Prof Ram Puniyani | Clarion India
ON the occasion of Independence Day this year, the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government gave a call for the third edition of ‘Har ghar Tiranga’ (Tricolour in every house). This practice was initiated by the government in 2022. It was a great surprise; BJP’s ideological parent, the RSS, had been opposed to the Tricolour as the national flag all through till 26th January 2001 when three activists Baba Mendhe, Ramesh Kalambe and Dilip Chatwani — along with others allegedly entered the RSS headquarters in Nagpur’s Reshim Bagh and hoisted the national flag there amid patriotic slogans.
A police case was registered against them and they were jailed (Case no 176). They were acquitted and the RSS practice of 51 years of not hoisting the Tricolour came to an end. The Tricolour (then with a Charkha in the middle) had emerged as an inspiring flag during the freedom movement. When Jawaharlal Nehru became the President of INC during the 1929 Lahore session, he called upon the nation to celebrate 26th January as Independence Day by hoisting the Tricolour. In contrast, K B Hedgewar issued a circular on 21 January 1930 to hoist Bhagva Jhanda (Saffron Flag). The circular instructed members of the RSS to assemble at 6 PM at the places where shakhas met for “salutation to the National Flag, i.e., the Bhagwa Dhawaj.”
Their argument was that the saffron flag represents the Hindu nation from times past so no need for a new flag. Anyway, all those participating in the freedom movement adopted the Tricolour except those who kept aloof from the anti-colonial freedom struggle, Muslim League (green flag) and RSS (saffron flag). Savarkar of Hindu Mahasabha also stood for the saffron flag.
M S Golwalkar, the second RSS chief, put forward the ideology of RSS vis-a-vis flag. “It was the saffron flag which in totality represented Bhartiya [Indian] culture. It was the embodiment of God. We firmly believe that in the end the whole nation will bow before this saffron flag,” he said.
At every stage the RSS’s unofficial mouthpiece used to come out with editorials opposing Tricolour and upholding the saffron flag. The flag committee was chaired by Dr. Rajendra Prasad, and had C Rajagopalachari, Maulana Azad, K M Munshi and Dr Ambedkar as its members. They considered all the other proposals and came to finalise Congress’s flag, the tricolour with the difference that the Charkha in the flag was replaced by Ashok Chakra with 24 spokes. While moving the resolution for the flag in the Constituent Assembly, Nehru with full appreciation of India’s history and culture saw the flag as a continuation of the glorious tradition of the past and hope for the future. His remarkably touching speech referred to the great sacrifices of Indian people to throw away the shackles of slavery. He also related it to Ashoka and his international fame and message of peace and saw in it a bridge to the global community.
As per Nehru, “We thought of a flag which in its combination and its separate parts would somehow represent the spirit of the nation, the tradition of the nation, that mixed spirit and tradition which has grown up through thousands of years in India… we have associated with this flag of ours not only this emblem but in a sense the name of Ashoka, one of the most magnificent names not only in India’s history but in world history.”
Despite this, the Sangh Parivar continued glorifying the Hindu nationalist ideology. Even after Independence, it was the RSS which refused to accept the Tricolour as the National Flag. Golwalkar, while denouncing the choice of the Tricolour as the National Flag, in an essay entitled ‘Drifting and Drifting’ in the book ‘Bunch of Thoughts’ wrote: “Our leaders have set up a new flag for our country. Why did they do so? It is just a case of drifting and imitating… Ours is an ancient and great nation with a glorious past. Then, had we no flag of our own? Had we no national emblem in all these thousands of years? Undoubtedly, we had. Then why this utter void, this utter vacuum in our minds?”
Savarkar too refused to accept the Tricolour as the national flag. Demanding its boycott, declared in a statement on September 22, 1941, he said: “So far as the flag question is concerned, the Hindus know no flag representing Hindudom as a whole than the ‘Kundalini Kripanankit’ Mahasabha flag with the ‘Om and the Swastik’ the most ancient symbols of the Hindu race and policy coming down from age to age and honoured throughout Hindusthan… Therefore, any place or function where this pan-Hindu flag is not honoured should be boycotted by the Hindusanghatanists [members of the Hindu Mahasabha]…”
In a way, this ‘Har ghar Tirnaga’ is a clever move by the BJP government. As per the changing times, it keeps its core agenda of Hindu nationalism unchanged and. It has a twin policy about symbols; to adopt some symbols which are very deeply rooted in the peoples’ psyche and to introduce celebrations of some days to promote divisive agenda. It has also floated the celebration of days (14th August) as ‘Partition Horrors Remembrance Day’ with the aim to propagate that the partition led to tragedy for Hindus while keeping mum on the loss of the Muslim community. December 25 has been declared as ‘Good Governance Day’ and has been promoted to mark Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s birthday. It is a deliberate attempt to undermine the celebration of Christmas.
The same Tiranga has also been used as an instrument of intimidation, when unruly youths, on the pretext of religious celebrations, take out rallies waving the Tricolour through Muslim-majority areas or climb up mosques to hoist the national flag, particularly on Ram Navami days! The deeper intent of the BJP in ‘Har ghar Tiranga’ is merely for optics, bereft of the deeper commitment to the message inherent in this flag, sacrifice, peace and unity in diversity.
* Ram Puniyani is an eminent author, activist and former professor at IIT Mumbai. The views expressed here are personal and Clarion India does not necessarily share or subscribe to them.
