‘Tiranga’.

Show Notes

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Links to clips used in this episode —

Full Transcript of Episode 47 –

Doston, I’m sure you remember hearing this in the news. The US Capitol riot–this is the last place you’d expect to see our tricolour, right?

As this news broke, many Indians were surprised. But some people–including many politicians–were angry. And of course, the incident sparked a big debate on social media.

But did you ever wonder–why this fuss over a flag? 

Well, the Tiranga is a symbol that represents our country. One of the first images that come to my head when I hear ‘India’, is definitely the Tiranga–our tricolour national flag.

Now I’m sure you get why waving this flag at a violent riot created so much uproar. 

Of course, there have also been times when the flag became a matter of national pride.  

Yes, when India’s Chandrayaan orbiter placed the tricolour on the Moon in November 2008, the whole nation celebrated! Here, the national flag became a marker of what we have achieved as a nation.  

Clearly, the Tiranga is very important to us. I’m sure you remember learning about the flag in your civics lessons in school. But did you know that our national flag did not always look like this? Or that the flags hoisted across India’s official government buildings are all manufactured in a remote village in Karnataka?

Chalo, in this episode, let’s get to know more about the Tiranga. And also answer the question: Why is India’s flag the way it is? 

The national flag as we know it today, was adopted on 22 July 1947–by members of the Constituent Assembly of India who met in the Constitution Hall in Delhi.

Yes, it happened weeks before our independence. 

Anyway, at this meeting, the first item on the agenda was reportedly a motion by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, about adopting a national flag for free India. 

That’s not Pandit Nehru speaking, that clip is actually from Samvidhaan–a TV series by veteran director Shyam Benegal about the Indian constitution.  

But our tricolour flag has a history of several decades before independence. Like I told you before, the design of the Indian flag has changed a lot over the years. 

Around the 19th century, back when India was a group of princely states, each small state had its own flag. There was no one national flag for India as a country. 

And guess who first introduced a national flag for India? Well, it’s actually the British East India Company! 

The British established direct imperial rule in India after the revolt of 1857. And after that, they instituted a national flag for India–which looks nothing like our current flag. 

This flag had a Union Jack on one side! 

Okay wait, what is the Union Jack? Well, it is the national flag of the United Kingdom. It’s called the Union Jack because it combines the crosses of the three countries united as one country–the kingdoms of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland. 

Now, coming back to the Indian flag created by the East India Company. It had a red background and if you imagine the flag divided into 4 equal parts, there was the Union Jack in the upper left quadrant or section. And on the right side of the flag, there was a star which represented India, surrounded by the royal crown.  

Many other countries which were British colonies back then, like Canada and South Africa, also had similar flags. 

Clearly, flags are important symbols which tell us a lot about the country they represent. And if you take the case of the first Indian flag, it told us who ruled India at the time, and if you think about it, it said nothing about India and Indians! 

And over the course of the Indian freedom struggle, our leaders decided that India needs a new flag–an Indian flag with Indian symbols. 

So, the first such flag is said to have been designed around 1906 by Sister Nivedita–an Irish disciple of Swami Vivekananda. 

Now, this was not a tricolour design. It was again a red flag with 108 yellow oil lamps along its border. The flag also had the symbol of a ‘Vajra’–which is the weapon of Lord Indra. And the words ‘Vande Mataram’ was written on it in Bengali. 

The same year, another flag design became popular, designed by Sachindra Prasad Bose and Sukumar Mitra, who were involved in the freedom struggle.  

This flag had three horizontal strips of red, yellow and green. The red strip had symbols of the sun and a crescent moon, while the green strip had eight lotuses. The yellow strip has Vande Mataram printed on it. This flag was popularly known as the ‘Calcutta flag’. 

Now, if you notice, unlike Sister Nivedita’s flag, the Calcutta flag had both Hindu and Muslim symbols–the lotus and the crescent moon. And of course, this symbolised Hindu-Muslim unity. 

This flag was a strong response to the ‘divide and rule’ policy that the British had introduced around this time. Under this policy, the British government had separated the largely Muslim eastern areas of Bengal from the largely Hindu western areas. 

The Calcutta flag is also said to be the first national flag to have been hoisted in a public place. So, in August 1906, the flag was hoisted at an anti-partition rally in Kolkata’s Parsee Bagan Square.  

The following year, the Indian flag was even hoisted on foriegn soils–that too by a woman! 

Now, this flag was very similar to the Calcutta flag. It had three stripes of green, saffron, and red. The top green part had eight lotuses and the bottom red part had a crescent moon and sun. The saffron part in the middle had Vande Mataram written in Devnagri script. 

