Archive · 14 Aug 2026
Pingali Venkayya Remembered on 150th Birth Anniversary for Tricolour Role
Many years ago, India was not free, and people from other countries ruled it.
A man named Pingali Venkayya wanted India to have its own special flag.
He was born in a place called Andhra Pradesh and studied many things like farming and languages.
He even went to Cambridge University and served as a soldier in South Africa, where he met Mahatma Gandhi.
One day, he saw Indian people saluting the British flag, and it made him sad.
So he decided to make a flag for India and studied the flags of 30 countries.
In 1921, he showed his flag design with red, white and green and a spinning wheel to Gandhi, who liked it.
Later, the flag changed to saffron, white and green, and in 1947 the spinning wheel was replaced by the Ashoka Chakra.
That is the flag India uses today.
On his 150th birthday, India's leader Narendra Modi thanked him for his wonderful work.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute to Pingali Venkayya on August 2, his 150th birth anniversary, praising his role in giving India the Tricolour.
Venkayya, born August 2, 1879, in Andhra Pradesh, served with the British Indian Army in South Africa, where he met Mahatma Gandhi.
In 1921, at an Indian National Congress meeting in Vijayawada, his flag design of red, white and green with a central Charkha caught Gandhi's attention.
In 1931 the Congress officially adopted saffron, white and green with a spinning wheel; on July 22, 1947, the Constituent Assembly replaced the charkha with the navy-blue Ashoka Chakra.
Venkayya died in 1963, and his contribution was formally remembered with a commemorative postage stamp in 2009.
Home Minister Amit Shah and other political leaders also marked the occasion.
- Who
- Pingali Venkayya, the freedom fighter who inspired India's Tricolour, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who paid tribute on his 150th birth anniversary.
- What
- India remembered Venkayya's role in shaping the national flag, whose design evolved from his 1921 proposal to the version adopted in 1947.
- When
- August 2, on his 150th birth anniversary (he was born on August 2, 1879); the flag in its present form was adopted on July 22, 1947.
- Where
- India, including Andhra Pradesh (his birthplace) and Vijayawada, where his design was presented in 1921; he also served in South Africa.
- Why
- Because Venkayya's research, persistence and belief that a free India needed a symbol of its own helped create the national flag.
- Subject
- Pingali Venkayya, freedom fighter who inspired India's Tricolour
- Born
- August 2, 1879, Andhra Pradesh
- Died
- 1963
- Education
- Cambridge University
- Key 1921 Design
- Red (sacrifice), white (purity), green (hope) with a central Charkha
- 1931 Congress Flag
- Saffron, white and green with a spinning wheel at the centre
- Flag Adopted
- July 22, 1947, by the Constituent Assembly with the navy-blue Ashoka Chakra
- Recognition
- Commemorative postage stamp in 2009; tribute by PM Modi on 150th birth anniversary