India
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India
by Željko Heimer, 6 November 2001
Flag adopted 22 July 1947, coat of arms adopted 26 January 1950.
 
The flag was first flown and recognized as the Indian National Flag (not just as that of the Congress Party) in Hamburg in 1942.
Ed Haynes, 30 September 1998
On 15 August 1947 the dominions of India and Pakistan were established. India adopted the familiar horizontal tricolor of orange, white, and green with a blue Ashoka Chakra at the center. The tricolor had been used, unofficially, since the early 1920s as the flag of the Indian National Congress, with the colors representing Hinduism (orange), Islam (green), and a hoped-for unity and peace (white). More unofficially, the flag was patterned on the other example of struggle against British imperialism, Ireland. Most often, a blue spinning wheel was shown in the center, derived from Gandhi's call for economic self-sufficiency through hand-spinning.
The spoked Ashoka Chakra (the "wheel of the law" of the 3rd-century BC Mauryan Emperor Ashoka) replaced the Gandhian spinning wheel to add historical "depth" and separate the national flag from the INC party flag (and Indian political party flags are another tale).
Ed Haynes, 10 April 1996
The national flag strictly is a state flag, but Album des Pavillons (2000) in a note explains that it may be used by private citizens only in certain circumstances.
Željko Heimer, 6 November 2001
Concerning the use of the national flag as a war flag (military flag), see our page on the Indian army .
Colours of the flag
Note: we have found it almost impossible to represent the shade of saffron on the Indian flag adequately for all monitors - some show it too yellow, other too orange. If you compare it with the colours on the flag of Brunei and Ireland you will see we have indeed chosen a tone between orange and yellow, as close to saffron as we can.
These are approximate colours shades for the Indian national flag:
Orange: CMYK 0-50-90-0, Pantone 021c; Green: CMYK 100-0-70-30, Pantone 341c
Santiago Dotor, 26 February 2001
The Indian saffron is approximated with browser-safe colours RGB 255-204-0 (FOTW Y+), and Indian green might be well 51-153-51.
Željko Heimer, 6 November 2001
Quoting from IS 1:1968, "Specification for the National Flag of India (Cotton Khadi)":
3.1.2.2 The colours of the flag, that is, India saffron (KESARI), India green and navy blue, shall correspond, when visually examined in ordinary daylight to the colours in the seal standard flag held in the custody of the Chief Inspector, Chief Inspectorate of Textiles & Clothing, Kanpur.
[NOTE - Spectrophotometric values of the white, India saffron (KESAIR) and India green colours in the flag presented to the Constituent Assembly on 22 July 1947 were measured by the then Technical Development Establishment Laboratory (Stores), Kanpur using the illuminant C as specified by the International Commission on Illumination, 1931 and found to be as follows:
Colour
 0.288   0.395   0.317
   8.9
It is intended that the flags made to conform to this standard should have colours approximating as closely as possible to the colours as defined above. For all practical purposes, however, correspondence to the seal standard flag shall be considered adequate. For the purpose of controlling production, sample pieces of bunting dyed to the standard colours [India saffron (KESARI), India green and navy blue] may be obtained at nominal cost from the Indian Standards Institution.]
Jonathan Dixon, 17 January 2012
The protocol manual for the London 2012 Olympics ( Flags and Anthems Manual London 2012 ) provides recommendations for national flag designs. Each NOC was sent an image of the flag, including the PMS shades, for their approval by LOCOG. Once this was obtained, LOCOG produced a 60 x 90 cm version of the flag for further approval. So, while these specs may not be the official, government, version of each flag, they are certainly what the NOC believed the flag to be. For India: PMS 1495 orange, 362 green, 2755 blue. The vertical flag is simply the horizontal version turned 90 degrees anti-clockwise.
Ian Sumner, 11 October 2012
Meaning of the Flag
'The Indian flag is a horizontal tricolor in equal proportion of deep saffron on the top, white in the middle and dark green at the bottom. The ratio of the width to the length of the flag is two is to three. In the centre of the white band, there is a wheel in navy blue to indicate the Dharma Chakra, the wheel of law in the Sarnath Lion Capital. This center symbol or the 'CHAKRA' is a symbol dating back to 2nd century BC. Its diameter approximates the width of the white band and it has 24 spokes, which intends to show that there is life in movement and death in stagnation. The saffron stands for courage and sacrifice; the white, for purity and truth; the green for growth and auspiciousness.
