We Should Be Ashamed For Not Knowing This Freedom Fighter Who Gave Us Our Flag

In little over a month, we’ll see the country bathed in saffron, white and green. We won’t have to look too hard to the find our national flag fluttering in the wind, whether it’s in children’s hands, or waving off the top of a building. And when it comes to our flag, we know most of our stuff, whether it’s how to draw i t or knowing which way is right side up (well, at least most of us do ).

But how many of us know who created the symbol of our nation?

This is Pingali Venkayya, the man widely credited with designing the flag on which the current national flag was based.

In 1916, the national flag was still just a proposal, with a number of versions (no, we’re not including the British flag for India). One of those proposals even included a flag that consisted of a thunder bolt in the centre and 108 oil lamps for the border.

Yep, we desperately needed a flag.

That’s when Pingali Venkayya stepped in with 30 new designs, submitted in the form of a booklet. Finally, in 1921, Pingali Venkayya was commissioned to design the national flag which looked something like this:

Eventually, Mr. Venkayya’s design was used to form the basis of our current flag. Despite being the progenitor of the symbol that unifies Indians everywhere, Pingali Venkayya died in relative obscurity and poverty.

In 2009, a commemorative stamp was issued in his honour but little more has been done to restore his name.

For our part, we’d just like to thank Pingali Venkayya for giving us the tricolour. Thank you.