Like I told you, this flag is remembered for being the first ‘Indian’ national flag to be hoisted in a foreign country.

So, on 22 August 1907, a Parsi woman called Bhikaji Cama hoisted the Indian flag at the Second Internationalist Socialist Congress in Germany–that too in front of leaders like Vladimir Lenin, who went on to become the leader of Soviet Russia.   

“This flag is of Indian Independence. Behold, it is born.”– These were her words as she hoisted the flag.

And what a statement that was! Just imagine, it was 1907–and India still had a long way to go before becoming fully independent. 

A whole new ‘Indian’ national flag was being hoisted in a foreign country in presence of powerful world leaders. Naturally, the British rulers back in India were infuriated by Cama. 

And of course, Lenin was really impressed by Cama’s speech. He even offered to let her stay in the Soviet Union! But Cama did not take up this offer. 

Anyway, Bhikaji Cama’s original flag is now displayed at the Maratha and Kesari Library in Pune.   

Even after 1907, many leaders came up with different designs for a national flag. 

But when did our present-day flag, the flag you and I know, originate?

This happened only in the 1920s. This was the time when Mahatma Gandhi was becoming a prominent figure in the Indian freedom struggle. He had just come back from South Africa in 1915.

But wait, he’s not the one who designed the flag. That was done by Pingali Venkayya –a Congress party member from Andhra Pradesh. 

Venkayya had a special interest in flags. He would spend a lot of time reading up and researching on flags. In 1916, he even published a booklet on different flags. 

And in the coming years–between 1918 and 1921–Venkayya raised the question of a national flag at every session of the Congress. Clearly, this man was obsessed with flags. So much so that it earned him a nickname–Jhanda Venkayya. 

Anyway, let’s come back to our national flag. 

So, during a 1921 Congress session, Venkayya presented Gandhi a basic design of the flag. It had two bands which were red and green in colour, which symbolised Hindus and Muslims.   

But Gandhi was not really satisfied with this design. That’s when educationist Lala Hansraj came up with an idea.

Why not add a charkha to the flag? 

Gandhi was pleased. He decided that the national flag will have a spinning wheel superimposed on a green and red background. 

Gandhi was so excited about this idea that he gave Venkayya a three-hour deadline to produce a new flag! He wanted to present the flag to the All India Congress Committee. But Venkayya could not meet this deadline, and Gandhi couldn’t display the flag at the meeting. 

But he wasn’t disappointed. And like Gandhi wrote later, maybe the delay was a good thing after all. 

He felt that the flag should have a colour that represents other religions also.

So keeping this in mind, Gandhi decided that he should add a third colour–white. 

This would represent all faiths other than Hinduism and Islam. Since these faiths were numerically the weakest, it was decided that the top most strip will be white in colour. Then came green, the Islamic colour. This was followed by red, the Hindu colour. 

So yes, even the placement of each of these colours had a special significance. For instance, Gandhi decided to place the red colour at the bottom because he wanted ‘the strongest community to act as a shield to the weakest.’

So coming back, the 1921 flag had a spinning wheel on a white, green and red background. 

But a decade later, a Congress committee changed the red band to saffron. Also, the topmost strip was saffron in colour, followed by white and then green. The charkha was placed in the middle of the white band. This flag was popularly known as the Swaraj flag. This became the official flag of the Congress at the 1931 meeting. But at the same time, it was also considered as a symbol of the freedom movement. 

Later, in 1947, when we were on the verge of becoming independent, many people objected to the national flag. 

How can the official flag of the Congress party become India’s national flag, many leaders asked. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru felt that this was a legitimate question. 

Later, the charkha in the middle was replaced with the wheel or Ashok Chakra. This change was suggested by Surayya Tyabji, wife of Badruddin Tyabji, a member of the constituent assembly at the time. Gandhi was not initially in favour of this change, but he later agreed.

Our leaders were very particular about our flag not being associated with any community or religion. So, the three bands in our tricolour were given new meanings. The saffron stood for courage and sacrifice, white for peace and truth, and green for faith and chivalry. 

So, on 15 August 1947–the day India got its independence–the Tiranga became the official flag of India. 

Phew, that was a lot of history. 

Anyway, now, the Tiranga is one of our national symbols. Wait, what does this mean? 

Well, our national flag is a symbol which represents India–which is why you see it in front of government buildings and vehicles. 

Yes, the flag hoisting by the President at the Red Fort on republic day is celebrated across the nation! 

But did you know that we have strict rules about flag hoisting? Yes, there’s something called Flag Code of India, 2002–these are basically a bunch of rules about the display of the national flag of India. 

