I
am Tiranga. I was born on July 22, 1947 in the Constituent Assembly on
the eve of the Independence of India.
When
the Adhoc Committee on the Flag adopted me as the National Flag of free
India, Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru
made a memorable speech and concluded saying : " So sir, now I present
to you not only the Resolution,
but
the Flag itself ".
In
fact, I owe my birth to the sacrifices and blessings of all great souls,
who brought freedom of India. It was late
evening
of August 14, 1947 at 10:45 p.m., and the Central Hall of the Council Hall,
now known as the Parliament
House
was over packed to its capacity. At the appointed hour, the proceedings
of the House commenced with
the
singing of Bande Matram led by Mrs. Sucheta Kriplani, the wife of then
Congress President, Achraya
Kriplani.
This was followed by brief opening address by the Chairman,
Dr. Rajendra Prasad, followed by
Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru's famous speech, Tryst with Destiny.
Finally, the resolution was moved to take the Oath of the Dedication. The
text of the ran:- " At this solemn
moment
when the people of India, by their suffering and sacrifice have secured
freedom and become
martyrs
of their destiny I .........., a member of Constituent Assembly of India,
do dedicate myself to the
service
of India and her people to the end that this ancient land attain its rightful
and honored place in the
world
and make its full willing contribution to the promotion of the world peace
and welfare of mankind." All the
members
took the oath standing. The oath was read by its chairman, Dr.Rajendra
Prasad first in Hindi and then
in
English. At that solemn moment every stone of the Parliament House echoed
with the lusty shouts of "
Mahatma
Gandhi ki Jai " and " Bande Mataram ". After the resolution by the House,
Mrs. Hansa Mehta
presented
to the Chairman the Tiring on behalf of the women of India, symbolizing
the birth of the Indian
National
- Flag. While presenting the flag to Dr. Rajendra Parsed, Mrs. Meat said,
" It is in the fitness of
things
that the first flag, that is to fly over this august House should be a
gift from the women of
India."
Dr.
Rajendra Prasad fondly received the flag from Mrs. Hansa Mehta and showed
it around. With the flag
showing
gesture of the chairman, the proceedings of the historic day came to a
close with the singing of Sare
Jahan
Se Achcha Hindostan Hamara and Jana Gana Mana (till then the song had not
been adopted as the
National
Anthem of India).
August
15, 1947
The
dawn of Independence day began at 8:30 Am., with the swearing in ceremony
at the Vice regal Lodge (now
known
as the Rashtrapati Bhawan). The new Government was sworn in the central
hall (now Durbar Hall). Two
large
size National Flags along with the Governor General's flag in deep blue
with the Star of India were
majestically
hung in the backdrop on the wall of the hall facing the distinguished gathering.
The
Tiranga proudly went up for the first time against a free sky of Independent
India on the flag mast of the
Council
House at 10:30 a.m. As the Tricolor went up the flag mast, a 31 gun salute
was accorded to the symbol
of
the newly born nation. In the afternoon of the August 15, 1947, the first
public flag salutation ceremony was
held
at the War Memorial at the Prince's Park near India Gate. As the first
Prime Minister of the India unfurled
the
Tiranga against a clear warm sky, from now where a rainbow appeared on
the horizon as though to bless
Trianga.
Lord Louis Mount batten, the first Governor General of free India in his
17th Report dated 16,1947,
wrote
that the three colors e.g. saffron, white and green in the flag of the
new dominion resembled so much the
hues
of the rainbow. The Indian people interpreted the occurrence as a salute
of Lord Indra, the god of rains to
the
Tiranga.
Tiranga
was hoisted for the first time on the ramparts of the Red Fort on the morning
of August 16, which was a
Saturday
at 8:30 Am., and not on 15th August 11947 as is commonly believed. It was
from 1948 onwards that
the
flag hoisting ceremony at the Red Fort was started on August 15.
Speaking on the occasion, Pandit Nehru
made
a mention of Subhash Chandra Bose's dream of seeing the National Flag hoisted
on the Red Fort and
regretted
that he was not there to witness the day.
