Indian Tricolour Was Designed by Hyderabadi Woman Suraiyya Tyabji, Not Venkaiah

Indian Tricolour Was Designed by Hyderabadi Woman Suraiyya Tyabji, Not Venkaiah

Pingali Venkaiah is often considered the designer of the Indian national flag, which was approved by the constituent assembly on July 22, 1947. He presented the idea of the flag to the All India Congress Committee meeting held in Bezawada in the year 1921. However, contrary to popular belief, it was Suraiyya Tyabji, a Hyderabadi woman who created the final design of our current national flag.

To design a national emblem representing Indians, a flag committee was set up headed by Dr. Rajendra Prasad in which Badruddin Tyabji, an Indian Civil Servant and Suraiyya’s husband was a member. Hundreds of designed poured in and the committee members found British imageries in them

Suraiyya, then, created the National Emblem by adapting the Lion Capital from the Sarnath Ashoka Pillar and replacing the charkha with another Ashokan motif—a Dharma Chakra. The Dharma Chakra was later used in the national flag too.

Many versions of the national flags were designed. Venkaiah was the designer of the Swaraj Flag of the Indian National Congress. It was initially decided that his flag with Gandhi’s Charkha positioned at the center would be the national flag. The idea received a lot of opposition, for a party flag cannot represent an entire country.

It was then the Tyabji couple was given the responsibility to design the national flag too. Suraiyya specified the fabric and color shades of the flag exactly in her design.

However, neither Badruddin nor Suraiyya claimed any creative ownership of their design. English historian Trevor Royle in his book ‘The Last Days of the Raj’ only mentioned Badruddin Tyabji as the original designer.

A research by Hyderabadi Historian Capt. Lingala Panduranga Reddy, President of Voice of Telangana, threw light on the actual designers of the tricolor. A study by the Flag Foundation too credits Suraiyya as the designer. Suraiyya is also known to have closely supervised the sewing of the first flag which was later presented to Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of Independent India.Siasat News