A number of flags with varying designs were used by the rulers of various princely states in the period preceding the Indian Independence Movement; the idea of a single Indian flag was first raised by India's British rulers after the 1857 rebellion which led to the establishment of direct imperial rule.The first flag, whose design was based on Western heraldic standards, was similar to the flags of other British colonies, including Canada and South Africa; its red field included the Union Jack in the upper left quadrant, and a Star of India capped in the middle of the right half by the royal crown. To address the question of how "Indianness" was conveyed by the star, Queen Victoria created the Order of the Star of India's Knight Commander to honor the empire services by her Indian subjects. All the Indian princely states subsequently received flags with symbols based on Europe's heraldic criteria including the right to fly defaced British red enchants.
A debate started after the coronation of Edward VII in the early twentieth century on the need for a heraldic emblem symbolic of the Indian empire. William Coldstream, a British member of the Indian Civil Service, advocated for the government to change the heraldic emblem from a star, which he considered a popular choice, into something more appropriate. His proposal was not well received by the Government; for practical reasons including the multiplication of flags, Lord Curzon rejected it.Nationalist opinion within the realm had led through religious tradition to a representation around this time. The Ganesha, advocated by Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and Kali, advocated by Aurobindo Ghosh and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay included the symbols that were in vogue. The cow was yet another symbol. All these symbols, however, were Hindu-centric, and did not suggest solidarity with the Muslim population of India.
The partition of Bengal (1905) led to the introduction of a new flag representing the Indian independence movement, which sought to unite the country's multitude of castes and races. The Vande Mataram flag, part of the Swadeshi anti-British movement, comprised Indian religious symbols represented in heraldic western fashion. The tricolor flag included eight white lotuses on the upper green band representing the eight provinces, one sun and one crescent on the bottom red band, and the central yellow band slogan Vande Mataram in Hindi.The flag was raised in Calcutta devoid of any ceremony and newspapers reported the launch only briefly. Neither was the flag displayed in contemporary governmental or political records but was used at the Indian National Congress' annual session. Mrs Bhikaji Cama later used a slightly modified version at the Second International Socialist Congress in Stuttgart in 1907. This has struggled to create excitement among Indian nationalists, given the numerous uses of the flag.
Sister Nivedita, a Hindu reformist and Swami Vivekananda disciple, initiated another proposal for the flag at around the same time. The flag consisted of a center thunderbolt and one hundred and eight border oil lamps, with the Vande Mataram caption scattered around the thunderbolt. It was also on display at the 1906 Indian National Congress meeting. Soon, many other proposals were initiated, but none of them caught the nationalist movement 's attention.
In 1909, in the run-up to Empire Day, Lord Ampthill, former Governor of the Madras Presidency, wrote to The Times of London pointing out that there was "no flag representative of India as a whole or any Indian province ... Surely this is strange, seeing that there would be no Empire for India"
Pingali Venkayya submitted thirty new designs in 1916, in the form of a booklet funded by members of the Madras high court. Those many suggestions and recommendations have done little more than keep the flag movement alive. The same year as a part of the Home Rule Movement, Annie Besant and Bal Gangadhar Tilak adopted a new flag. The flag included the Union Jack in the upper left corner, a star and a crescent in the upper right corner, and seven stars displayed diagonally from the lower right corner, on a background of five red and four alternating bands.The flag brought about the first governmental action against any nationalistic flag, as a Coimbatore magistrate banned its use. A public debate over the function and importance of a national flag followed the ban.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi wrote about the need for an Indian flag in his journal Young India in April 1921, proposing a flag with the charkha or spinning wheel at the centre. Lala Hansraj put forth the idea of the spinning wheel, and Gandhi commissioned Pingali Venkayya to design a flag on a red and green banner with the spinning wheel, the red color signifying Hindus, and the green standing for Muslims.Gandhi decided to display the flag at the 1921 Congress session, but it was not delivered on time, and another flag was introduced during the session. Gandhi later wrote that the delay was fortuitous as it allowed him to realize that there was no representation of other religions; he then added white to the colors of the banner to represent all the other religions. Finally, in 1929, due to religious-political sensitivities, Gandhi moved toward a more liberal understanding of the colors of the flag, arguing that red was for the people's sacrifices, white for innocence, and green for hope.
On 13 April 1923 the Swaraj flag with the spinning wheel designed by Pingali Venkayya was hoisted during a procession by local Congress volunteers in Nagpur commemorating the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.This event resulted in a confrontation between Congressmen and police, following which five people were jailed. After a meeting more than a hundred other demonstrators started the flag procession. Subsequently, Jamnalal Bajaj, the secretary of the Nagpur Congress Committee, launched the Flag Satyagraha on the first of May, gaining national attention and marking an important point in the flag movement. The satyagraha, promoted by Congress nationally, began to create cracks within the organization in which the Gandhians were highly enthusiastic, while the other group, the Swarajists, called it inconsistent.