Since
antiquity man has used flags. From the immemorial, people have laid down
lives for their flags. Indeed,
there
is something so compelling in this piece of cloth, called the National
Flag, that people make even the
supreme
sacrifice for its sake. While any other flag stands as a symbol of faith
in a family, a community or a
clan,
the National Flag stands for the whole nation, its idles, aspirations,
its hopes and achievements. It is a
beacon
showing to its people the path when their very existence is threatened.
It is at this time of danger that
this
much length of cloth inspires people to unite under its umrella and urge
them to defend the honor of their
motherland.
The
word flag is of Teutonic (German) origin and probably came into use around
the 15th and 16th centuries in
various
northern European languages signifying a piece of cloth, bunting or a similar
material displaying the
insignia
of a community, an armed force, an office or an individual. A flag in a
classical sense is usually, but not
always
oblong and attached to a staff or halyard.
In
the early days of history, the flags besides being objects of worship and
reverence, also served as rallying
points
for organizing armies and for identification of friend and foe during battles.
For this purpose flag bearers
were
used in wars to give direction to soldiers.
This
practice of caring flags to battlefields in war time and before kings and
members of royalty during peace
time
was followed by almost all the early civilization of the world, namely
the Egyptian, Assyrians, Greeks,
Romans,
Chinese, Indians and others. A study of old records revel that sacred emblems
of special
significance
were borne by members of royalty, their military units and ships. As Assyrian
statue dating back to
671
B.C. shows a soldier with a standard of a period are shown on pottery bearing
signs of harpoon, or fish etc.
may
be to indicate their port of origin. It was another use of flags in old
times.
The
ancient standard consisted of some solid object fixed on a bracket at the
top of pole sometimes with
streamers
attached to it. And, the object displayed on the standard used to
be sacred. The ancient Persian
displayed
a vaulter on a javelin on their flags during war. The Greeks choose an
armor, while the Romans had
an
eagle or effigies of gods or figures of animals like wolves, horses and
bears on their standards. The
Chinese
usually bore figures of a dragon, a red bird, a white tiger or a snake.
They were carried on chariots and
planted
upon the walls of captured cities. The vexllum or the Roman cavalry flag,
was nearest to a flag in a
modern
sense, as it was a square piece of cloth fastened to bar place crosswise
on a spearhead. The labrum or
the
imperial standard of the later Roman emperors, was of a similar pattern
but a bit larger of pure silk and
embroidered
in gold. Though in ancient times flags were in use the world over, it is
well supported with
probability
that the birth place of the flag was India or China.
In
ancient India flags had great significance too. They were in use even in
4000-3000 B.C during the Indus Valley
Civilization
and Vedic period 2500-1500 B.C. During the Indus figures of a unicorn and
an incense burner. The
epic
heroes are described to have well conceived and defined personal standards.
They carried these flags on
chariots
and elephants. The flags in India were the first objects of attack in a
battle in old times. The destructive
of
a dhvaja was considered sacrilegious and the offender had to repair the
damage or pay a fine of five
hundred
panas. Its fall would mean confusion, if not defeat as was the case in
China. One special attribute of
Indian
flag was, they were often triangular in shape and scarlet or green in color
with a figure embroidered in
gold
and a gold fringe around it. Some Indian flag staffs were surmounted
by a figure similar to that
displayed
on the flag itself. Besides the conventional use, flags also had been used
in India as in China for
signaling.
A white flag was used as a signal for a truce.
Prophet
Mohammed, the founder of Islam adopted the 'Roman Eagle' for need of a
flag for his troops. His
successors,
the later Caliphs (Abbasids), adopted a black flag with the legend " Mohammed
is the Apostle of
God
", superimposed in white. Islamic flags, however, were greatly simplified
and appear to have been plain
black,
white or red. Black was supposed to have been the color of Mohammed's banner,
the color of
vengeance.
