In 1931, the Flag Committee, appointed by the Congress Working Committee (CWC) recommended ‘Kesari’ (Saffron) flag as India’s national flag. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, Master Tara Singh, Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, Principal D. B. Kalelker, Dr. N. S. Hardiker, and Dr. B. Pattabhi Sitaramayya (Convener) were the members of the committee.
The members of the National Flag Committee were unanimous in holding that the colours of the Flag should not bear any communal significance. So the committee ‘unanimously’ recommended that the flag be of saffron colour with a charkha on it in blue.
Prior to the sittings of the committee in July, Nehru wrote to Pattabhi Sitaramayya (April 12, 1931) that in ordinary circumstances he was not in favour of making any further alterations in the flag which had already become very popular. “The people of the villages, especially have identified it with our struggle for freedom and any change will confuse them. Given the CWC decision in the wake of debate over the connotation attached to the colours, it becomes necessary to modify it in the national interest. The National Flag Committee appointed by the CWC needs to make it very clear that no colour represents or will represent a community.” However, he said, he would not suggest any drastic changes. The placement of the colours should be aesthetically attractive, Nehru pointed out, “white at the top is not very attractive as it does not show”; he therefore preferred putting it in the middle. That the existing flag was identical to the Bulgarian flag made the change very desirable. Nehru suggested also that red be replaced by a shade of saffron as it was an old Indian colour associated with sacrifice and since “this colour has been adopted by the women of India and it would be graceful and deserving tribute to the women to adopt this colour in the flag.” Saffron, he felt, should be at the top.
However, later Nehru flipflopped on his earlier stance, which he expressed in his letter to Sitaramayya, and apparently, supported the Saffron flag as India’s national flag. He attended the two meetings held by the Flag Committee and the decisions taken in the meetings were ‘unanimous’. The meeting of the Flag Committee was convened during the sittings of the Working Committee in Bombay (from 7th July forwards). Two sittings were held on the 8th and 9th July. On the first day, all the members attended the meeting and on the second all but Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad. The report reiterates that Nehru was physically present at both sittings. Since the committee’s decision was ‘unanimous’, obviously, Nehru and Maulana Azad were also involved in formulating the final decision of the committee.
The committee report also gave reasons as to why the committee wanted to replace the tricolor with a ‘saffron’ flag: “Moreover the Committee recognize that the existing colours of the flag without charkha make it identical with that of Bulgaria, while the suggestion that the white should be transposed to the middle would make it identical with that of Persia. Thus apart from any communal significance, the colours of the existing flag, we feel, cannot commend themselves to our acceptance on account of their similarity to those of two other countries in the world…”
“It has been urged that this is the flag round which the cause of non-cooperation grew and developed, that this was the flag for which hundreds went to jail in Nagpur and finally that this is the flag for which and under which the great non-violent fight of 1930-31 took place with such glorious results. These arguments seem irresistible, but at the same time, It may be noted that all the sentiment and passion that has developed round the flag these 10 years, has developed not round a particular set of colours or a particular design but round the concept of the flag as the symbol of nationalism, national aspiration and sacrifice for the cause of national freedom,” noted the committee in the report.
Proposing the Kesari flag as the national flag of Bharat, the committee stated in report, “It remains for the committee now to approach the question of colours and device for the National Flag wholly from an aesthetic and heraldic standpoint. We feel the flag must be distinctive, artistic, rectangular and non-communal. Opinion has been unanimous that our National Flag should be of a single colour except for the colour of the device. If there is one colour that is more acceptable to the Indians as a whole, even as it is more distinctive than another, one that is associated with this ancient’ country by long tradition, it is the Kesari or saffron colour.”
“Accordingly, it is felt that the flag should be of the kesari color it except for the colour of the device. That the device should be the charkha is unanimously agreed to Various other devices have been suggested in place of or in addition to the charkha-namely plough, lotus flower and so on. .But the charkha is really the device round which our national movement has grown these ten years .and its importance should not be lessened by the’, addition of any other device. We have then to select the colour of the device. The Committee have come to the conclusion that the chatka should be in blue. Accordingly we recommend that the National Flag should be of kesari or saffron colour having on it at the left top quarter the charkha in blue with the wheel towards the flagstaff, the proportions of the flag being fly to hoist as three to two,” the report stated.
Ironically, in 1931, the Congress Committee met in Karachi rejected the Kesari flag on the ground that ‘no communal significance be attached to the flag’ and adopted the tricolour as the national flag.
Following the formation of the Constituent Assembly in August 1947, an ad hoc committee was set up to select a flag for independent India. The committee, headed by Rajendra Prasad, had Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Sarojini Naidu, C. Rajagopalachari, K. M. Munshi and B. R. Ambedkar as its members.
On 14 July 1947, the committee recommended the tricolour with suitable modifications, as the national flag of India. It was also resolved that the flag should not have any communal undertones. The spinning wheel of the flag was replaced by the Dharma Chakra (wheel) from the Lion Capital of Ashoka.
The new national flag was proposed by Nehru at the Constituent Assembly on 22 July 1947 as ‘a horizontal tricolour of deep saffron, white and dark green in equal proportions, with the Ashoka wheel in blue in the centre of the white band. Nehru also presented two flags, one in Khadi-silk and the other in Khadi-cotton, to the assembly’. The resolution was approved unanimously.
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