List of Indian flags
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of flags used in India.
Contents |
[edit] National Flag
| Flag | Date | Use | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
1947 - Present | Flag of India | A horizontal tricolour of saffron at the top, white in the middle and green at the bottom. In the centre is a navy blue wheel with twenty-four spokes, known as the Ashoka Chakra |
- note that India's states, including Gujarat, Delhi, Rajastan, and Punjab, do not possess official nor commonly used unofficial flags.
[edit] Presidential Flag
| Flag | Date | Use | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Flag of the President of India | 1st quarter: state emblem (the lions of Sarnath) to represent national unity; 2nd quarter: elephant from Ajanta frescos to represent patience and strength; 3rd quarter: scales from the Red Fort, Old Delhi to represent justice; 4th quarter: lotus vase from Sarnath to represent prosperity.
the flag is similar to the royal standard of United Kingdom. Which India became one of its colonies. |
[edit] Civil Ensign
| Flag | Date | Use | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Civil Ensign | Red Ensign with the Flag of India in the canton |
[edit] Military Flags
| Flag | Date | Use | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Flag of the Indian Army | The Army badge on a red field with the Flag of India in the canton | |
 |
Flag of the Indian Navy | A white ensign with the Flag of India in the canton | |
 |
Flag of the Indian Air Force | A blue ensign with the Flag of India in the canton, with the roundel of the Indian Air Force | |
 |
Flag of the Indian Coast Guard | A blue ensign with the Flag of India in the canton, and the Coast Guard's badge |
[edit]
| Flag | Date | Use | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Admiral of the Indian Navy rank flag |
[edit] States and Union territorial flags
The states and Union territories do not have official flags, except for Jammu and Kashmir.[1]
| Flag | Date | Use | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
 (Jammu and Kashmir, India) |
1972–present | Flag of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir since the 1950 constitution | The flag of Jammu and Kashmir is red to symbolize labour, with three white vertical stripes in the hoist (which do not run the whole height of the flag). The stripes stand for the three divisions of the region currently under its control namely; (Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh). On the right side of the flag is a white plough with the handle facing the stripes. The ratio of the flag to its width is 3:2. |
[edit] Historical
| Flag | Date | Use | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
1674–1818 | Flag of the Maratha Empire | A saffron flag with two pennants |
 |
1885–1947 | Flag of the Governor-General of India | A Union Flag with the Star of India |
 |
18?? - 1947 | Imperial Indian Blue Ensign Flag used mainly in World Wars | A Union Flag at the corner with the Star of India |
 |
1880–1947 | Imperial Indian Red Ensign Flag used to represent India in International events | A Union Flag at the corner with the Star of India |
 |
1526 - 1857 | Flag of the Mughal Empire | A Green flag with crescent |
[edit] Others
| Flag | Date | Use | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
1906 | Flag of Calcutta | Three horizontal bands of equal width with the top being orange, the centre yellow and the bottom green in colour. It had eight half-opened lotus flowers on the top stripe and a picture of the sun and a crescent moon on the bottom stripe. वन्दे मातरम् Vande Mataram was inscribed in the centre in Devanagari |
 |
1917 | Flag of the Home Rule Movement | Five red and four green horizontal stripes. On the upper left quadrant was the Union Jack which signified the Dominion status that the movement sought to achieve. A crescent and a star, both in white, are set in top fly. Seven white stars are arranged as in the Saptarishi constellation (the constellation Ursa Major), which is sacred to Hindus |
 |
1942–1945 | Flag of the Provisional Government of Free India | Three horizontal strips of saffron, white and green, with a springing tiger in the center. Although this symbolized the violent resistance of the Azad Hind Movement (as opposed to Gandhian pacifism), the 1931 flag of the Indian National Congress was used when the Indian National Army hoisted its flag in Moirang, Manipur. Both flags were used interchangeably |
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At the beginning of the 20th century, there was very little interest for an National Flag in the Indian National movement. One of the first initiatives in this direction came from a retired British civil servant, called William Coldstream, who wrote to the Secretary of State asking for "a flag proper to India that would... embody the idea of the unity of India with the British Empire" (31 May 1902)[2]. In the following years, this idea was pursued in different quarters in India. In the 1900s, it was taken up by some individuals, without becoming a real political preoccupation. The first political movement to campaign for it systematically was the Home Rule Movement, in 1917.