A black flag was used by the Abbasids in 746 A.D. (A.H. 129), the Omayyads
and Alids chose
white
by contrast and the Khawarij (Kharijites) red. Keeping the tradition a
plain red flag is therefore, retained
by
the modern Sultanates of Muscat and Oman. Green was the color of the Ftimid
dynasty and eventually
became
the color of Islam. The crescent moon, with or without an additional star
or stars has since become
the
accepted the symbol of Islam. The use of flag was probably transmitted
to Europe by the Saraccus. They,
however,
developed their own elaborate heraldry in the due course. European flags
of various forms and
purpose
are known as colors, standards, banners, ensigns, pennants or pennons,
guidons and burgees.
Interestingly,
many European nations adopted around 13th and 14th centuries and still
use their flag the Cross in
Geneva,
representatives of 12 nations signed a treaty of all armed forces should
bear a red cross on white, the
Swiss
flag with reversed colors. this has since remained the symbol of the International
Red Cross
Organization.
Tricolor
Flags
Most
ancient flags conceptually and originally had been unicolour such as red,
green, white or black. But, during
the
medieval period, bicolor and tri-colour flags came into being, may be to
denote alliance between
like
minded people. Austria is believed to have had a tri-colour flag with horizontal
stripes of red, white and red
around
the 13th century. The Dutch also used a flag of orange, white and blue
in horizontal stripes of equal width
in
a revolution against Spain in 1574 A.D. Orange was replaced by red in the
17th century, leaving the Dutch
flag
exactly as it is now. The Revolutionary French tricolour intellectually
and socially invaded the rest of Europe
in
1789 world. The blue, white and red of france was revolutionary in intent,
though it was not wholly novel in
design,
as Austria and Netherlands already had tricolors as way back as the 13th
and 16 century. The tricolour
thus
stood for revolution. The Indian tricolour hoisted in Calcutta on August
7, 1906, in the words of one of the
chief
designers of that flag Sukumar Mitra too, was inspired by the French tricolour.
One
hard fact of our history is that we never in the past had a National flag
for the whole of India. The stretch of
land
called India, in the true sense of the word, had never been one nation.
There had been dynasties, clans,
tribes
and communities. Each had its own territory, traditions, customs and political
norms. All these big and
small
kingdoms were rule under their respective flags. There had therefore been
dhvajas of the epic heroes,
standards
of monarchs, flags of dynasties, banners of warriors, etc., but a National
Flag for the entire length and
breadth
of the country never existed.
Whenever
a king extended his territory by defeating another king, he still allowed
the vanquished to fly his flag
over
the conquered territory. The Garuda banner of the Mauryas and the Guptas
was more a dynastic coat - of -
arms
than a National - Flag. Similarly, the Changi of Rana Pratap, the Bhagva
- jhanda of Shivaji, the triangular
Hanuman
Banner of rani ki Jhansi, and the Alam of the Mughals were mere symbols
of the Rajput. Maratha and
Mughal
pride. Even during the British rule, there were 565 princely states in
India. They all had their own flags
and
royal emblems. Besides, the Viceroy and Governor - General of India also
had their flags. As a people we
were
never true Indians in the strict sense of the term. We were either Punjabis,
Sindhis, Kashmiris, Marathis,
Gujaratis,
Bengalis, Assamese and the rest. On the top of it we were Hindus, Muslims,
Sikhs, Christians, Jains,
Parsis
etc. Such a fragmented political set up of India suited the English who
came to India as one nation and
ruled
over as under one flag Union Jack.
Western
political thought and especially the French Revolution and its slogan "
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity "
acquainted
the Indians with the idea of nationalism. When Raja Ram Mohan Roy was sailing
to England in
January,
1831 he limped his way from his ship to a French vessel that was berthed
along with his in the Cape
town
harbour just to greet the French flag. For him the French tricolour was
not a mere National - Flag but the
symbol
of French revolution, seeing the flag, he exclaimed " Glory, Glory, Glory
! ". In the French tricolour, the
great
nationalist saw the dream of India's Independence.
The
uprising of 1857 intensified the spirit of nationalism in the people of
India. Though the war was fought under
several
flags, there was only one common flag song which briefly echoed those days.
