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Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Pingali Venkayya: Remembering the man who designed Indian tricolour on his 140th birthday

Pingali Venkayya, a fervent freedom fighter and the man who designed the Indian national flag, was born on 2 August, 1876. Venkayya joined the British Indian Army at the age of 19 and took part in the Anglo-Boer war in Africa. It was during the war that Venkayya met Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and formed an association which would last for more than 50 years.

Pingali Venkayya and the Indian Tricolour. Twitter
Conception of the tricolour

On 31 March, 1921 at the Kakinada conference of the Indian National Congress, Venkayya conceived the idea of a national flag.

MK Gandhi added the white stripe to Venkayya's saffron and green flag while Arya Samaj movement founder Lala Hansraj contributed the Dharm Chakra ( wheel of law).

The present tricolour was adopted  just days before India's independence, on 22 July, 1947 at a meeting of the Constituent Assembly.

Venkayya died on 4 July, 1963 in Vijayawada.

On Tuesday, Twitterati showered  the Gandhian with their tributes.