[edit] Sister Nivedita's Flag
In 1905, Sister Nivedita, an Irish disciple of Swami Vivekananda, came up with the first flag of India, later referred to as Sister Nivedita's Flag. It was a red square-shaped flag. It had 108 jyotis all along its border. It depicted a "Vajra Chinha" (thunderbolt) in yellow with a white lotus alongside it in the centre. The word "বন্দে" (Bônde) was on the left and the word "মাতরম" (Matôrôm) was on the right of them, in Bengali script. Bônde Matorom mean "Mother[land], I bow to thee!". The red colour signified the freedom struggle, yellow signified victory, and the white lotus signified purity. This flag was displayed in the exhibition organised by the Indian National Congress in its annual session at Calcutta in December 1906.[1][3]
[edit] The Calcutta Flag
The first tricolour was unfurled on 7 August 1906, during a protest rally against the Partition of Bengal, by Sachindra Prasad Bose[4] in Parsi Bagan Square in Calcutta. This flag came to be known as the Calcutta Flag. It had three horizontal bands of equal width with the top being orange, the centre yellow and the bottom green in colour. It had eight half-opened lotus flowers on the top stripe, and a picture of the sun and a crescent moon on the bottom stripe. The words Vande Mataram were inscribed in the centre in the Devanagari script.[5]
[edit] Madame Cama's Flag
On 22 August 1907, Bhikaiji Cama unfurled another tricolour flag in Stuttgart, Germany. This flag had green at the top, saffron in the centre and red at the bottom, the green standing for Islam and the saffron for both Hinduism and Buddhism. It had eight lotuses in a line on the green band representing the eight provinces of British India. The words Vande Mataram, in the Devanagari script, were inscribed on the central band. On the lowest band, towards the hoist of the flag was a crescent, and towards the fly a sun. The flag was jointly designed by Bhikaiji Cama, Veer Savarkar and Shyamji Krishna Varma.[5] [6]
[edit] Berlin Committee Flag
After the outbreak of World War I, this flag became known as the Berlin Committee Flag after it was adopted by the Indian Revolutionaries at the Berlin Committee. This flag, however was not freely used in public at that time in Germany. But it was actively used in Mesopotamia during World War I by the volunteer force organised by the Berlin Committee with the help of Indian prisoners and deserters from the British Indian army along with a group of the Ghadar Party members.[7]
[edit] The Ghadar Party Flag
The Ghadar Party flag was also used in the United States as a symbol for India for a short period of time.[8]
[edit] The Home Rule Flag
The Home Rule Movement formed by Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Annie Besant in 1917 adopted a new flag, one which featured five red and four green horizontal stripes. On the upper left quadrant was the Union Flag which signified the Dominion status that the movement sought to achieve. A crescent and a star, both in white, are set in top fly. Seven white stars are arranged as in the Saptarishi constellation (the constellation Ursa Major), which is sacred to Hindus. This flag did not become popular among the masses.[5]
[edit] The First Flag of the Congress
A year earlier in 1916, Pingali Venkayya, from a village called Bhatlapenamarru near Machilipatnam in present-day Andhra Pradesh tried to devise a common national flag. His endeavours were noticed by Umar Sobani and S.B. Bomanji, who together formed the Indian National Flag Mission. When Venkayya sought Mahatma Gandhi's approval for the flag, the Mahatma suggested the incorporation of the Charkha (spinning wheel) on the flag, symbolising "the embodiment of India and the redemption of all its ills". The humble spinning-wheel had become a hallowed symbol of the economic regeneration of India under the Mahatma's championship. Pingali Venkayya came up with a flag with the charkha on a red and green background. However, Mahatma Gandhi found that the flag did not represent all the religions of India.[9].
To address Mahatma Gandhi's concerns, another new flag was indeed designed. This tricolour featured white on top, green in the centre and red at the bottom, symbolising the minority religions, Muslims and Hindus respectively, with a Charkha drawn across all three bands. It closely resembled the Flag of Ireland, symbol of another major freedom struggle against the British Empire.[1] This flag was first unfurled at the Congress party meeting in Ahmedabad. Although this flag was not adopted as the official flag of the Indian National Congress party, it was nevertheless widely used during the freedom movement.
[edit] Flag Committee
However, there were many who were not satisfied with the communal interpretation of the flag. The All India Sanskrit Congress that convened in Calcutta in 1924 suggested the inclusion of saffron or ochre and the "gadha" (mace) of Vishnu as the symbol of the Hindus. Later that year, it was suggested that geru (an earthy-red colour) "typified the spirit of renunciation and symbolised an ideal common to the Hindu yogis and sanyasis as well as the Muslim fakirs and darveshes." The Sikhs also stepped up the demand to either include a yellow colour that would represent them, or abandon religious symbolism altogether.
In light of these developments, the Congress Working Committee appointed a seven member Flag Committee on 2 April 1931 to sort out these issues. A resolution was passed noting that "objection has been taken to the three colours in the flag on the ground that they are conceived on the communal basis." The unlikely result of these confabulations was a flag featuring just one colour, ochre, and a "Charkha" at upper hoist. Though recommended by the flag committee, the INC did not adopt this flag, as it seemed to project a communalistic ideology.
[edit] Flag of the Indian National Congress
Later, the final resolution on a flag was passed when the Congress committee met at Karachi in 1931. The tricolour flag then adopted was designed by Pingali Venkayya. It featured three horizontal strips of saffron, white and green, with a "Charkha" in the centre. The colours were interpreted thus: saffron for courage; white for truth and peace; green for faith and prosperity. The "Charkha" symbolised the economic regeneration of India and the industriousness of its people.[1]
[edit] Flag of the INA
At the same time a variant of the flag was being used by the Indian National Army that included the words "Azad Hind" with a springing tiger in lieu of the "Charkha" signifying Subhash Chandra Bose's armed struggle as opposed to Mahatma Gandhi's non-violence. This tricolour was hoisted for the first time on Indian soil in Manipur by Bose.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Heimer, Željko (2 July 2006). "India". Flags of the World. http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/in.html. Retrieved 2006-10-11.
- ^ Arundhati Virmani, A National Flag for India. Rituals, Nationalism, and the Politics of Sentiment, Delhi, Permanent Black, 2008, chapters 1 and 2. This book is a major reference for the whole history of the Indian National Flag
- ^ Arundhati Virmani, 2008, p. 59-60.
- ^ http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/yw/2002/01/26/stories/2002012600240100.htm
- ^ a b c "The National Flag". Indian National Congress. 2004-06-16. http://www.aicc.org.in/national-flag.htm. Retrieved 2006-10-11.
- ^ Arundahti Virmani, 2008, p. 61-64
- ^ Singh, K. V. (1991). Our national flag. New Delhi: Publications Division, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. pp. 31–2.
- ^ Majumdar, Ramesh Chandra (1969). "Struggle for Freedom". The History and culture of the Indian people (11 ed.). G. Allen & Unwin. pp. 207–215.
- ^ Arundhati Virmani, 2008, p. 64-77