So, according to the Flag Code, the Indian flag should have a width to height ratio of 3 is to 2 (3:2). All three horizontal bands should be equally spaced, and the Ashok Chakra should have 24 spokes which are evenly-spaced. Also, all flags are made of handspun khadi cloth of silk or cotton.

Also, there should be no writings on the flag and it shouldn’t be flown upside down. 

But the flag can be flown half-mast as a sign of mourning. This is in case of the death of important national leaders. 

Another interesting thing is that–for the longest time, the original flag code of India didn’t allow common people to hoist the national flag, except on national days. 

This only changed in 2002, when the flag code was amended to say that common people can also hoist the national flag as long as they maintain the honour and dignity of the flag. 

Let me tell you another interesting thing written in the flag code: It doesn’t prevent states from having their own flags. 

Does any state have a flag of its own? Like in the US–all the 50 states have separate flags, apart from the national flag. 

Well, the state of Jammu and Kashmir did have a flag of its own till 2019–till the time it was an autonomous state.  

It was a red flag, with three white vertical stripes on the left hand side, and a plough on the right side. 

But this flag is no longer officially recognised as the state flag. 

There are other states, too, that came close to having a flag. Back in 2017, Karnataka had raised a demand for a separate flag. 

[We hear a news report about Karnataka’s demand for a separate flag]

That was Siddaramaiah who was the chief minister of Karnataka at the time. This demand for a state flag went on for a couple of years. And eventually, the government clarified that it will not pursue the demand for a separate state flag. However, there is an official Kannada flag that is popularly flown in Karnataka, which has two equal yellow and red horizontal bands. 

Anyway, our constitution does not prohibit state flags–the flag code only says that the state flag should not dishonour the national flag. 

So, what if someone violates these rules? 

Well, then they can be punished under two laws–Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950; and the Prevention of Insults to National Honor Act, 1971.

So yes, you can’t just wear a T-shirt with the Indian flag on it–you may be punished for it. Did you know that a case was filed against Sachin Tendulkar in 2007 for cutting a cake with the Tiranga colours on it? 

Well, he’s not the only famous person who has been accused of disrespecting the flag.

[We hear news reports about Amazon and Narendra Modi]

Like you just heard, corporate giant Amazon and even our own prime minister have been criticized for disrespecting the flag!

So yes, we take our flag very seriously.

So, like there are serious laws about displaying the Tiranga, there are rules regarding the manufacture of the flag too. 

Right before independence day and republic day or even cricket matches, it’s very common for us to see small roadside vendors selling plastic flags. This is technically not permitted, according to India’s flag code. 

The manufacture of flags in India is regulated by the Bureau of Indian Standards, or BIS. 

Well, you’ll be surprised to know that all the national flags that are hoisted across government buildings in India are manufactured in one place.

No, it’s not made in a commercial factory. Our flags are made by women workers in a place called Bengeri (बेन्गेरी)–it’s a remote village in Karnataka’s Hubli (हुब्ली) city.

[We hear from India’s official flag makers]

That was H. Hanumanthappa the president of the Karnataka Khadi and Gramodyoga Samyukta Sangh (Federation) — the only official manufacturers of national flags in India. 

The federation was founded by a group of Gandhians in November 1957. They’ve been manufacturing flags since 2004. In 2006, they got a BIS, or Bureau of Indian Standards certification–to be the official manufacturer of national flags.

They manufacture flags in nine different sizes, and each of them are meant for a particular display. 

For instance, if you’ve gone to meet the district collector or an MLA in his or her office, you may see a small flag on their table. This flag follows a particular dimension, according to the flag code. Remember the national flag displayed on ministers’ cars? The flag code specifies a particular size for this too! 

But making these flags is no easy task. 

[We hear excerpts of documentary on India’s flag makers]

The BIS checks the quality of the flag along every step of the process. And if in case there are mistakes in the process of manufacturing, then the BIS rejects those flags. 

So what happens to these rejected flags? Well, these flags are disposed of with utmost respect. 

You just listened to the manager of the flag-making unit in Bengeri. 

So yes, the next time you see the Tiranga flying high in the sky, remember that there’s a long story behind the making of each national flag. And like you just heard, the flag is made with great care at every step of the manufacturing process, and that there are strict rules about the public display of our flag—since the Tiranga is also a reminder of India’s long struggle for independence.

That’s it from me this week! I’ll see you next week in another brand new episode of Mahabharat. 

———-

Credits

Narrated by – Dhruv Rathee
Producer – Gaurav Vaz
Written by – Medha V and Gaurav Vaz
Title Track Design – Abhijith Nath
Audio Production – Madhav Ayachit