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India

Bharat

Zeljko Heimer

History of the flag
Controversies surrounding the Indian flag
Star of India

See also:

History of the flag

Before 1947

Before 1947, under the British, the "official" Indian flag was the Union Jack "defaced" (the official term) by the star of the G.C.S.I. (Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India) at the center. This was, officially, the flag of the Viceroy, but it came to be used as the Indian flag (although I believe the normal Union Jack was used in practice). And, yes, India was a special case, different from the other possessions.

Flag of August 15, 1947

On 15 August 1947 the dominions of India and Pakistan were established. India adopted the familiar horizontal tricolor of orange, white, and green with a blue Ashoka Chakra at the center. The tricolor had been used, unofficially, since the early 1920s as the flag of the Indian National Congress, with the colors representing Hinduism (orange), Islam (green), and a hoped-for unity and peace (white). More unofficially, the flag was patterned on the other example of struggle against British imperialism, Ireland. Most often, a blue spinning wheel was shown in the center, derived from Gandhi's call for economic self-sufficiency through hand-spinning. It was this flag that was first hoisted as the "official" Indian flag in Berlin on 3 December 1941.

The spoked Ashoka Chakra (the "wheel of the law" of the 3rd-century BC Mauryan Emperor Ashoka) replaced the Gandhian spinning wheel to add historical "depth" and separate the national flag from the INC party flag (and Indian political party flags are another tale).

Ed Haynes, 1996-APR-10

The colour of the orange stripe on the Indian flag should officially be "saffron", which is somewhat deeper than shown here. I personally think it is close enough, given the problems of reproducing colours accurately.

Dipesh Navsaria 01-JUL-1996

Controversies Surrounding the Indian Flag

It should be noted that there are, today, elements within India (as elsewhere?) who reject or challenge the secular state and call for a new flag, taking out the green and white (and what they symbolize?) and going to some form of all-orange flag, to represent a "Hindu India."

Ed Haynes, 1996-APR-10

Musings on Indian flags (some mild political commentary follows):

Yesterday I finished reading Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh, and I can see how he managed to offend Hindu fundamentalists this time. Such is the lot of taking a "moderate" position -- at any rate, he mentions the Indian flag a couple of times and how the leader of the fundamentalists wants to remove the white and the green from the national flag and have it all be solely Hindu saffron. Nice way of putting it, I thought.
I also finished reading Leonard Moseley's The Last Days of the British Raj a couple of weeks ago and came across this passage:

"Sir John Colville, Governor of Bombay, let it be known that he would refuse to stay in his post as Governor after the transfer of power unless he were allowed to fly a Union Jack or some sort of flag with a Union Jack. (Sir John did stay on after Independence and stoutly flew the Union Jack on all British occasions.)
"In the case of the flags for the new Dominions, the Viceroy had not been inactive. Among his hobbies, along with the compilation of his family tree, was heraldry and design. He himself sketched and prepared the design for the flags of both Pakistan and India. One was based on the flag of Congress -- with Gandhi's spinning wheel -- and the other on the Muslim League's crescent. To each he added a small Union Jack, one ninth in area, sewn into the upper canton. He sent them to Jinnah and Nehru for their approval, as 'helpful suggestions'.
"Jinnah coldly replied that in no circumstances could the design be accepted as it would be repugnant to the religious feelings of the Muslims to have a Christian Cross alongside the Crescent. Nehru rejected the design on the grounds that, although Gandhi and Sardar Patel and others had originally expressed their willingness to accept it, he had now come to the conclusion that the prevailing feeling among Congress extremists was that the leaders were pandering to the British. This had reached a point where it was inadvisable to press the design upon them. Nehru sent the Viceroy a design prepared by Congress which showed the Dominion flag as closely resembling the Congress flag, but with the wheel of the Sarnath Asoka replacing the spinning wheel. And, of course, no Union Jack."

(Interesting that the UJ in the canton is 1/9th, and not the 1/4 it is in Ensign flags...)

Dipesh Navsaria 27-JUL-1996

Star of India

Zeljko Heimer

On a historical flag of India there is the Union Flag, in the middle (within a golden garland) a light blue disk. On this disk a smaller golden disk with a light blue five-pointed star, and a golden circle. Above the garland a golden crown. On a WW II poster with flags of the Allies, British India is represented by the red ensign, on the fly a golden sun with 14 rays.

Mark Sensen 21-OCT-1995

My "Wonder Book of Empire" of 1920 has a colour plate of the arms. They consist of a golden sunburst, on which is a light blue garter with the motto "Heaven's Light Our Guide", on which is a silver five-pointed star. These where the insignia and motto of the Order of the Star of India (inaugurated in 1861) and were chosen as being acceptable to all religious groups in India. I guess that the crown referred to by Mark is the Tudor crown, which cropped up quite regularly surmounting or within the arms-disks on various flags.

Paul Adams 22-OCT-1995

The illustration above is missing the words which go around it in a circle that say "Heaven's Light Our Guide", and I think there's a wreath consisting of roses and lotuses.

Dipesh Navsaria 27-JUL-1996

"The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India...The circlet of the order...is of light blue inscribed with the motto, "Heaven's light our guide." This in its turn is surrounded by the collar of the order, which is composed of alternate links of the Indian Lotus flower, crossed palm-branches, and the united red and white rose of England. In the centre of the collar is an Imperial crown from which depends the badge of the order, this being an onyx comeo of the effigy of her late Majesty Queen Victoria within the motto of the order, and surmounted by a star, the whole being richly jewelled. The surrounding of the shield by the circle of the order doubtless is a consequence and follows upon the original custom of the armorial use of the garter..."
This is all from Arthur Charles Fox-Davies' book, A Complete Guide to Heraldry

Dipesh Navsaria 27-JUL-1996

Ed Haynes

The star of the GSCI (Grand Commander of the Most Exalted Star of India), the highest class of the Star of India and the star that appears all over the place on British "colonial" flags in India. What I have given is just a line image.

Ed Haynes, 28-JUL-1996