Flag of India

Congress made several alterations till 1931 when the Congress Committee met in Karachi and decided to adopt the tricolour as our national flag. The old design consisted of two red and green bands representing Hindus and Muslims’ two primary communities. The red was replaced with saffron, and the committee rearranged the colours. The flag was not supposed to have any religious significance. Read the full article to understand the meaning of the tricolour Indian flag and to know about the Indian flag colours meaning.

Evolution of Tricolour

• On the 7th of August, 1906, in Kolkata, the first national flag of India was raised. It was composed of three horizontal green, red, and yellow stripes.
• In the year 1907, the hosting of the second flag was done by Madame Cama along with her band of exiled revolutionaries in Paris. Only the top strip contained one lotus instead of Saptarishi’s seven stars in comparison with the previous flag. 
• The first time the third flag was flown was in the year 1917 when the political war had reached a crucial point. Lokmanya Tilak and Dr Annie Besant raised it during the Home Rule movement. This flag had alternating four green and red horizontal stripes along with seven superimposed Saptarishi stars. There was a star and white crescent in one corner and a Union Jack in the leftmost upper corner.
• An Andhra teenager presented a flag produced by him to Gandhiji during the All India Congress Committee meeting in Bezwada in 1921. It comprises two colours: green and red, representing Muslims and Hindus. Gandhiji added a white strip to represent India’s remaining communities and for reflecting the nation’s progress added a spinning wheel.
• The year 1931 was a great moment in the flag’s history. As our national flag, the adoption of a tricolour flag was approved by a resolution. Saffron, white, and green colours were used in the flag. It also features in the centre of Mahatma Gandhi’s spinning wheel. It was, however, emphasised that it had no communal importance.
• On July 22, 1947, the Constituent Assembly designated the Free India National Flag. The Indian flag colours and meaning of the tricolour Indian flag remained unchanged after the declaration of independence. Only Emperor Ashoka’s, Dharma Chakra was replaced as the flag’s emblem instead of the spinning wheel. So, in the end, the Congress Party’s tricolour flag finally became the tricolour flag of Independent India.

Indian Flag Colour Meaning

The Tricolour evolved to become India’s flag after the time of independence. The meaning of the tricolour Indian flag is – Saffron represents “strength and courage” at the top, white represents “peace and truth” in the middle, and green represents “fertility, growth, and auspiciousness of the land” at the bottom. The Ashok Chakra, with its 24 spokes, took the place of the spinning wheel as the flag’s emblem. Its goal is to “demonstrate that there is life in motion and death in stillness.” The Bureau of Indian Standards(BIS) has issued three documents that govern the design and production of the national flag.

Facts About The Tricolour Indian Flag 

• The flag is a horizontal tricolour. It is a saffron band at the top, with a white band in the middle, and a green band at the bottom.
• The navy blue Ashoka Chakra in the centre, with twenty-four spokes, is taken from the Ashoka pillar in Sarnath.
• The Ashoka Chakra’s diameter is three-quarters of the white strip’s height. The proportion of the flag’s height to its breadth is 2:3.
• The flag is also the war banner of the Indian Army, which is flown on military sites every day.
• As per the BIS, the flag must be made from ” khadi,” a hand-spun yarn. 
• Further, the Indian Flag Code regulates how to display and use the national flag.
• In Stuttgart, Germany, Madam Bhikaji Rustom Cama was the first individual to raise the Flag of India abroad on August 22, 1907.

Conclusion

Hence the creation of the Indian Flag took years of research. Pingali Venkayya even issued a book with proposed Indian flag designs in 1916. Gandhi suggested adding a white band to signify peace and the rest of India’s communities and a spinning wheel to represent the country’s progress. In India, the first national flag was raised in Parsee Bagan Square in Calcutta, on August 7, 1906. In this article, we have seen the meaning of the tricolour Indian flag and explored various facts about the meaning of the Ashoka Chakra.