Pingali Venkayya

In News

• Recently, the Ministry of Culture organized ‘Tiranga Utsav’ to celebrate Pingali Venkayya’s 146th Birth Anniversary.

About Pingali Venkayya

• Birth:
  • He was born in a Telugu Brahmin family at Bhatlapenumarru, near Machilipatnam, in what is now the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
• Designer of India’s National Flag:
  • Pingali Venkayya, a freedom fighter and the designer of India’s National Flag was a follower of Gandhian principles, and it was upon the request of Mahatma Gandhi that he designed the Indian National Flag with saffron, white and green colours with chakra in the middle.
• Educational institution in Machilipatnam:
  • He was an agriculturist and also an educationist who set up an educational institution in Machilipatnam.
• Bharat Ratna:
  • A postage stamp was issued to commemorate him in 2009 and in 2011 it was proposed that he be posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna.
• Book:
  • He wrote a book titled “National Flag for India,” which was published in 1916. 
  • The book showcased thirty designs of what could make the Indian flag.

The National Flag of India:

• Origin:
  • The National Flag of India was adopted in its present form during the meeting of the Constituent Assembly held on 22 July 1947, a few days before India’s independence from the British on 15 August 1947. 
  • It served as the national flag of the Dominion of India between 15 August 1947 and 26 January 1950 and that of the Republic of India thereafter. 
  • In India, the term “tricolour” refers to the Indian national flag.
  • Designed by: 
    • Pingali Venkayya.
• Description:
  • The National flag of India is a horizontal tricolour of deep saffron (Kesari) at the top, white in the middle and dark green at the bottom in equal proportion. 
  • The ratio of the width of the flag to its length is two to three. 
  • In the centre of the white band is a nnavy-bluewheel which represents the chakra. 
    • This Dharma Chakra depicted the “wheel of the law” in the Sarnath Lion Capital made by the 3rd-century BC Mauryan Emperor Ashoka. 
    • The chakra intends to show that there is life in movement and death in stagnation.
  • Its design is that of the wheel which appears on the abacus of the Sarnath Lion Capital of Ashoka. 
  • Its diameter approximates the width of the white band and it has 24 spokes.

Source: AIR