Independence Day: History and significance of the Indian flag

India celebrates its 75th Independence Day on August 15, 2022. India’s government had launched the Har Ghar Tiranga Campaign to encourage people to bring the tricolor home and hoist it to mark the 75th year of India’s independence. 

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As we celebrate this historic day, let us have a look at the history and significance of our national flag. 

The first Indian flag was hoisted in Calcutta at Parsee Bagan Square on August 7, 1906. The flag had yellow, red and green as the three dominant colors and the present-day national flag draws inspiration from the 1906 flag.

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The yellow horizontal strip in the flag had Vande Mataram written on it while the green part had eight half-opened lotus flowers. 

There were further revisions to the flag in 1907, 1917 and 1921 and a landmark resolution was passed in 1931 adopting the tricolor flag as the national flag.  Pingali Venkayya designed the national flag in 1921 that had saffron, white and green colors. The insignia of Mahatma Gandhi’s spinning wheel was kept at the center of the flag.

On July 22, 1947, the Constituent Assembly adopted the tricolor with Ashok Chakra in the center as Independent India’s National Flag. 

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India’s national flag has three colors which include saffron on the top and it depicts the strength and courage of the country. White in the center depicts peace and truth while green at the bottom depicts fertility and growth of the land. The Dharma Charkha of Emperor Ashoka at the center of the flag has 24 spokes which signify that there’s life in movement and death in stagnation.