The Constituent Assembly which drew up the Constitution of India, adopted, on 22 July 1947, the tricolor as Independent India's National Flag. After a debate, the Dharma Chakra (of Emperor Ashoka) was included in the central white stripe of the flag, instead of the Charka (used symbolically by Gandhiji and also included in the flag used by the Indian National Congress). The same Chakra adorns the State Emblem adapted from the Sarnath Lion Capital of Ashoka in addition to the motto from the Mundaka Upanishad, Satyameva Jayate which means: Truth alone triumphs. The Chakra or the wheel symbolizes the Power of the State governed by Dharma, which is the primordial Indian system of justice which is the bed-rock, not only of governance but of the socio-politico-economic edifice itself.'
Brinda Maindiratta, 2 April 2003
The following is an extract from the preamble to the flag code of India as posted on the official Home Ministry website of the Indian government:
The significance of the colours and the chakra in the National Flag was amply described by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan in the Constituent Assembly which
unanimously adopted the National Flag. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan explained -"Bhagwa or the saffron colour denotes renunciation of disinterestedness. Our leaders must be indifferent to material gains and dedicate themselves to their work. The white in the centre is light, the path of truth to guide our conduct. The green shows our relation to soil, our relation to the plant life here on which all other life depends. The Ashoka Wheel in the centre of the white is the wheel of the law of dharma. Truth or satya, dharma or virtue ought to be the controlling principles of those who work under this flag. Again, the wheel denotes motion. There is death in stagnation. There is life in movement. India should no more resist change, it must move and go forward. The wheel represents the dynamism of a peaceful change."
Shree Sinha, 25 November 2003
Reproduced below an extract from Jawaharlal Nehru's address to the Constituent Assembly for the date on which the national flag was adopted (Tuesday, 22 July 1947):
"I present this Flag to you. This Resolution defines the Flag which I trust you will adopt. In a sense this Flag was adopted, not by a formal resolution, but by popular acclaim and usage, adopted much more by the sacrifice that surrounded it in the past few decades. We are in a sense only ratifying that popular adoption. It is a Flag which has been variously described. Some people, having misunderstood its significance, have thought of it in communal terms and believe that some part of it represents this community or that. But I may say that when this Flag was devised there was no communal significance attached to it."
At the same meeting of the Constituent Assembly, Govind Das added:
"There is no touch of communalism in the three colours of the flag. Panditji (i.e., Jawaharlal Nehru) has already told you this in the course of his speech. It is true that at a time when the colours were red, white and green there was a trace of communalism in the flag. But when we changed these colours to saffron, white and green, we declared it in clear words that the three colours had no communal significance."
The official website of the High Commission of India in London states "The saffron stands for courage, sacrifice and the spirit of renunciation; the white, for purity and truth; and the green for faith and fertility.
Shree Sinha, 25 November 2003
I have seen at a guess a dozen or more artificially constructed and intentionally fanciful imposed "meanings" for the Indian flag. Most are fairly phoney and contrived. When first used early in this century, the explanation was simple: saffron = Hindus, green = Muslims, white = the peace between then (wish-fulfillment?), the wheel = the Gandhian spinning wheel (early on, more obviously so in the design). Post-independence explanations differ, though those today (especially the current pressure to change the flag to solid orange) return to earlier meanings. The similarity to the Irish flag , though with different equivalences, was not in any way an accident. Pick an explanation...?
Ed Haynes, 30 September 1998
One of the spurious meanings of the Indian flag according to http://www.trimurtisolutions.com/india/index.html states the color of saffron/kesaria stand for patriotism (balidaan), white is for simplicity and peace, green is for agriculture (kheti) farming (kisan) and greenery (hariyali), the navy blue wheel in the center is the "Ashoka chakra", the wheel of progress.
collected by Dov Gutterman, 30 September 1998
I'm extremely sceptical of the information about a controversy regarding the color of the flag. We have border disputes and other headaches, but an issue regarding the flag itself? Doesn't exist. However, the significance of the blue wheel is much more (and here it borders on Hindu philosophy): "The chakra [wheel] in the Indian Flag which represents the wheel of life conveys the importance of karma. It is also a symbol for continuation of life and its cycles".
Jeetendra Chandragiri, 17 Dec 1999
The entire flag code can be obtained at Outlook India or at the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs
Pascal Vagnat, 18 January 2003, Zach Harden, 4 January 2010
Indlaw News , 9 March 2006, reported:
"The Punjab and Haryana High Court today issued notice for March 16 to Punjab Government on a plea against the use of National Flag by the chief parliamentary secretary and the parliamentary secretaries on their official vehicles. The division bench of Justices Surinder Singh Saron and Surya Kant ordered this after the preliminary hearing on the application moved by advocate Antar Singh Brar, member of the Chandigarh BJP's legal cell, wherein he challenged the validity of the action of the respondents to use National Flag on their official vehicles."
