India@75 | Har Ghar Tiranga: A quick look at the history of Tricolour

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The central government started the 'Har Ghar Tiranga' campaign as part of the 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' celebration, marking the 75th year of India's Independence.

Under the 'Har Ghar Tiranga' campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged everyone to change their profile photographs on social media sites to the Tricolour and hoist the national flag at every household to commemorate the event.

The Tricolour has three horizontal bands of saffron (Kesari) at the top, white in the middle and dark green at the bottom in equal proportion. The white band has a navy blue wheel in its centre representing the chakra from the Ashoka Stambh, which is the country's national emblem.

The Origin of the Indian Tricolour

Tricolour's design is largely attributed to Pingali Venkayya, an Indian freedom fighter who was posted to South Africa during the second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) as part of the British Indian Army when Mahatma Gandhi met him for the first time.

The national flag was designed after years of research. Having come up with possible designs for Indian flags, Venkayya published a book in 1916. He met Gandhi again at the All India Congress Committee in Bezwada and proposed a basic design of the flag, consisting of two red and green bands to symbolise Hindus and Muslims.

Gandhi may have suggested adding a white band to symbolise peace and the rest of the Indian communities and a spinning wheel to symbolise progress.

The Present-Day National Flag

In 1947, the present Tricolor’s last iteration was introduced. As the symbol on the flag’s centre white stripe, the charkha was changed to Ashoka’s Dharma chakra. It was approved by the Constituent Assembly and made the nation’s flag. Between August 15, 1947 and January 26, 1950, it served as the national flag of both the Dominion of India and the Republic of India.

Sister Nivedita, an Irish disciple of Swami Vivekananda, is said to have designed an Indian flag between 1904 and 1906, but the first official Indian flag is believed to have been hoisted on August 7, 1906, in Kolkata at the Parsee Bagan Square (Green Park).

There were three horizontal stripes of red, yellow, and green, with Vande Mataram written in the middle. The red strip of the flag has symbols of the sun and crescent moon, and the green strip has eight half-open lotuses. It was designed by freedom activists Sachindra Prasad Bose and Hemchandra Kanungo.

The Indian flag was hoisted in Germany in 1907 for the first time by Madame Bhikaji Cama and her group of exiled revolutionaries - this was the first time an Indian flag was hoisted in a foreign country.

As part of the Home Rule Movement, Dr Annie Besant and Lokmanya Tilak adopted a new flag in 1917. Seven stars were arranged in the 'saptarishi' configuration, with five alternate red and green horizontal stripes. White crescents and stars were displayed on one top corner, and a Union Jack was displayed on the other.