Portal:India/Today's selected article/April 23, 2006



The Flag of India, sometimes also known as the Tiranga, which in Hindi means tricolour, was adopted as the national flag of the Republic of India on July 22, 1947, during an ad hoc meeting of the Constituent Assembly just before India's independence on August 15 1947. In India, the term "tricolour" almost always refers to the Indian national flag. The flag is 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, taken from the Ashoka pillar at Sarnath. The flag is also the Indian army's war flag, hoisted daily on military installations. The Indian National Flag was designed by Pingali Venkayya. Official flag specification requires that the flag be made only of khadi–a special type of hand-spun yarn. The display and use of the flag are strictly enforced by the Indian Flag Code. A few days before India gained its freedom in August 1947, the Constituent Assembly set up an ad hoc committee headed by Rajendra Prasad. The Flag Committee was constituted on 1947-06-23 and after three weeks they came to a decision on 1947-07-14, being that the flag of the Indian National Congress should be adopted as the National Flag of India with suitable modifications. The "Dharma Chakra" which appears on the abacus of Sarnath was adopted in the place of the "Charkha". (more...).