Tiranga & Tiranga Yatra emerged during the Freedom Struggle; Present Day Tiranga Yatras are Tawdry & Discordant

           On 9th August, 1942  British Government arrested all the top leaders of the Congress. This led to a strong reaction amongst the people.  There was mass upsurge everywhere throughout the nation for six or seven weeks.  People devised a variety of ways of expressing their anger in some places; huge crowds attacked police stations, post offices, courts, railway stations and other symbols of government. National flags were forcibly hoisted on public buildings in defiance of the police. Flag signified freedom, hope and a symbol of unity.

The present day Tiranga Yatras are far removed from the freedom struggle fervour. They have become discordant and ersatz. The meaning and importance of the national flag has to be understood. For example, unruly Kanwariyas carrying the national flag has no meaning .

I share the history of Tiranga - our national flag as it evolved and emerged through the freedom struggle. 

 

 The first national flag in India is said to have been hoisted on August 7, 1906, in the Parsee Bagan Square (Green Park) in Calcutta now Kolkata. The flag was composed of three horizontal strips of red, yellow and green. 

The second flag was hoisted in Paris by Madame Cama 1907 . This was very similar to the first flag except that the top strip had only one lotus but seven stars denoting the Saptarishi. This flag was also exhibited at a socialist conference in Berlin. 

  Dr. Annie Besant and Lokmanya Tilak hoisted it during the Home rule movement in 1917. This flag had five red and four green horizontal strips arranged alternately, with seven stars in the saptarishi configuration super-imposed on them. In the left-hand top corner (the pole end) was the Union Jack. There was also a white crescent and star in one corner. 

During the session of the All India Congress Committee which met at Bezwada in 1921 (now Vijayawada) an Andhra youth prepared a flag and took it to Gandhiji. It was made up of two colours-red and green-representing the two major communities i.e. Hindus and Muslims. Gandhiji suggested the addition of a white strip to represent the remaining communities of India and the spinning wheel to symbolise progress of the Nation. 

The year 1931 was a landmark in the history of the flag. A resolution was passed adopting a tricolor flag as our national flag. This flag, the forbear of the present one, was saffron, white and green with Mahatma Gandhi's spinning wheel at the center. 

On July 22, 1947, the Constituent Assembly adopted it as Free India National Flag. After the advent of Independence, the colours and their significance remained the same. Only the Dharma Charkha of Emperor Asoka was adopted in place of the spinning wheel as the emblem on the flag. Thus, the tricolour flag of the Congress Party eventually became the tricolour flag of Independent India.