About India
India is one of the oldest civilizations in the world with a kaleidoscopic variety and rich cultural heritage. It has achieved all-round socio-economic progress since Independence. As the 7th largest country in the world, India stands apart from the rest of Asia, marked off as it is by mountains and the sea, which give the country a distinct geographical entity. Bounded by the Great Himalayas in the north, it stretches southwards and at the Tropic of Cancer, tapers off into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal on the east and the Arabian Sea on the west.INDIAN FLAG HISTORY | History of the Indian National Flag | National Flag of India Images, History of Indian Flag In English
 Official flag of independent India On July 22, 1947, the Constituent Assembly adopted it as Free India National Flag. After the advent of Independence, the colours and their significance remained the same. Only the Dharma Charkha of Emperor Asoka was adopted in place of the spinning wheel as the emblem on the flag. Thus, the tricolour flag of the Congress Party eventually became the tricolour flag of Independent India. |
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.In the same year, another version of the Indian flag was created. It was also tricolour but its colours were different. It had orange, yellow and green and came to be known as 'Calcutta flag' or 'Lotus flag', as it had eight half open lotuses on it. It is believed to be have been designed by Sachindra Prasad Bose and Sukumar Mitra. It was unfurled on 7 August 1906 at Parsi Bagan Square, Kolkata. The day was being observed as "boycott day" against the partition of Bengal and Sir Surendranath Banerjee hoisted this flag to mark the unity of India.
Indian flag in 1907: In 1907 came the Madam Bhikaji Rustom Cama's flag. The flag was collectively designed by Madam Bhikaji Cama, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (Veer Savarkar) and Shyamji Krishna Varma. The flag was unfurled by Madam Cama on 22 August 1907 at Stuttgrat, Germany, and attained the status of the first Indian flag to be hoisted in a foreign land. From this event onwards it was also referred to as 'Berlin Committee flag'. The flag consisted of three colours- the topmost being green followed by golden saffron in the middle and the red colour at the bottom.Indian flag in 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 the 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 than 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.Colours of the Flag
In the national flag of India the top band is of Saffron colour, indicating the strength and courage of the country. The white middle band indicates peace and truth with Dharma Chakra. The last band is green in colour shows the fertility, growth and auspiciousness of the land.
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