Can you identify the person in the picture? A forgotten man who should not be forgotten.He is Pingali Venkayya (1876-1963), the person who designed our National Flag. He was born in 1876 in Bhatlapenumarru, near Masulipatnam or the present day Machilipatnam of Andhra Pradesh. After finishing his primary education at Challapalli and secondary education at the Hindu High School, Masulipatnam, he went to Colombo to complete his Senior Cambridge. He enlisted himself for the Boer war in South Africa which began in 1899. While in South Africa, he met Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.On his return to India Pingali Venkayya worked as a railway guard at Bangalore and Madras and subsequently joined the government service as the Plague Officer at Bellary. His patriotic zeal, however, did not permit him to stagnate in a routine job. His insatiable thirst for knowledge, took him to Lahore where he joined the Anglo-Vedic College, where he learnt Japanese and Urdu.During his five years stay in Lahore from 1901 to 1906, Pingali Venkayya became very active in politics. He met many revolutionaries, and started planning different strategies to overthrow the British colonial rule. Pingali Venkayya met the veteran leader of India Dadabhai Naoroji at the Calcutta Session of the Congress in 1906. From that time onwards, Pingali Venkayya became vigourously involved in the struggle for National Freedom.
From 1916, Pingali Venkayya started taking great interest in doing research for designing a suitable flag for free India. After carefully studying 30 kinds of flags from all over the world, Pingali Venkayya conceived the design of a flag for Independent India which became the forerunner of the Indian national flag on 15th August 1947.
The proposal for a tricolour National Flag was discussed at the historic Session of the AICC at Bezwada in 1921. ( 31 March -1 April, 1921). It was here that Venkayya took his flag design to Gandhiji. It was made up of two colours-red and green-representing the two major communities i.e. Hindus and Muslims. Gandhiji suggested the addition of a white strip to represent the remaining communities of India and the spinning wheel to symbolise progress of the Nation.
Thus the Indian flag was born but it was not officially accepted by any resolution of the All India Congress Committee until 1931. Gandhi’s informal approval made it popular and it was hoisted at all Congress sessions. Hansraj of Jalandhar suggested the representation of the charkha, symbolising progress and the common man. It was post independance that the “Dharma Chakra” which appears on the abacus of Sarnath was adopted in the place of the “Charkha”.
Thus the Indian flag was born but it was not officially accepted by any resolution of the All India Congress Committee until 1931. Gandhi’s informal approval made it popular and it was hoisted at all Congress sessions. Hansraj of Jalandhar suggested the representation of the charkha, symbolising progress and the common man. It was post independance that the “Dharma Chakra” which appears on the abacus of Sarnath was adopted in the place of the “Charkha”.
Interpreting the colours chosen for the national flag after our independence Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan explained that the saffron colour denoted renunciation or disinterestedness of political leaders towards material gains in life. The white depicted enlightenment, lighting the path of truth to guide our conduct. The green symbolized our relation to the soil, to the plant life here on which all other life depends. The Ashoka wheel in the centre of the white strip represented the law of dharma. Speaking philosophically, he remarked that the national flag ought to control the principles of all those who worked under it. The wheel denoted motion and India should no more resist change as there was death in stagnation.
India has moved on. The Indians swell with pride on seeing the fluttering tricolour. But spare a thought for the gentleman from Andhrapradesh who first conceived it.
The government belatedly recognised Pingali Venkayya by releasing a commemmorative stamp on his 132nd birth anniversary on 12th August 2009.
So whenever you look up at an Indian tricolour, spare a thought for the unsung hero who designed it