However, that speaking
volumes
for our growing sense of nationalism. Its wording were :
" Hindu, Mussalman, Sikh hamara
Bhai bhai pyara
Yeh hai jhanda azadi ka
Ise salam hamara "
The
language and the text of the song make it obvious that it refers to the
Green - and - Gold flag of Bhadur
shah
Zafar.
Sister
Nivedita's Flag :
At
the turn of the century, the quest for a National - Flag assumed greater
urgency with the rise of the Swadeshi
-
Movement. Sister Nivedat, an Irish disciple of Swami Vivekananda, was one
of the first to concive of a National
-
Flag for India. In 1904, while on a visit to Buddha Gaya in the company
of J. C. Bose and Rabindranath
Tagore,
she saw the Vajra - chinha for the first time and was instantly inspired.
Vajra (thunderbolt) is the sign for
the
Lord Buddha. It is also connected with Siva and goddess Durga. It is sign
of strength being the celebrated
weapon
of Lord Indra, the war god. Having been inspired by the vajra - chinha,
Sister Nivedita designed a
National
Flag for India. She got another flag made by her pupils, in scarlet and
yellow. It was displayed at the
exhibition
organised by the Congress in its annual session at Calcutta in December,
1906. Her flag was square
in
shape, with a red field. It had a hundred and jyotis all along the border
and vajra in yellow at the centre with
Vande
on the left and the Mataram on the right of it, in Bengali script. The
legend Vande Mataram was also in
yellow
in yellow. Sister Nivedita, later in 1909 under a pseudonym wrote an article
" Vajra as a design for a
National
- Flag ", in the Modern Review, in which she suggests a design for a National
Flag in which the
thunderbolt
(vajra) and a lotus were included to symbolise the heritage of India. She
wrote that red implied
struggle
for freedom, yellow meant victory, and the white lotus denoted purity.
The
Calcutta - Flag :
Lord
Curzon was the viceroy of India from 1898 to 1905. He antagonised the Indians
by promulgating many
unpopular
laws. But his decision to partition Bengal in the name of better administration,
when the nation was
groaning
under the havoc caused by famine, earthquake and the plague was most unfortunate.
The scheme of
partition
was to merge the eastern districts of Decca, Shahi and Chittagaon with
Assam and form a new
province
of ' East Bengal and Assam '. The rest of Bengal was to be joined to Orissa
and the new Province was
to
be called ' Bengal '. Britisher's tried ' divide and rule ' policy and
wanted to set Hindus against Muslims. On
August
7, 1906, the first anniversary of the anti-partition movement, a big rally
was organised at Parsi Bagan
Squre
(Greer Park) in Calcutta. For the first time a tricolour flag was unfurled
there. The moving spirit behind the
design
of this flag was Schindra Prasad Bose, a close follower of Sir Surendranath
Banerjee and the son-in-law
of
the moderate Brahmo leader, Krishna Kumar Mitra. The flag they designed
had open lotuses on the top
green,
yellow and red. It had eight half open lotuses on the green stripe, Vande
Mataram in blue on the middle
yellow
stripe, and the sun and moon (crescent) in white on the bottom red stripe.
This flag was for the first time
hoisted
at the Parsi Bagan Square on August 7, 1906, which was observed as Boycott
Day to protest against
the
partition of Bengal, Narendranath Sen ceremonially the flag and sang a
song. Sir Surendranath Banerjee,
who
hoisted this flag with the bursting of a hundred and one crackers.
By
the New Year of 1947, the Britons had fully realised that the time had
come for Britain to leave India. The
British
Parliament seeing the writing on the wall, voted by an overwhelming majority
to end the British rule in the
subcontinent,
no later than June 1948. The new Prime Minister of England, Mr. Clement
Attlee, decided to do
the
inevitable by appointing Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten
as the new Viceroy. He was the
last
Englishman to govern India. On March 24,1947 he made the historic
announcement about the decision of
the
British government to free India on June 3, 1947. With this announcement,
the national leaders started
thinking
to have a National Flag which would be acceptable to all the political
Flag Committee. Dr. Rajendra
Prasad
had to design the flag for free India. The Committee , besides the chairman,
consisted of stalwarts such
as
Abdul Kalam Azad, K.M. Panikar, Sarojini Naidu, C. Rajagopalachari, K.M.
