The Journey of Tricolour

The Sip of Life extends Independence Day wishes to all its readers today. There is a special Sunday Sip for you this time and it’s all that you need to know about the Indian flag, which we are sure most of us are not aware of.

Today our national flag is a blend of three colours. Saffron colour indicates the strength and courage of the country, white middle band indicating peace and truth with Dharma Chakra and the last band is green in colour shows the fertility, growth and auspiciousness of the land. But the Indian flag passed through several stages before it attained the final shape we have today. The first national flag of India was hoisted on August 7, 1906 in the Parsee Bagan Square (Green Park) in Calcutta which is now Kolkata. The flag was composed of three horizontal strips of red, yellow and green.

The second was hoisted in Paris by Madame Cama and her band of exiled revolutionaries in 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.

The third flag went up in 1917 when our political struggle had taken a definite turn. Dr. Annie Besant andLokmanya Tilak hoisted it during the Home rule movement. 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.

Be a true Indian and live each colour of our tricolour in whatever way you can and keep alive the spirit of our country!