91 Years Of The Indian National Flag
Venkayya was an accomplished person on many fronts. He was immensely knowledgeable in geology (which he would later obtain a doctorate for) and agriculture. In Andhra Pradesh, this knowledge enabled him to spend most of his fortune experimenting with developing new crop cultivars and to become an authority on diamond mining, leading to him being popularly known as 'Diamond Venkayya'. He served in the British Indian army during the Anglo-Boer wars in South Africa. It was there he came in contact with Mahatma Gandhi and was influenced by his ideology.
During the National conference of Indian National Congress at Kakinada, he suggested that India have a flag of its own. Gandhi liked this idea and said it would be good if he could come up with a design. During the National conference at Vijayawada, he proposed a tricolour with a charkha at the middle. Gandhi liked the flag, and the design was later adopted as the National Flag of India.
Pingali Venkayya, the designer of the national flag died, unhonoured on July 4, 1963, in conditions of poverty. There is not even a memorial in his hometown Machilipatnam to the man who made such an important contribution to the nation.
The National Flag of India is a horizontal rectangular tricolour of deep saffron, white and India green; with the Ashoka Chakra, a 24-spoke wheel, in blue at its centre. It was adopted in its present form during a meeting of the Constituent Assembly held on 22 July 1947, when it became the official flag of the Dominion of India. The flag was subsequently retained as that of the Republic of India. In India, the term "tricolour" (Hindi: तिरंगा, Tirangā) almost always refers to the Indian national flag. The flag is based on the Swaraj flag, a flag of the Indian National Congress designed by Pingali Venkayya.Venkaiah was also known popularly as ‘Japan Venkaiah', after he had learnt the language.
The flag, by law, is to be made of khadi, a special type of hand-spun cloth of cotton or silk made popular by Mahatma Gandhi. The manufacturing process and specifications for the flag are laid out by the Bureau of Indian Standards. The right to manufacture the flag is held by the Khadi Development and Village Industries Commission, who allocate it to the regional groups. As of 2009, the Karnataka Khadi Gramodyoga Samyukta Sangha was the sole manufacturer of the flag.
Usage of the flag is governed by the Flag Code of India and other laws relating to the national emblems. The original code prohibited use of the flag by private citizens except on national days such as the Independence day and the Republic Day. In 2002, on hearing an appeal from a private citizen, the Supreme Court of India directed the Government of India to amend the code to allow flag usage by private citizens. Subsequently, the Union Cabinet of India amended the code to allow limited usage. The code was amended once more in 2005 to allow some additional use including adaptations on certain forms of clothing. The flag code also governs the protocol of flying the flag and its use in conjunction with other national and non-national flags.
