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India

Republic of India, Bharat, Bharatavarsha

Last modified: 2004-06-12 by rob raeside
Keywords: india | bharat | wheel | chakra | ashoka chakra |
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[Flag of India] by Zeljko Heimer
Flag adopted 22 July 1947, coat of arms adopted 26 January 1950.
 

See also:

National Flag and Jack

The flag was first flown and recognized as the Indian National Flag (not just as that of the Congress Party) in Hamburg in 1942.
Ed Haynes, 30 September 1998

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.

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, 10 April 1996

The national flag strictly is a state flag, but Album des Pavillons (2000) in a note explains that it may be used by private citizens only in certain circumstances.
Zeljko Heimer, 6 November 2001

Concerning the use of the national flag as a war flag (military flag), see our page on the Indian army.

Colours of the flag

Note: we have found it almost impossible to represent the shade of saffron on the Indian flag adequately for all monitors - some show it too yellow, other too orange. If you compare it with the colours on the flag of Brunei and Ireland you will see we have indeed chosen a tone between orange and yellow, as close to saffron as we can.

These are approximate colours shades for the Indian national flag:
Orange: CMYK 0-50-90-0, Pantone 021c; Green: CMYK 100-0-70-30, Pantone 341c
Santiago Dotor, 26 February 2001

The Indian saffron is approximated with browser-safe colours RGB 255-204-0 (FOTW Y+), and Indian green might be well 51-153-51.
Zeljko Heimer, 6 November 2001

Meaning of the Flag

'The Indian flag is a horizontal tricolor in equal proportion of deep saffron on the top, white in the mi