Ivan Sache, 14 March 2006
"Use of National Flags made of plastic affects the dignity of the flag as they are not biodegradable like the paper flags and also they cannot be destroyed for a long time. It is also harmful for the atmosphere. Having noticed large scale use of National Flags made of plastic, the Union ministry of home affairs has asked all states and Union government to use only flags made of paper on important national, cultural and sports events. The Union deputy home secretary, SM Bhatnagar in an intimation sent to the states' chief secretaries and secretaries of all ministries/departments of the government of India asked them to pay attention to paragraph 2.2 (x) of section-I of part II of the flag code of conduct of India. The flag code of conduct of India states "the flag made of paper may be waved by public on occasions of important national, cultural and sports events. However, such paper flags should not be discarded or thrown on the ground after the event. As far as possible, it should be disposed of in private consistent with the dignity of the flag." In the intimation of the MHA which addresses the chief secretaries of states and Union territory governments, secretaries of all ministries/department of government of India asked them to ensure use of only flags made of paper on important national, cultural and sports events in terms of the provisions of the flag code of India."
Source: The Imphal Free Press , 3 January 2006
Ivan Sache, 6 January 2007
Wikipedia informs us that the flag must, by law, be made from "Khadi," the sort of cloth Gandhi wove.
Nathan Lamm, 4 January 2010
1.2 The National Flag of India shall be made of hand spun and hand woven wool/cotton/silk khadi bunting.
Camelia Toanchina, 5 January 2010
The flag, by law, is to be made of khadi, a special type of hand-spun cloth of cotton or silk made popular by Mahatma Gandhi. The manufacturing process and specifications for the flag are laid out by the Bureau of Indian Standards ( http://www.bis.org.in/ ) . The right to manufacture the flag is held by the Khadi Development and Village Industries Commission ( http://www.kvic.org.in/ ), who allocate it to the regional groups. As of 2009, the Karnataka Khadi Gramodyoga Samyukta Sangha ( http://www.khadifederation.com/ ) was the sole manufacturer of the flag."
Esteban Rivera, 23 March 2010
Information regarding the obsolete 1950 flag code:
A strict flag code announced in the year 1950 regulated the use and display of the national flag. It barred the use of the flag in advertisements or for any other commercial activity. In fact, even private citizens were not allowed to fly the flag over their homes, offices or factories except on certain designated days like the Republic Day or the Independence Day.
Source: BBC News
Contributed by Santiago Tazon, 31 August 2000
There is a clear proviso in the flag code permitting putting flower petals inside the national Tricolour before it is unfurled on special occasions like Republic Day and Independence Day... the proviso permitting the use of petals was added to Section 5.9 on January 24, 1997
Source: The Tribune
Contributed by Jaume Ollé, 5 November 2000
by �eljko Heimer and Ivan Sache, 14 February 2007
In New Delhi in August 2001 I did not notice any flag of interest, but Indian national flags without the chakra hoisted on poles in the center of the city. Was this a way to circumvent the [old] law prohibiting private use of the national flag?
Ivan Sache, 17 January 2002
According to "The Daily Times" (Karachi, Pakistan), 14 December 2005, the Parliament of India has adopted on 12 December 2005 a new law to protect the national flag and ban its uses deemed insulting. The use of the national flag on underwear or on any other clothing worn below the belt shall be forbidden. However, sports figures and others can wear India�s green, white and orange national colours on T-shirts, caps and coats. The legislation makes it illegal to �insult� national symbols by displaying them on clothes and accessories worn below the belt or on underwear. The legislation also makes it illegal to embroider national symbols on
pillow cases and handkerchiefs.
This was also the early Indian Air Force marking, according to Cochrane and Elliott (1998) in the period 1947-48, and was used together with the fin flash using a square(ish) vertical tricolour of orange-white-green (orange to front).
Željko Heimer, 11 November 2001
The Chakra on the National Flag was officially defined at 75% of the white stripe in 1947 (taken from specifications issued by the Indian Standards Institution), but according to William Crampton (1993) this has largely been ignored in practice ever since. To quote from Dr Crampton's notes: "...in practice the Chakra occupies 98% of the white stripe (or thereabouts)", and the spec he drew up shows it at exactly that.
Christopher Southworth, 23 May 2004