The Architect of Indian National Flag

THE ARCHITECT OF THE INDIAN NATIONAL FLAGtc "THE ARCHITECT OF THE INDIAN NATIONAL FLAG"

Pingali Venkaiah, the Architect of the Indian National Flag was a great patriot, freedom fighter and veteran Congressman who belonged to the old guard of leaders like Dadabhai Nauroji,, the Grand Old Man of India, Lokamanya Bala Gangadhar Tilak and Lala LajapatiRoy. Dadabhai Nauroji nominated him as a member of the ‘Decision Making Council’ in the Kolkata Session. Venkaiah had close association with Netaji Subas Chandra Bose, Rabindranath Tagore and Sarojini Naidu. After the demise of Tilak, he became the follower of Mahatma Gandhi and followed the Ahimsa marga. Besides being an ideal politician, known for his revolutionary views inside the Congress party, he was a great scholar in Sanskrit and Urdu. He made his mark as a Scientist, Writer, Soldier and a Teacher. Pingali Venkaiah and Rabindranath Tagore live in History permanently for their gifts of National Flag and National Anthem, the two National Symbols.

Pingali Venkaiah was born on 02-08-1878 in his grand mother’s house in Peda Kallepalle in Krishna District in Andhra Pradesh. Hanumnantha rayudu, native of Varlagadda, Divi taluq (Karanam by Profession) and Venkataratnam were his parents. Venkaiah was the eldest of the six sons and two daughters to his parents. Had his High School education at the Hindu High School, Machilipatnam. Passed his Cambridge Senior Examination at Colombo. In 1897, at the age of 19, he participated in the Boyer war in Africa. Studied Political Economics in City College, Colombo and returned to India in 1906. He worked as a Plague Inspector and Railway Guard for sometime in Madras and Bangalore. His patriotic zeal did not permit him to continue in government service. Pingali learnt languages like Sanskrit, Urdu and Japanese from Prof. Gote of Japan. His areas of interest were varied. Both in Agriculture and Mining he did research. He adopted new agricultural techniques (Japanese) in cotton cultivation in Munagala Paragana(1907-10). He got a gold medal in the Agricultural exhibition held at Eluru in 1909. He was given the membership of the Royal Agriculturea Society by the British. Venkaiah worked as Lecturer and was closely associated with the students of National college, Machilipatnam and trained them in modern Agriculture, horse riding and basic military training. The Agricultural Research certre was established by him at Bandar.

Pingali obtained a Diploma in Geology and mining from Presidency College, Madras. For about two decades he did research in Mica mines of Nellore district, Vajra Karur and Hampi.

He was also a good biographer and a writer, who wrote the Biography of Sanyat Sen in order to infuse the Indians with revolutionary ideas. He wrote a book on “A National Flag for India” and described 30 kinds of Flags, including the design of the Indian Flag we now have.

Pingali Venkaiah had a special place in the history of Indian Freedom struggle. When he was in South Africa, participating in Boyar war, he dreamed of Indian Independence and a separate Indian Flag. During the struggle for freedom the leadership was shifted from Moderates to Extremists led by Tilak. The Division of Bengal and the birth of Vandemataram Movement was a new turn of the movement. Pingali Venkaiah questioned the presence of Union Jack to India, when he was at Munagala. He was offended by looking at the hoisting of Union Jack at the Indian National Convention held at Kolkata. Since then he was busy in doing research for designing the National Flag.

At the Vijayawada Congress Session (March 31^st –April 1^st 1921), Gandhiji asked Pingali Venkaiah to design the Flag and the latter designed the Tricolor Flag within 3 hours. Gandhiji adopted the Flag as the Congress National Flag, with the charaka imposed on it. The Session was attended by large number of National and Andhra leaders like Gandhiji, Kasturba Gandhi, Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Lala Lajapati Roy, Patel, Maulana Azad, Ali brothers, Rajendra Prasad, C.R.Das, Purushottam Das Tandom, Sarojini Naidu, Tanguturi Prakasam, Konda Venkatappayya, Bulusu Sambamurthy, C. Rajagopalachary, Pattabhi, Duvuri Subbamma, Madapati Hanumantha Rao and others. All these leaders congratulated Pingali Venkaiah for designing the Flag. The Vijayawada session was significant and successful because the patriotic efforts of Pingali Venkaiah to have separate National Flag bore fruit at the meeting. Later the leaders reviewed the working of the non-cooperation movement. The session was attended by 2 lakhs of people. Patriotic songs like “Maakoddi Tella Doratanam” by Garimella Satyanarayana were sung. Resolutions of the session include rooting out untouchability, imposing prohibition, encouraging Hindu Muslim Unity, National educational Institutions, Khadi use etc.

The design of the National Flag of Pingali Venkaiah was adopted by the constituent Assembly of India on 22^nd July 1947. Its use and display are regulated by the Indian Flag code. It was a unique honour for Andhra that Pingali Venkaiah’s design of the National Flag was approved.

Pingali Venkaiah led a simple and austere life of contentment with his family members. He lived in a hut (Parnasala) in Chittinagar, in Vijayawada from 1950 till his death. The later part of his life was gloomy, spent in poverty. He found some solace in the association of some of his friends. He thanked a few selfless congress workers who helped him to take food on Sankranti Festival day which indicates his unsound financial position. In his own words “It was a bad Sankranti for me”. On January 15, 1963, a felicitation function was held under the Chairmanship of Gottipati Brahmaiah, by the citizens at Rice Millers Association Hall, Vijayawada. After the meeting he was given a dinner at the residence of Dr. T.V.S. Chalapati Rao. On February 3, 1963, Dr. K.L.Rao wrote a letter to Pingali Venkaiah stating that he represented the case of Pingali to the Central Minister, Humayun Kabir, asking him to contact Nilam Sanjeevareddy, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh for the arrangement of payment of Rs. 500 to him every month.

The health of Pingali Venkaiah, the octogenarian slowly deteriorated. He could not withstand the misery of life at the old age of 85 years. His second son Chalapathi Rao, who worked in the army died prematurely. Later his eldest son Parasuramaiah, a Geologist and Journalist too passed away. Rukminamma was his wife. His daughter was Sitamahalakshmi. He sent to his two grant children two shawls, which were presented to him at Cheerala and Vetapalem by the public.

Even before the Pension trials of Dr. K.L.Rao materialized, Pingali Venkaiah passed away on July 4^th 1963 at 9.30 a.m. at Vijayawada. All the Daily Newspapers in English and Telugu covered the news on the front pages on July 5^th, 1963. As per his long cherished ambition, the dead body covered by the National Flag and thousands of people in Vijayawada paid their last tributes and attended the funeral. In July 1964, the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Sastry unveiled the Photo of Pingali Venkaiah on the Gandhi Hall, at Vijayawada attended by Kamaraj and Kasu Brahmananda Reddy. Later on the former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, N. T. Rama Rao installed the Statue of Pingali Venkaiah on the Tank Band in Hyderabad and praised him as ‘Telugu Velugu’ and provided a chance for the people to pay their tribute to the great leader.

(The author obtained the information by looking into the dairy and newspapers and by interviewing the family members of Pingali Venkaiah         –EDITOR.)