The History of the Tiranga: How India's National Flag Took Shape (1906–1947)
From the Calcutta flag of 1906 to the Constituent Assembly's decision in July 1947, follow the four decades of experiments, debates and sacrifices that produced the Tiranga.
A flag that grew with the freedom movement
India's national flag did not appear overnight. Before 1947 there was no single flag that represented the whole country. Different regions, princely states and organisations used their own symbols, and the British administration used flags that reflected colonial rule. As the freedom movement grew in the early twentieth century, Indians began to feel the need for a common banner that could unite people across languages, religions and regions. The story of the Tiranga is therefore also the story of the national movement itself: each new design reflected the ideas, hopes and debates of its time.
Historians usually describe several important stages in this journey. Some of the early designs are known from photographs, newspaper descriptions and later accounts, so small details are sometimes described differently in different sources. The broad outline, however, is well established, and it shows how the idea of a shared national symbol slowly matured.
1906: The Calcutta flag
One of the earliest flags associated with the Indian national movement was hoisted on 7 August 1906 at Parsee Bagan Square (also called Greer Park) in Calcutta, during a protest against the Partition of Bengal. It is commonly described as having three horizontal bands of green, yellow and red. The top band carried eight half-open lotus flowers, the middle band carried the words Vande Mataram in Devanagari script, and the bottom band showed a sun and a crescent moon. The design drew on the Swadeshi movement, which encouraged Indians to use Indian-made goods and to take pride in Indian identity.
1907: Madame Bhikaji Cama's flag in Stuttgart
In August 1907, the revolutionary Madame Bhikaji Rustom Cama raised a flag for Indian independence at the International Socialist Congress in Stuttgart, Germany. It was similar to the Calcutta flag, with three bands and the words Vande Mataram, though the arrangement of colours and symbols differed. This event is remembered because it was one of the first times a flag representing Indian independence was displayed on an international platform. It sent a message to the world that Indians wanted freedom and saw themselves as one nation.
1917: The Home Rule flag
During the Home Rule movement led by Annie Besant and Bal Gangadhar Tilak, another flag was used. It had alternating red and green horizontal stripes, seven stars arranged in the pattern of the Saptarishi constellation, a crescent and star, and the Union Jack in the upper corner. The inclusion of the Union Jack reflected the movement's demand at the time, which was self-government within the British Empire rather than complete independence. As political goals changed, this design was left behind.
1921: A flag for the Congress
Around the time of the Indian National Congress session at Bezwada (now Vijayawada) in 1921, Pingali Venkayya, a freedom fighter from Andhra who had studied flags for years, presented a design to Mahatma Gandhi. It is generally described as having red and green bands, representing India's two major religious communities. Gandhi suggested adding a white band to represent the remaining communities of India and a spinning wheel, the charkha, to symbolise self-reliance and the Swadeshi movement. The charkha linked the flag to Gandhi's call for hand-spun khadi and economic independence.
1923 onwards: The flag satyagraha
In 1923 the flag became the centre of a protest movement in Nagpur and Jabalpur, sometimes called the Jhanda Satyagraha. Volunteers insisted on their right to carry the national flag in public processions despite restrictions. Many were arrested. The satyagraha showed that the flag had become more than a piece of cloth; it was a symbol people were prepared to make sacrifices for. Over the following years, the flag was carried during the Civil Disobedience movement, at public meetings and in marches across the country.
1931: The Swaraj flag
Because the colours of the 1921 flag had come to be linked with particular religious communities, the Congress appointed a committee to review the design. In 1931 the Congress adopted a new flag with three horizontal bands of saffron, white and green, with a blue charkha in the centre of the white band. Importantly, the colours were not intended to represent any religion. This Swaraj flag is the direct ancestor of today's national flag, and it was the flag carried by many freedom fighters during the Quit India movement of 1942.
1947: The Constituent Assembly decides
As independence approached, the Constituent Assembly of India set up an ad hoc committee on the national flag, chaired by Dr. Rajendra Prasad. On 22 July 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru moved the resolution to adopt the national flag. The Assembly kept the saffron, white and green bands of the Swaraj flag but replaced the charkha with the Ashoka Chakra, the wheel from the Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath, in navy blue. The resolution was adopted the same day. On 15 August 1947 the Tiranga became the flag of independent India, and it continued as the flag of the Republic of India when the Constitution came into force on 26 January 1950.
Why the history still matters
Knowing this history helps us understand why the Tiranga is treated with such respect today. It carries the memory of protests, arrests, debates and compromises that brought together people with very different backgrounds. When you see the flag on Independence Day or Republic Day, you are looking at the result of more than forty years of collective effort. Learning about each stage is also a reminder that national symbols are shaped by people, by their values and by their willingness to listen to each other.
If you want to explore further, the Constituent Assembly Debates of 22 July 1947 are publicly available and make fascinating reading. Museums and government archives in India also preserve historic flags and photographs from the freedom struggle.
This article is intended for general educational purposes. For official or legal purposes, please refer to the current Flag Code of India and notifications published by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Spotted an error? Write to info@tirangaourpride.online.