My Nation My Pride: The Evolution Of Indian National Flag

First National Flag composed of three horizontal stripes of the colors red, yellow and green

It was hoisted on August 7, 1906 in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in the Parsee Bagan Square (Green Park). It is known to be the “Unofficial Flag of India in 1906″.

The Second National Flag, The Berlin Committee Flag, hoisted on August 22, 1907.It was raised by Madame Cama and her exiled revolutionaries in Paris. Keeping everything same to the first version, only the lotus in the first strip were replaced with seven stars representing “Saptarishi”

The Third National Flag was hoisted during the Home Rule Movement, in 1917This flag was hoisted by Lokmanya Tilak and Annie Besant in 1917.

The Fourth National Flag proposed by a national youth at All India Congress Committee. Gandhiji suggested to add the white strip and the spinning wheel to represent all the other communities and the progress of the nation.The red and green colors in the flag represented the two major communities, Hindus and Muslims. It was proposed and adopted in 1921, when the youth met Gandhiji at Bezwada(now Vijayawada).

The Fifth National Flag is marked as the landmark in the history of the National Flag as it gave the “Tricolor” to it.In 1931, It was adopted as the National Flag. This flag contains three strips of the color saffron, white and green, along with the Gandhiji’s spinning wheel. This flag was also the battle ensign of the Indian National Army.

The Present Tricolor National Flag of the Nation was adopted as the Free India National Flag on July 22, 1947.Initially being the tricolor flag of the Congress Party was later adopted as “Tricolor Flag of Independent India”. The importance of the colors of the strips remained the same. It was only the spinning wheel replaced with the Dharma Chakra of Emperor Ashoka, depicted to be “the wheel of the law”.