History Edition Part 3-National Flag.

                                   National Flag Of India

                  Every free nation of the world has its own flag. It is a symbol of a free country.

                                        

Well we all know what the above picture indicates.

Yes,It is the Indian National Flag.

Now lets see how it came to be the one it is today.

  Evolution of the Indian Flag

Prior to the Sepoy Mutiny in 1857, the fragmented nation of India was represented by the individual flags of the various princely states. Post the Sepoy Mutiny, the British established Imperial rule in India and a flag was introduced to represent the British colony of India. The flag was blue, with the Union Jack on the upper left corner, and a star enclosed by a crown on the down right corner. 

The first unofficial flag to be hoisted by the Indians happened on August 7, 1906, in Parsee Bagan, Calcutta. The rectangular flag consisted of three horizontal stripes of green, yellow and red from top to bottom. The uppermost green segment contained 8 lotuses representing 8 provinces, the middle yellow segment bore the words Bande Mataram in Sanskrit and the bottom red band had a crescent on the left and a sun on the right hand side. 

A slightly modified version of the previous flag was hoisted in 1907 by Madame Cama and her group of exiled revolutionaries in Paris. The uppermost strip had 7 lotuses instead of 8 and it was the first time the color saffron was used in the flag.

In the next decade, several other concepts for the flag were proposed but they did not gain popularity.  In 1921, Gandhi proposed a tricolored flag with the symbol of the spinning wheel at its center. The colors of the flag represented the dominant religions of the Indian subcontinent with clear message of promoting religious harmony. But growing demands for further modification led him to change the interpretations of the colors into something more secular. The lowermost strip of red represented sacrifice, middle green stripe represented hope and the topmost white stripe represented peace. 

The version of the flag closest to the current one came into existence in 1923. It was designed by Pingali Venkayya and had the saffron, white and green stripes with the spinning wheel placed in the white section. It was hoisted on April 13, 1923 in Nagpur during an event commemorating the Jallianwallah Bagh Massacre. It was named the Swaraj Flag and became the symbol of India’s demand for Self-rule led by the Indian National Congress.

The resolution to adopt the tricolor as the National Flag of India was passed in 1931. On July 22, 1947, the Constituent Assembly of India adopted the Swaraj Flag as the National Flag of Sovereign India with the Ashok Chakra replacing the spinning wheel.

(Note-There is a minor mistake in the image.Below the Blue flag it should be 1857 and not 1957.)

                                                  Meaning of the colors and symbols:

The Topmost color is the Saffron color strip.This color indicates the Hindus.
The Lowest color is the Green color strip.This color indicates the Muslims.
The Middle color is the White color strip.This color indicates the peace between these two nationalities which were separated during the time of Independence.
The Blue Circle with 24 Lines-Dubbed the "ASHOKA CHAKRA or DHARMA CAHKRA" is the symbol of spirituality of the 24 human values.


There is another version of the colors that has changed over time which includes:

Saffron-Strength and Courage
White-Hope and Peace
Green-Greenery 

Now Here's an Inspiring Quote:

"A flag is a necessity for all nations. Millions have died for it. 

It is no doubt a kind of idolatry which would be a sin to destroy.

 For, a flag represents an Ideal The unfurling of the Union Jack 

evokes in the English breast sentiments whose strength it is difficult 

to measure. The Stars and Stripes mean a world to the Americans.

 The Star and the Crescent will call forth the best bravery in Islam."

"It will be necessary for us Indians Muslims, Christians Jews, Parsis, and all others to whom India is their home-to recognize a common flag to live and to die for."

- Mahatma Gandhi                      

                                                                Bonus

Why Do Only Few Country Flags Have The Color Purple?

Ans:The reason for that is that during the old times approximately the purple colour was made from the sea dwelling snails found only in a certain region.Until that time only royalty were alllowed to were purple as to make approximately 1 gm of the "Tyrian Purple" approximately "10,000" of these snails.

The color’s status was forever changed in 1856, when a British university student named William Henry Perkin discovered a way to make purple dye synthetically. It became much more accessible in the years that followed, which is why the handful of flags that do have a splash of purple were all designed after 1900.

Since the ability to chemically create the colour purple was discovered a few designs have been passed around but it has only had the time to catch on in three national flags, two of which exist to this day.

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