Munshi and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.
The
Flag Committee which was constituted on June23, 1947 took some deliberate
decisions on July14, 1947
for
the National Flag which is as follows :
The flag of the Indian National Congress should be adopted as the National
Flag of India with suitable
modifications, to make it acceptable to all parties and communities in
India.
The flag should be tricoloured , with three bands horizontally arranged.
The colors should be in the following order safforn on top, white in the
middle and the dark green at the
bottom.
The emblem should be an exact reproduction of the wheel on the capital
of Ashoka's Sarnath Pillar,
superimposed in the middle of the central white band.
The color of the emblem should be blue.
Having
arrived at these decisions, the committee started preparing samples of
the new flag. On July 18, 1947
committee
decided that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru would place the recommendations before
the house on
July22,
1947. He presented two flags to the Assembly one made of khadi - silk and
the other of cotton - khadi.
The
resolution was carried unanimously. After the adoption of the tricolour
as the National Flag the Secretatriat
of
the Constituent Assembly received numerous requests for samples of the
approved design. Some
enterprising
individual took advantage of the opportunity. The issue of the August 10,
1947 of The Hindustan
Times
carried an advertisement which read :
As
a goodwill gesture The Hindustan Times distributed free to its readers
a paper flag souvenir along with its
issue
of July 28, 1947 to acquaint people with the approved design of the National
Flag.
As
an Honorable Member of the Ad - hoc Committee on the Flag, Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru presented to the
Constituent
Assembly of India on July 22, 1947 two flags. Presenting the flags, he
moved the following
Resolution
:
" Resolved
that the National - Flag of India shall be horizontal tricolour.......
The
ratio of the width to the length of the Flag shall ordinarily be 2 : 3
"
At
the request of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Army Headquarters in
1950 after India became a
Republic
and adopted the Tiranga as the National Flag of the Republic, the Indian
Standards Institution ( now
Bureau
of Indian Standards ) brought out specifications on the National Flag for
the first time in 1951. These
specifications
were revised in 1964, with a view to completely changing over the dimensions
of the to the metric
system.
On August 17, 1968, the specifications were revised a second time. These
specifications cover all the
essential
requirements of the National Flag for its manufacture. While the specifications
by the ISI were initially
being
worked out, the Government of India expressed a desire that the cloth for
the manufacture of the flag for
use
by the Government should be hands pun and hand woven khadhi. Gandhiji suggested
that Tiranga must be
made
of ' khaddar '. Dr. Suniti kumar Chatterjee also said that it should be
made of cotton or silk. Accordingly, it
was
decided that the the cloth be it cotton, woollen or silk used for the manufacturing
for the Tiranga even the
yarn
used for cloth would be hands pun and the sewing thread of three
colors namely India - safforn, white and
India
- green to be used for stiching the flag would also be khadi.
The
Indian Standard, thus describes the design and constructional details of
the National Flag of India :
" The
flag shall be rectangular in shape and the ratio of the length to the width
shall be 3 : 2. The flag
shall
be a tricolour panel made up of three rectangular panels or sub - panels
of equal widths. The
colors
of the top panels shall be India - saffron ( kesari ), and that of the
bottom panel shall be India -
green,
the middle panel shall be white bearing at its centre the design of Ashoka
Chakra in navy blue
color.
The Ashoka Chakra shall have 24 spokes equally spaced and shall preferably
be screen
printed
or otherwise printed or stencilled or suitably embroidered with navy blue
color. In all the
cases,
the chakra shall be completely visible on both sides of the flag in the
centre of the white
panel.
