As India celebrates its 75th year of independence from the British, we see the streets, houses, and government buildings adorned with the Tricolour Flag with Indians celebrating the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav with the “Har Ghar Trinanga” campaign in full swing.
The Har Ghar Tiranga Campaign was launched by the Central Government in which everyone was urged to display the Indian flag outside their households. Other than that government buildings and other significant infrastructures have been illuminated with the colours of the Tiranga.
On the occasion of the 75th year of independence let us explore the history of the Indian flag which goes by the name Tiranga or the Tricolour.
The first Indian Flag was hoisted in Kolkata on August 7, 1906, at Parsee Bagan Square and that flag bore red, yellow and green colours. The top green part had 8 lotuses, and the bottom red part had a crescent moon on the left and sun on the right. The centre yellow part had “Vande Mataram” written in the Devnagri script.
The first variant closer to the current day Indian tricolour was designed by Pingali Venkayya in 1921. It had two major colours-red and green.
In the year 1931, a landmark resolution adopted the Tricolour as India’s National Flag which had a resemblance to the present one which had Saffron, white and green colours with Gandhiji’s Charkha in blue in the central white section.
Saffron stands for sacrifice, courage and valour, white stands for purity and peace and green colour stands for fertility. Gandhiji’s Charkha was a resemblance to India’s freedom struggle and Swaraj (right to self rule).
The current Indian Tiranga was adopted on was officially adopted on July 22, 1947. It was first hoisted on August 15, 1947.
Gandhiji’s Charkha was replaced with Emperor Ashoka’s Dharma Chakra. This Dharma Chakra is placed on the base of Ashoka’s Lion Capital (now India’s National Emblem). The Dharma Chakra has 24 spokes signifying that there’s life in movement and death in stagnation.
Earlier, Indian citizens were not allowed to hoist the National Flag except on selected occasions. This changed after a decade-long legal battle by industrialist Naveen Jindal culminated in the landmark Supreme Court judgement of January 23, 2,004 that declared that the right to fly the National Flag freely with respect and dignity is a fundamental right of an Indian citizen within the meaning of Article 19(1) (a) of the Constitution of India.
The “Har Ghar Tiranga” programme envisions inspiring Indians everywhere to hoist the national flag at their homes with The aim of making the relationship with the national flag a more personal one rather than just keeping it formal or institutional.
