#PingaliVenkayya: The man who designed our Tiranga - symbol of courage, honesty and prosperity
New Delhi, August 2: In 13 days we will be celebrating our Independence Day. The celebration starts with hoisting our National Flag, Tiranga, Tricolor. But do we know who designed this flag to which we proudly salute, which is a symbol of ‘peace’, ‘love’, ‘unity’, ‘identity of being Indian’, ‘sense of dedication’, ‘emotions’, ‘patriotism’ and the definition goes on. The man who designed it is none other than Pingali Venkayya. Today we remember him on his 142nd birth anniversary with a salute.
Pingali Venkayya. Pingali Venkayya is the man who painted India with the vibrant colors of Saffron, White and Green on the canvas of courage, sacrifice, patriotism.
Born on August 2, 1876, to Hanumantharayudu and Venkataratnamma in Bhatlapenumarru near Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh, Venkayya joined the British Army at the age of 19. Completed his primary education at Challapalli and attended school at the Hindu High School, Machilipatnam, after which he went to Colombo to complete his Senior Cambridge. He also went to Lahore where he joined the Anglo-Vedic College and learned Japanese and Urdu and History. He met Mahatma Gandhi during the Anglo- Boer war in Africa.
In early times, the Indian tricolour, signifying courage (saffron) honesty (white) and green (prosperity) with the Ashoka Chakra in the centre to represent both dharma and the wheel of progress, was proposed as the national flag on 22 July 1947 but by then, it had been around in different avatars for several years. It was the Gandhi who asked Pingali Venkayya to design the National Flag.
The tricolor which gets hoisted with a pride, the flag that is wrapped around their body by the sportspersons, the tricolor in which the martyred soldier comes wrapped in it- denotes an invisible sign of bond which connects millions of Indians and the connector was none other than- Pingali Venkayya. Thank You, Sir.