Flag Of India | History, Design, & Meaning - Encyclopedia Britannica

During the British raj (1858–1947), India was represented in certain civil and military contexts by a variety of flags that combined the Union Jack and the Star of India, a five-pointed, diamond-studded star encircled by a sunburst pattern that was used as the insignia of British India.

The Swadeshi Movement, launched in response to the partition of Bengal, inspired the first attempts to fashion a flag as a symbol of nationalist Indian identity in opposition to British rule. The most prominent of these was known as the Calcutta flag, first hoisted on August 7, 1906, at Parsi Bagan Square in Calcutta (now Kolkata). Designed by Sachindra Prasad Bose and Sukumar Mitra, it had three stripes—green, yellow, and red. The top stripe housed a row of lotus symbols, and the bottom was marked by a crescent moon and an image of the sun at its corners. The central stripe prominently featured the words “Vande Mataram” (Sanskrit: “I bow to thee, mother”), a slogan that gained popularity during the movement, written in the Devanagari script.

A flag unfurled by exiled Indian revolutionary Bhikaji Cama a year later at an international conference in Stuttgart, Germany, bore a strong resemblance to the Calcutta flag and was perhaps inspired by it, though there were some differences in symbolism and colors. Scholars typically credit Cama, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, and Shyamji Krishna Varma for the design and Hemchandra Kanungo for making the flag. The appeal of these early flags, however, was limited and short-lived.

Introduced in 1917, the flag of the Home Rule movement, which was spearheaded by independence activists Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Annie Besant, had limited nationwide appeal but was popular enough among radical members that it sometimes drew censure from the British government. The flag had an alternating pattern of red and green stripes, a constellation of stars, and a crescent moon. The inclusion of the Union Jack in its canton (top inner quarter) encapsulated the goal of the movement: self-government within the British Empire rather than complete independence.

In 1921 a university lecturer named Pingali (or Pinglay) Venkayya presented a flag design to Mahatma Gandhi, who had risen to the forefront of the freedom movement and the Indian National Congress (Congress Party). It consisted of the colors typically associated with the two principal religions, red for Hinduism and green for Islam. To the center of the horizontally divided flag, Lala Hans Raj Sondhi suggested the addition of the charkha, or traditional spinning wheel, which was associated with Gandhi’s crusade to make Indians self-reliant by fabricating their own clothing from local fibers.

Gandhi modified the flag by adding a white stripe in the center for the other religious communities in India, thus also providing a clearly visible background for the spinning wheel. In May 1923 at Nagpur, during peaceful protests against British rule, the flag was carried by thousands of people, hundreds of whom were arrested. The flag came to be associated with nationhood for India, and it was recognized as the Congress Party’s official flag at its annual meeting in August 1931. At the same time, the current arrangement of stripes and the use of deep saffron instead of red were approved.

To avoid the sectarian associations of the original proposal, new attributions were associated with the saffron, white, and green stripes. They were said to stand for, respectively, courage and sacrifice, peace and truth, and faith and chivalry. The green color in the modern version of the flag is also associated with fertility, growth, and auspiciousness of the land. During World War II, Subhas Chandra Bose used this flag (without the spinning wheel) in territories his Japanese-aided army had captured.

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After the war Britain agreed to withdraw from India, and India gained its freedom, although the country was divided, and a Muslim-dominated Pakistan was given separate statehood. On July 22, 1947, the Indian national flag was officially adopted by the Indian Constituent Assembly, based on the recommendation of an ad hoc committee tasked with deciding on a flag for the country. Its stripes remained the same saffron-white-green, but the spinning wheel was replaced by a blue chakra—the Dharma Chakra (“Wheel of the Law”). The Dharma Chakra, which was associated with the emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century bce, appeared on pillars erected throughout the Mauryan empire, when most of India was first unified under a single administration. First hoisted on the day the country gained independence on August 15, 1947, the flag continues to serve as India’s national flag, although special versions have been developed for ships registered in the country. Colloquially, it is often referred to as the Tiranga (Tricolor).

Laws, guidelines, and conventions that relate to the respectful display and use of the flag are set out in the Flag Code of India, 2002 (which replaced the older Flag Code established in 1950). These rules outline the flag’s official dimensions, permitted materials, and the proper ways it may be displayed by individuals, organizations, and government bodies. It also includes prohibitions and restrictions on the use and display of the national flag. The code has been amended a few times over the years. A significant change in 2002 allowed Indian citizens to display the national flag on any day, not just on designated national occasions. In 2021 the rules regarding flag material were relaxed, permitting the use of machine-made and polyester bunting alongside the traditional khadi (hand-spun cloth) made from cotton, silk, and wool.