"
The
spectrophotometric value of all the colors described by the ISI as India
- safforn, India - Green and white,
was
measured and determined in conformity with the colors of the sealed sample
heald at Kanpur, by the
Technical
Development Establishment Laboratory (Stores) in Kanpur by using the illuminent
- ' C ' as specified
by
the International Commission on Illumination - 1931.
Although,
no embargo is levied on the manufacture of the National Flag by private
agencies. It is extremely
desirable
to maintain the honour and dignity of the flag. Therefore, all flags manufacturers
must confirm to the
specifications
laid down by the ISI.
CORRECT
DISPLAY OF TIRANGA
1.Wherever the Tiranga is flown, it should occupy the position of honour
and be distinctly placed.
2.Where the practice is to fly the Tiranga on any public building, it shall
be flown on that building on all days,
including Sundays & Holidays. It shall be flown from sunrise to sunset
irrespective of weather conditions.
The flag may be flown on such a building at night also, but this should
be only on very special occasions.
3.The Tiranga shall always be hoisted briskly and lowered slowly and ceremoniously.
When the hoisting and
the lowering of the flag is accompanied by appropriate bugle calls, the
hoisting and lowering should be
simultaneous with the bugle calls.
4.When the Tiranga is displayed from a staff projecting horizontally or
at an angle from windowsill, balcony,
or front of a building, the saffron band shall be at the farther end of
the staff.
5.When the Tiranga is displayed flat and horizontal on a wall, the saffron
band shall be uppermost and when
displayed vertically, the saffron band shall be to the right with reference
to the Flag, i.e it may be to the
right of a person facing it.
6.When displayed over the middle of a street, running east-west or north-south,
the Tiranga shall be
suspended vertically with the saffron to the north, or to the east as the
case may be.
7.When the Tiranga is displayed on a speaker's platform, it shall be flown
on a staff on the speaker's right
as he faces the audience or flat against the wall above and behind the
speaker.
8.When used on occasions like the unveiling of a statue, the Tiranga shall
be displayed distinctly and
separately.
9.When the Tiranga is displayed alone on a motor car, it shall be flown
from staff which should be affixed
firmly to the car in the middle front of the bonnet.
10.When the Tiranga is carried in a procession or a parade, it shall be
either on the marching right, that is the
Flag's own right, or if there is a line of other flags, in front of the
centre of the line.
INCORRECT DISPLAY OF TIRANGA
1.A damaged or disheveled Tiranga must not be displayed.
2.The Flag must not be dipped in salute to any person or thing.
3.No other flag or bunting shall be placed higher than or above or side
by side with the Tiranga, nor shall
any object, including flowers or garlands or emblems be placed on or above
the flag mast from which the
Tiranga is flown.
4.The Tiranga must not be used as a festoon, rosette or bunting or in any
other manner for decoration, nor
shall other coloured pieces of cloth be so arranged as to give the appearance
of the Tiranga.
5.The Tiranga must not be used to cover a speaker's desk nor should it
be draped over a speaker's
platform.
6.The Tiranga must not be displayed with the " saffron " down.
7.The Tiranga must not be allowed to touch the ground or the floor or trail
in water.
8.The Tiranga must be not be displayed or fastened in any manner as may
damage it.
MISUSE OF THE TIRANGA
1.The Tiranga must not be used as a drapery in any form whatsoever except
in State / military funerals.
2.The Tiranga must not be draped over the hood, top, sides or back of a
vehicle or a train or a boat.
3.The Tiranga must not be used or stored in such a manner as may damage
or soil it.
4.When the Tiranga is in a damaged or soiled condition, it may not be cast
aside or disrespectfully
disposed of, but shall be destroyed as a whole in private, preferably by
burning or by any other method
consistent with the dignity of the flag. The other proper way to destroy
the Tiranga could be immersion into
the Ganga or buried with due respect.
5.The Tiranga must not be used as a covering for a building.
6.The Tiranga must not be used as a portion of a costume or uniform of
any description. It shall not be
embroidered upon cushions or handkerchiefs or printed on napkins or boxes.
7.Lettering of any kind shall not be put upon the Tiranga.'
