Indian Flag

Indian Flag

Subject – Polity

Context – India celebrates 75^th year of its Independence

Concept –

• The Indian flag was adopted in its present form during a meeting of the Constituent Assembly held on July 22, 1947.
• The first national flag, which consisted of three horizontal stripes of red, yellow and green, is said to have been hoisted on August 7, 1906, at the Parsee Bagan Square, near Lower Circular Road, in Calcutta (now Kolkata).
• Later, in 1921, freedom fighter PingaliVenkayya met Mahatma Gandhi and proposed a basic design of the flag, consisting of two red and green bands.
• After undergoing several changes, the Tricolour was adopted as our national flag at a Congress Committee meeting in Karachi in 1931.

Rules governing the display of the Tricolour –

• The earliest rules for the display of the national flag were originally governed by the provisions of The Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950 and The Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971.
  • The Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971 prohibits the desecration of or insult to the country’s national symbols, including the national flag, the Constitution, the national anthem and the Indian map.
• In 2002, the Flag Code of India came into effect which allowed the unrestricted display of the Tricolour as long as the honour and dignity of the flag were being respected.
  • The flag code did not replace the pre-existing rules governing the correct display of the flag; it was, however, an effort to bring together all the previous laws, conventions and practices.
  • The Flag Code of 2002 is divided into three parts —
    • a general description of the tricolour,
    • rules on display of the flag by public and private bodies and educational institutions, and
    • rules for display of the flag by governments and government bodies.
  • It states that there will be no restriction on the display of the flag by public and private bodies and educational institutions except to the extent as laid down in the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950 and the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971.
• For official display, only flags that conform to the specifications as laid down by the Bureau of Indian Standards and bearing their mark can be used.

Standard dimensions of the flag –

• The flag code states that the tricolour can be of nine standard dimensions — 6300 x 4200, 3600 x 2400, 2700 x 1800, 1800 x 1200, 1350 x 900, 900 x 600, 450 x 300, 225 x 150 and 150 x 100 (all sizes in mm).
• The tricolour should be rectangular in shape and the length-to-width ratio should always be 3:2.
• The national flag should always be made of hand-spun and hand-woven wool or cotton or silk khadi bunting.
• The flag code mandates that the tricolour should always be distinctly placed and should “occupy the position of honour”. The flag should always be hoisted briskly and lowered slowly and ceremoniously.