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The Prime Minister paid tributes to freedom fighter Pingali Venkayya on his 150th birth anniversary, remembering his role in giving the nation the Tricolour.
Venkayya was born on 2 August 1876 at Bhatlapenumarru near Machilipatnam in present-day Andhra Pradesh and died on 4 July 1963; his flag work earned him the name 'Jhanda Venkayya'.
The Swaraj flag he designed at Gandhi's request in 1921 is the direct ancestor of the national flag the Constituent Assembly adopted on 22 July 1947.
Pingali Venkayya born on 2 August at Bhatlapenumarru, near Machilipatnam
Madam Bhikaji Cama unfurls an unofficial Indian flag at the International Socialist Congress at Stuttgart, Germany — an improved version of the 1906 Calcutta Flag, co-designed with Shyamji Krishna Varma, carrying eight lotuses for the eight provinces of British India, a sun and crescent, and 'Vande Mataram'
At the special AICC session at Bezwada (Vijayawada), Gandhi asks Venkayya for a flag design carrying a spinning wheel; Venkayya's red-and-green design is presented and a white band is added on Gandhi's suggestion
The Swaraj flag is used informally at Congress meetings and becomes the visual identity of the national movement
The Constituent Assembly adopts the national flag, substituting the Ashoka Chakra for the charkha
Pingali Venkayya dies on 4 July
Parliament enacts the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act
The Flag Code of India, 2002 takes effect, consolidating the rules on display of the national flag
Har Ghar Tiranga is launched under Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav with the Ministry of Culture as nodal agency, and the Flag Code is amended to allow the flag to be flown day and night at homes
The national flag is a horizontal tricolour of deep saffron (kesari), white and dark green in equal proportion, with a ratio of width to length of 2:3. In the centre of the white band sits the Ashoka Chakra in navy blue with 24 equally spaced spokes, adapted from the abacus of the Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath. The wheel replaced the charkha of the 1921 Swaraj flag when the Constituent Assembly adopted the design on 22 July 1947 — a change that kept the symbol of motion and dharma while dropping a device closely identified with one political party. The specifications themselves are not in the Constitution; they are set out in the Flag Code of India, 2002 read with Bureau of Indian Standards specifications.
Simple Analogy: Think of 1921 and 1947 as two drafts of the same document: the paper and the colour bands stay, only the seal in the middle is swapped — from the spinning wheel of a movement to the wheel of a state.
Not a statute but a consolidation of all laws, conventions, practices and instructions governing the display of the national flag; it took effect on 26 January 2002. An order dated 30 December 2021 permitted flags of machine-made and polyester fabric, so a flag may now be of hand-spun, hand-woven or machine-made cotton, polyester, wool, silk or khadi. An order dated 19 July 2022 allowed the flag flown in the open or at a citizen's house to be displayed by day and night, replacing the earlier sunrise-to-sunset rule.
The penal statute behind flag protection — it punishes insult to the National Flag, the Constitution of India and the National Anthem. The Flag Code lays down what is proper; this Act supplies the consequence for what is not.
Makes it a fundamental duty of every citizen to abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem. Fundamental Duties were inserted as Part IV-A by the 42nd Amendment Act, 1976 on the recommendation of the Swaran Singh Committee; ten were added then and an eleventh by the 86th Amendment Act, 2002.
The Calcutta Flag of 1906 and the version Bhikaji Cama unfurled at Stuttgart in 1907 came first; Venkayya's contribution was the design that a national political organisation actually adopted and carried, which is why the line from 1921 to 1947 is unbroken.
Venkayya's birth anniversary falls days before Independence Day and inside the Har Ghar Tiranga period of 13-15 August, which is why tributes to him now sit inside a national campaign rather than standing alone.
The Vijayawada AICC session came during the Non-Cooperation Movement, when the Congress was building mass symbols — khadi, the charkha and a flag — and Gandhi's specific request for a spinning wheel on the flag was part of that programme.
The flag is one of only a few objects named in the Fundamental Duties, alongside the National Anthem, and disputes over its display are litigated through the Flag Code read with the 1971 Act rather than through a fundamental right.
General Awareness > Modern History and National Symbols
General Awareness > Freedom Struggle
GS Paper 1 > Modern Indian History > The National Movement
General Awareness > Static GK and Important Days
National symbols and the flag's history are staple SSC and Railway material and recur every August around Independence Day.
The flag designed by Pingali Venkayya and presented at the 1921 Bezwada AICC session — red, green and white bands with a charkha — used informally by the Congress from 1921.
The popular name given to Pingali Venkayya after his flag design became the emblem of the national movement.
The consolidated set of instructions, conventions and practices governing display of the national flag, effective 26 January 2002 and amended in 2021 and 2022.
The 1906 tricolour flown in Calcutta, an early unofficial national flag whose improved version Bhikaji Cama unfurled at Stuttgart in 1907.