8.The Tiranga must not be used in any form of advertisement nor shall an
advertisement sign be fastened to
the pole from which the flag is flown.
9.The Tiranga must not be used as a receptacle for receiving, delivering,
holding or carrying anything.
DISPLAY ON NATIONAL DAYS OR ON SPECIAL OCCASIONS
1.The display of the Tiranga is unrestricted throughout the country on
the following occasions. However,
following the judgement of the Delhi High Court on the Tiranga, all restrictions
are now rendered invalid.
Republic Day - during the period from the commencement to the close of
the
celebrations, until Beating of Retreat ceremony on January 29 at Vijay
Chowk,
Delhi.
National week - April 6 to April 13 - in memory of the martyrs of
Jallianwala Bagh.
Independence Day : August 15
Mahatma Gandhi's birthday : October 2 and
Any other particular day of national rejoicing as may be specified by the
Government of India.
1.(a) The display of Tiranga shall be unrestricted in a State on the anniversary
of the formation of that state.
2.The Government of India may authorise the unrestricted display of the
Tiranga on any specified day in any
local area on account of local celebration.
SALUTE
TO THE TIRANGA
During
the ceremony of hoisting or lowering the Tiranga or when the flag is passing
in a parade or in a review,
all
persons present should face the flag and stand attention. Those present
in uniform should render the
appropriate
salute. When the Flag is in a moving column. persons present will stand
at attention or salute as the
Flag
passes them. A dignitary may take the salute without a head dress.
Display with Flags of Other Nations and of the United Nations
1.When displayed in a straight line with Flags of other countries, the
National-Flag shall be on the extreme
right; (i.e.) if an observer were to stand in the centre of the row of
the flags facing the audience, the
National-Flag should be to his extreme right. Flags of foreign countries
shall proceed as from the
National-Flag in alphabetical order on the basis of English versions of
the names of the countries
concerned. It would be permissible in such a case to begin and also to
end the row of flags with the
National-Flag and also to include the National Flag in the normal country
wise alphabetical order. The
National-Flag shall be hoisted first and lowered last.
2.In case flags are to be flown in an open circle, i.e., in an arc or a
semi-circle, the same procedure shall be
adopted, as is indicated in the preceding paragraphs. In case flags are
to be flown in a closed, i.e.,
complete circle, the National-Flag shall mark the beginning of the circle
and the flags of other countries
should proceed in a clockwise manner until the last flag is placed next
to the National-Flag. It is not
necessary to use separate National-Flags to mark the beginning and the
end of the circle of flags. The
National-Flag shall also be included In Its alphabetical order in such
a closed circle. When the
National-Flag Is displayed against a wall with another flag from crossed
staffs, the National-Flag shall be
on the right (i.e.) the flag's own right, and Its staff shall be in front
of the staff of the other Flag.
3.When the United Nations' flag is flown along with the National-Flag,
it can be displayed on either side of
the National-Flags. The general practice is to fly the National Flag on
the extreme right with reference to
the direction which it Is facing (i.e. extreme left of an observer facing
the masts flying the flags.)
4.When the National-Flag Is flown with flags of other countries, the flag
masts shall be of equal size.
International usage forbids the display of the flag of one nation above
that of another nation in time of
peace.
5.The National-Flag shall not be flown from a single masthead simultaneously
with any other flag or flags.
There shall be separate mastheads for different flags.
6.On occasions specified by the Government, such as the visit of a foreign
dignitary, the general public may
wave the National-Flag made of paper and the paper flag of the other country.
After use. they shall be
disposed of in a proper manner preferably by burning in private.
7.With permission of the Government, the National Flag and the flags of
other countries may be displayed
on occasions such as cultural shows, exhibitions, musical concerts, film
festivals, etc., sponsored by the
diplomatic or consular representatives of foreign governments.
8.A foreigner or a foreign firm/institution may fly the National-Flag of
India along with the flag of his/its
country on the Indian National days or his/its own country's national days,
in accordance with the
procedure indicated above.
