Internet fact-checks Satish Shah’s post on tricolour from 1942

Actor Satish Shah on Tuesday shared a photograph of himself holding a national flag that he claimed dates back the pre-independence era. Shah said his mother had got the tricolour during the Quit India Movement of 1942 – but Twitter users were quick to point out that the tricolour in its present form did not exist in 1942.

Satish Shah’s post shows him holding the tricolour as we know it today – a flag with three bands of saffron, white and green, with a navy blue Ashoka Chakra at its centre. This version of the flag, with the Ashoka Chakra at its centre, was only adopted in 1947 - just a few days before India gained independence from the British.

Before that, the Swaraj flag, officially adopted by the Indian National Congress in 1931, featured the traditional spinning wheel or charkha instead of the Ashoka Chakra.
“The very same TIRANGA DHWAJ my mother had got during Quit India Movement 1942,” Satish Shah, 71, wrote while sharing the photograph on Twitter.

“Who will tell him, this flag didn't exist, in this form, in 1942?” one Twitter user wrote in response to his post.

“Tiranga was approved in July 1947. Before that it was Charkha in the middle and not Ashok Chakra,” another said.
Take a look at some other reactions to the post:

Some Twitter users also came to Shah’s defence, noting that although the tricolour in its present form was officially adopted in 1947, the design had been in circulation well before that. “Yes the flag was officially adopted in 1947 but the design was since 1921. During Quit India Moment many flag designs were carried,” one person said.