Finally, on the insistence of Jawaharlal Nehru and Sarojini Naidu, Congress closed ranks at the All India Congress Committee meeting in July 1923, and the flag movement was endorsed. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel managed the flag movement with the idea of common people making public processions and flag displays. By the end of the movement, over 1500 people throughout British India had been arrested. The Bombay Chronicle recorded that the movement emerged from various social classes, including farmers, students, traders, labourers and "national servants." Although Muslim participation was moderate, women were enthusiastic about the movement, which had rarely participated in the independence movement until now.
While the agitation of the flag got its impetus from Gandhi 's writings and discourses, following the Nagpur incident the movement got political acceptance. News reports, editorials, and letters to editors published in various newspapers and newspapers attest to the subsequent development of a flag-to-nation bond. The concept of preserving the national flag's honour soon became an integral component of the struggle for independence. Although Muslims were still wary of the Swaraj flag, it gained acceptance as the national flag among Muslim Congress leaders and the Khilafat movement.
The Constituent Assembly was formed a few days before India acquired its independence in August 1947. The assembly set up an ad hoc committee, led by Rajendra Prasad, to pick a flag for independent India on 23 June 1947, comprising Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Sarojini Naidu, C. Rajagopalachari, K. M. Munshi and B. As its Leaders, R. Ambedkar.
On July 14, 1947, the Committee proposed that the Indian National Congress flag be adopted with suitable modifications as the National Flag of India, so as to make it acceptable to all parties and communities. This was also decided that there would be no racial undertones on the flag.The Congress flag spinning wheel was replaced with the Chakra (wheel) from Ashoka's Lion Capital. The chakra was chosen, as representative of dharma and law, according to Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. However, Jawaharlal Nehru explained that the change was more practical in nature, since this design would appear symmetrical, unlike the flag with the spinning wheel. Gandhi wasn't very comfortable with the transition but ultimately came to embrace it.
Nehru proposed the flag as a horizontal tricolor of deep saffron, white and dark green in equal proportions at the Constituent Assembly on 22 July 1947, with the Ashoka wheel in blue at the center of the white band. Nehru also presented two flags to the assembly, one in Khadi-silk and the other in Khadi-cotton. The resolution was approved unanimously. Between 15 August 1947 and 26 January 1950 it served as the Dominion of India's national flag, and has since served as the Republic of India 's flag.
A debate started after the coronation of Edward VII in the early twentieth century on the need for a heraldic emblem symbolic of the Indian empire. William Coldstream, a British member of the Indian Civil Service, advocated for the government to change the heraldic emblem from a star, which he considered a popular choice, into something more appropriate. His proposal was not well received by the Government; for practical reasons including the multiplication of flags, Lord Curzon rejected it.Nationalist opinion within the realm had led through religious tradition to a representation around this time. The Ganesha, advocated by Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and Kali, advocated by Aurobindo Ghosh and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay included the symbols that were in vogue. The cow was yet another symbol. All these symbols, however, were Hindu-centric, and did not suggest solidarity with the Muslim population of India.
The partition of Bengal (1905) led to the introduction of a new flag representing the Indian independence movement, which sought to unite the country's multitude of castes and races. The Vande Mataram flag, part of the Swadeshi anti-British movement, comprised Indian religious symbols represented in heraldic western fashion. The tricolor flag included eight white lotuses on the upper green band representing the eight provinces, one sun and one crescent on the bottom red band, and the central yellow band slogan Vande Mataram in Hindi.The flag was raised in Calcutta devoid of any ceremony and newspapers reported the launch only briefly. Neither was the flag displayed in contemporary governmental or political records but was used at the Indian National Congress' annual session. Mrs Bhikaji Cama later used a slightly modified version at the Second International Socialist Congress in Stuttgart in 1907. This has struggled to create excitement among Indian nationalists, given the numerous uses of the flag.
Sister Nivedita, a Hindu reformist and Swami Vivekananda disciple, initiated another proposal for the flag at around the same time. The flag consisted of a center thunderbolt and one hundred and eight border oil lamps, with the Vande Mataram caption scattered around the thunderbolt. It was also on display at the 1906 Indian National Congress meeting. Soon, many other proposals were initiated, but none of them caught the nationalist movement 's attention.