Rules for Official Display of the National-Flag
Public
buildings :
Normally, the National-Flag should be flown only on important public buildings
such
as High Courts, Secretariat Commissioners' Offices, Collectorates, Jails
and
offices of the District Boards, Municipalities, Zilla Parishads and Departmental
/Public Sector undertakings.
In frontier areas the National-Flag may be flown on the international borders,
custom-posts, check-posts, outposts, and at other special places where
the flying
of the Flag takes on special significance. In addition, it may be flown
on camp
sites of border patrols, airports, lighthouses facing international waters.
Official
residences :
(a)
The National-Flag should be flown on the official residences of the President,
Vice-President, Governors
and
Lieutenant Governors when they are at Headquarters and on the building
In which they stay during their
visits
to places outside the Headquarters. The Flag flown on the official residence
should, however, be brought
down
as soon as the dignitary leaves the Headquarters and It should be re-hoisted
on that building as he enters
the
main gate of the building on return to the Headquarters. When. the dignitary
is on a visit to a place outside
the
Headquarters, the Flag should be hoisted on the building in which he stays
as he enters the main gate of
that
building and it should be brought down as soon as he leaves that place.
On the National days the Flag
should,
however, be flown from sunrise to sunset on such official residences irrespective
of whether the
dignitary
is at Headquarters or not.
(b)
The National-Flag should be flown on the residences at Headquarters of
the Heads of Missions/Posts
abroad
in the countries where it is the custom for diplomatic and consular representatives
to fly their
National-Flags
over their official residences. They may also, in similar circumstances,
fly the Flag on their
offices
where they are separate from residences.
Institutions
:
(a)
When the President, the Vice-President or the Prime Minister visits an
institution, the National-Flag may be
flown
by the institution as a mark of respect.
(b)
On the occasions of the visit to India by foreign dignitaries, namely.
President, Vice-President,
Emperor/King
or Heir Prince and the Prime Minister, the National-Flag may be flown along
with the Flag of the
foreign
country concerned in accordance with the rules by such private institutions
as are according reception to
the
visiting foreign dignitaries and on such public buildings as the foreign
dignitaries intend to visit on the day of
visit
to the institution.
Display
of National-Flag on Motor Cars :
(a)
The privilege of flying the National-Flag on motor cars Is limited to the
:
President
Vice-President
Governors and Lieutenant Governors
Heads of Indian Missions abroad In the countries to which they are accredited
Prime Minister and other Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of State and
Deputy Ministers of the
Union, Chief Minister and other Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of State and
Deputy Ministers of
States
Ministers of State and Deputy Ministers of Union Territories
Speaker of the Lok Sabha
Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha;
Chairmen of
Legislative Councils in States, Speakers of Legislative Assemblies in States
and Union
Territories, Deputy Chairmen of Legislative Councils in States,
Deputy Speakers of
Legislative Assemblies in States and Union Territories
Chief Justice of India, Judges of Supreme Court Chief Justice of
High Courts. The case on
the entitlement of the High Court Judges is pending.
The dignitaries mentioned may fly the National-Flag on their cars, whenever
they consider it
necessary or advisable.
(b)
When a foreign dignitary travels in a car provided by Government, the National-Flag
will be flown on the right
side
of the car and the Flag of the foreign dignitaries will be flown on the
left side of the car.
Display
of the National-Flag on Trains :
When
the President travels by special train within the country, the National-Flag
is flown from the driver's cab on
the
side facing the platform of the station from where the train departs. The
Flag Is flown only when the special
train
is stationary or when coining into the station where it is going to halt.
Display
of the National-Flag on Aircraft's :
(a)
The National-Flag Is flown on the aircraft carrying the President, the
Vice-President or the Prime Minister on
a
visit to a foreign country. Alongside the National-Flag, the flag of the
country visited should also be flown but,
when
the aircraft lands in countries en route, the National-Flag of the countries
touched would be flown instead,
as
a gesture of courtesy and goodwill.
(b)
When the President goes on tour within India, the National-Flag is displayed
on the side by which the
President
will embark the aircraft or disembark from It. |