Pingali Venkayya, born on 2 August 1876, was an Indian freedom fighter. He was the designer of the flag on which the initial Indian National Flag was based. He was also a lecturer, author, geologist, educationalist, agriculturist, and a polyglot.
At the age of 19, Venkayya had enrolled in the British Indian Army and was deployed to South Africa during the Second Boer War (1899–1902). During the war when the soldiers had to salute the Union Jack, the national flag of Britain, Venkayya realised the need for having a flag for Indians. When Venkayya attended the AICC session in 1906 in Calcutta, he was inspired to design a flag for the Indian National Congressas he opposed the idea of hoisting the British flag at Congress meetings.
Various flags had been used by members of the Indian independence movement before independence was achieved in 1947. Pingali Venkayya designed the National Flag and presented it to Mahatma Gandhi during the latter's visit to Vijayawada on 1 April 1921. Venkayya's first draft of the flag was in red and green — the red representing Hindus and green the Muslims living in the country. On Gandhi's suggestion, Venkayya added a white stripe to represent all other denominations and religions present in India. Since 1921, Venkayya's flag has been used informally at all Congress meetings. The flag was adopted in its present form during a meeting of the Constituent Assembly on 22 July 1947. Pingali Venkayya studied in Hindu high school in Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh
Venkayya was an
agriculturist, as well as an educationist who set up an educational institution
in Machilipatnam. He died in
relative poverty in 1963 and was largely forgotten by society. A postage stamp
was issued to commemorate him in 2009. In 2012, his name was proposed for a
posthumous Bharat Ratna though there has been no response from the
central government on the proposal.