In 1909, in the run-up to Empire Day, Lord Ampthill, former Governor of the Madras Presidency, wrote to The Times of London pointing out that there was "no flag representative of India as a whole or any Indian province ... Surely this is strange, seeing that there would be no Empire for India"
Pingali Venkayya submitted thirty new designs in 1916, in the form of a booklet funded by members of the Madras high court. Those many suggestions and recommendations have done little more than keep the flag movement alive. The same year as a part of the Home Rule Movement, Annie Besant and Bal Gangadhar Tilak adopted a new flag. The flag included the Union Jack in the upper left corner, a star and a crescent in the upper right corner, and seven stars displayed diagonally from the lower right corner, on a background of five red and four alternating bands.The flag brought about the first governmental action against any nationalistic flag, as a Coimbatore magistrate banned its use. A public debate over the function and importance of a national flag followed the ban.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi wrote about the need for an Indian flag in his journal Young India in April 1921, proposing a flag with the charkha or spinning wheel at the centre. Lala Hansraj put forth the idea of the spinning wheel, and Gandhi commissioned Pingali Venkayya to design a flag on a red and green banner with the spinning wheel, the red color signifying Hindus, and the green standing for Muslims.Gandhi decided to display the flag at the 1921 Congress session, but it was not delivered on time, and another flag was introduced during the session. Gandhi later wrote that the delay was fortuitous as it allowed him to realize that there was no representation of other religions; he then added white to the colors of the banner to represent all the other religions. Finally, in 1929, due to religious-political sensitivities, Gandhi moved toward a more liberal understanding of the colors of the flag, arguing that red was for the people's sacrifices, white for innocence, and green for hope.
On 13 April 1923 the Swaraj flag with the spinning wheel designed by Pingali Venkayya was hoisted during a procession by local Congress volunteers in Nagpur commemorating the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.This event resulted in a confrontation between Congressmen and police, following which five people were jailed. After a meeting more than a hundred other demonstrators started the flag procession. Subsequently, Jamnalal Bajaj, the secretary of the Nagpur Congress Committee, launched the Flag Satyagraha on the first of May, gaining national attention and marking an important point in the flag movement. The satyagraha, promoted by Congress nationally, began to create cracks within the organization in which the Gandhians were highly enthusiastic, while the other group, the Swarajists, called it inconsistent.
Finally, on the insistence of Jawaharlal Nehru and Sarojini Naidu, Congress closed ranks at the All India Congress Committee meeting in July 1923, and the flag movement was endorsed. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel managed the flag movement with the idea of common people making public processions and flag displays. By the end of the movement, over 1500 people throughout British India had been arrested. The Bombay Chronicle recorded that the movement emerged from various social classes, including farmers, students, traders, labourers and "national servants." Although Muslim participation was moderate, women were enthusiastic about the movement, which had rarely participated in the independence movement until now.
While the agitation of the flag got its impetus from Gandhi 's writings and discourses, following the Nagpur incident the movement got political acceptance. News reports, editorials, and letters to editors published in various newspapers and newspapers attest to the subsequent development of a flag-to-nation bond. The concept of preserving the national flag's honour soon became an integral component of the struggle for independence. Although Muslims were still wary of the Swaraj flag, it gained acceptance as the national flag among Muslim Congress leaders and the Khilafat movement.
The Constituent Assembly was formed a few days before India acquired its independence in August 1947. The assembly set up an ad hoc committee, led by Rajendra Prasad, to pick a flag for independent India on 23 June 1947, comprising Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Sarojini Naidu, C. Rajagopalachari, K. M. Munshi and B. As its Leaders, R. Ambedkar.
On July 14, 1947, the Committee proposed that the Indian National Congress flag be adopted with suitable modifications as the National Flag of India, so as to make it acceptable to all parties and communities. This was also decided that there would be no racial undertones on the flag.The Congress flag spinning wheel was replaced with the Chakra (wheel) from Ashoka's Lion Capital. The chakra was chosen, as representative of dharma and law, according to Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. However, Jawaharlal Nehru explained that the change was more practical in nature, since this design would appear symmetrical, unlike the flag with the spinning wheel. Gandhi wasn't very comfortable with the transition but ultimately came to embrace it.
Nehru proposed the flag as a horizontal tricolor of deep saffron, white and dark green in equal proportions at the Constituent Assembly on 22 July 1947, with the Ashoka wheel in blue at the center of the white band. Nehru also presented two flags to the assembly, one in Khadi-silk and the other in Khadi-cotton. The resolution was approved unanimously. Between 15 August 1947 and 26 January 1950 it served as the Dominion of India's national flag, and has since served as the Republic of India 's flag.