By Satish Singh
Cases of insult to the national flag are often seen in our country. No one can be considered an exception in insulting the national flag. Both illiterate and educated are doing this, while there are rules and regulations for hoisting the national flag, which are necessary to comply with. The guidelines related to the national flag are very strict and even a small mistake in the maintenance of the dignity of national flag has been considered an offense, for which there is a provision of fine or jail or both.
The right to hoist the national flag is a fundamental right of citizens and a part of the right to expression. This right can be curtailed by the Parliament in certain circumstances. These provisions have been mentioned in clause 2 of Article 19 of the Constitution. It has also been said in this Bench that the national flag should be respected by the citizens. According to the decision of the Supreme Court on September 22, 1995, every citizen of India is free to hoist the national flag, but no citizen has the right to insult the national flag. On 18 July 1947, tricolour was given a standard form & the National Flag of India was accepted by the Constitution on 22 July 1947.
Our national flag has gone through a total of 6 changes in its journey of 45 years. For the first time, the national flag was hoisted on 7 August 1906 at Parsi Bagan Chowk (Green Park), Calcutta, which was made up of horizontal stripes of red, yellow and green. Eight stars were made in the top blue band, in which the blooming lotus flower was inscribed. Vande Mataram was written in Devanagari script in the middle yellow strip. The sun and star and a small crescent moon were inscribed on a yellow stripe at each end. For the second time, the national flag was hoisted by Madame Cama in Paris. Madam Cama and some revolutionaries hoisted it in 1907, which was almost identical to the earlier flag. In 1921, the All-India Congress Committee organized a convention in Bezwada (now Vijayawada), where a young man from Andhra Pradesh made a flag and presented it to Mahatma Gandhi, which was painted in two colours namely red and green. The red colour was the symbol of the Hindu community and the green colour for the Muslim community. Gandhi suggested that a white stripe be included in it as a symbol of the other remaining communities and a moving spinning wheel to indicate the progress of the nation. This will increase its significance. Thereafter, in 1931 Pingali Venkaiah made a new flag, with a spinning wheel in the centre. In the year 1931 itself, a resolution was passed to adopt the tricolour as the national flag, but the Congress Committee did not approve it. The flag adopted that year had saffron, white and a spinning wheel in the centre, which can be said to be a similar form of the current national flag. On 22 July 1947, the Constituent Assembly adopted it as the national flag and after the country got independence, instead of the spinning wheel, the Dharma Chakra inscribed in the Ashoka Pillar built in the period of Maurya Emperor Ashoka was included in the national flag and finally on 26 January 1950, it was adopted as the national flag.
The Indian national flag consists of horizontal stripes of three colours in a proportionate shape. Saffron at the top, white in the middle and dark green at the bottom. The ratio of the width of the flag to its length is 2 and 3. There is a dark blue circle in the centre of the white stripe. This Chakra is taken from the Ashoka Pillar, which is located in Sarnath, built during the reign of Mauryan Emperor Ashoka. It has 24 spokes. In this way, the flag of the Congress party was made the national flag of independent India with some modifications.
The Bureau of Indian Standards had set guidelines for the national flag for the first time in 1951, which were revised in 1964. It was revised again on 17 August 1968. The Flag Code was again amended in the year 2002, whereby rights given to citizens to hoist the national flag at their homes, offices and other places on National Days and Common Days. In the year 2008, the Flag Code was again amended.
The Bureau of Indian Standards has set certain standards for the manufacture of flags. This standard specifies the precautions to be taken with regard to the use of fabric, the use of dye, colour, thread, method of hoisting, etc. For example, the national flag should be made only from khadi cloth. The national flag cloth is woven at Khadi Village Industries in Bagalkot district, about 550 km from Bangalore, and Gadag near Dharwad. Only Khadi or hand spun cloth is considered suitable for the flag. It is made of cotton, silk and wool. The national flag is dyed in three different colours. The dyed cloth is sent to Hubli, 420 km from Bangalore, where it is cut & stitched into different shapes according to the size of the flag. The Karnataka Khadi Village Industries at Hubli has got the license to manufacture and supply the National Flag. Setting up of flag manufacturing units in India is permitted by the Khadi Development and Village Industries Commission, but it can also revoke it for violating the guidelines. After weaving the material is sent to the laboratory of Bureau of Indian Standards for testing. The flag is approved only after rigorous quality testing. After that it is sent to the factory for dyeing. If everything is according to the rules, the national flag is allowed to be sold in the market.
The upper strip of the national flag of India has saffron colour, which signifies the strength and courage of the country. The white colour of the middle strip symbolizes peace and truth. The lower green bar is an indicator of fertility and growth. The wheel on the white strip is called the Dharma Chakra, which is taken from the Ashoka Pillar, which is located in Sarnath, during the reign of Mauryan Emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century BC. This wheel symbolizes the dynamism of life, progress of the country and justice.
The national flag cannot be termed as just a flag. In fact, it is a symbol of the country’s independence, self-respect, aspiration and ideal. If we ourselves do not respect it, then it will be meaningless to expect anything from the people of other countries in this matter.
(Author is Chief Manager at State Bank of India, Mumbai. The views expressed are personal opinion of the author. He can be reached at satish5249@gmail.com and singhsatish@sbi.co.in.)
