Tricolor Campaign and Past Notes

The rulers of India, their allies and the then government suddenly fell in love with the Indian tricolor. below ” tricolor in every house (Tricolor in every household)” campaign, according to media reports, as part of the celebration of the 75th year of India’s independence, the Center facilitated the unfurling of the tricolor in 24 crore homes across the country from August 13-15.

But there is a caveat here that cannot be taken away. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), since its inception in 1925, has been opposing the tricolor as the Indian national flag. To get acquainted with the Hindutva fraternity’s immense dislike for the national flag, one has to reach the archives of the RSS and the VD Savarkar-led Hindu Mahasabha.

some correspondence

The RSS hated anything that symbolized the united struggle of the Indian people against the British rule. The tricolor issue is most relevant. In December 1929, the Congress, at its Lahore session, called on the people to display and salute the tricolor on 26 January every following year as Independence Day (this was the flag of the national movement at that time with the spinning wheel in the middle). KB Hedgewar, as sarsanghchalak and founder-supreme of the RSS, instead issued a circular to all RSS on January 21, 1930. Branches will worship the saffron flag (saffron flag) as the national flag.

Violating the national consensus, the circular asked all the in-charges branches to hold a meeting of their respective volunteers Related on Sunday 26 January 1930 at 6 pm organization (places where branches is held) and offer “salutations to the national flag, that is, Saffron Dhawaji, (Palkar, National Highways (Ed.), Dr. Hedgewar: Patra-roop Vyakti Darshan (Hindi translation of Hedgewar’s letters), Archana Prakashan, Indore, 1981, p. 18.)

It should be noted that this circular has never been withdrawn.

Looking back Patel asks RSS to accept tricolor

Addressing the Gurupurnima Sabha at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur on July 14, 1946, MS Golwalkar, one of the most prominent thinkers and top leaders of the RSS, said: “It was the saffron flag that represented the Indian as a whole. [Indian] culture. He was an incarnation of God. We have full faith that in the end the whole country will bow before this saffron flag. (Golwalkar, MS, Shri Guruji Holistic Philosophy, Volume 1, Bharatiya Vichar Sadhana, Nagpur, nd [no date]p.98.)

On the eve of independence, when the ramparts of the Red Fort were being prepared for the unfurling of the tricolor by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the common man was marching in every part of India carrying the tricolor and hoisting the national flag over the houses. But, the surprising thing is that the English arm of the RSS, OrganizerDiscredited in its issue of August 14, 1947 [the ‘mystery behind the bhagwa dhawaj’] National Flag with the following words: “Those who have come to power by the kick of fate may put the tricolor in our hands, but it will never be in the respect and ownership of Hindus. Three words is an evil in itself, and a flag with three colors will certainly create a very bad psychological effect and is harmful to the country. ,

Therefore, according to the RSS, the Indian national flag should never be respected by Hindus. It was harmful to the country.

an editorial

Organizerin an editorial (‘Flag of the Nation’ July 17, 1947), reacting to the news that the Committee of the Constituent Assembly of India on the National Flag had decided in favor of the tricolor as the national flag, wrote: “We do not agree at all that the flag ‘should be acceptable to all parties and communities in India’. This is sheer nonsense. The flag represents the nation and there is only one nation in India, the Hindu Rashtra.. .We cannot possibly choose a flag to satisfy the wants and desires of all communities…we cannot order the choice of flag because we order tailors to make shirts or coats for us…”

So, it was the idea on the design of the tricolor which represented the three colors symbolizing liberty, equality and fraternity.

After 1947

Even after independence, it was the RSS that refused to accept the tricolor as the national flag. In an essay titled ‘Drifting and Drifting’ in the book, Golwalkar condemned the selection of the tricolor as the national flag, bunch of ideas (collection of Golwalkar’s writings/speeches) wrote: “Our leaders have set a new flag for our country. Why did they do this? It is just a matter of wandering and copying… We have a glorious past. Is an ancient and great nation. So didn’t we have a flag of our own? Didn’t we have any national emblem in these thousands of years? Of course we had. Then why do we have this absolute zero, this absolute zero in our minds?” (Golwalkar, MS, bunch of ideasSahitya Sindhu Publications, Bangalore, 1966, pp.237-38.)

Savarkar also refused to accept the tricolor as the national flag. Demanding its boycott, he declared in a statement on 22 September 1941: “As far as the flag is concerned, Hindus compared the flag of the Mahasabha ‘Kundalini kripanankit’ with ‘Om and Swastika’. No flag is known to represent the whole of Hinduism.’ The most ancient symbols of Hindu caste and policy come down from the era and are revered throughout Hindustan… Hence, in any place or ceremony where this pan- Hindu flag is not respected, should be boycotted by Hindus [members of the Hindu Mahasabha] At any rate … the charkha-flag in particular may very well represent the khadi-store, but the charkha can never symbolize and represent the spirit of a glorious and ancient nation like the Hindus.” (Bhide, AS (Ed.), The Whirlwind Propaganda of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar: Excerpts from the President’s Diary of his Propagandist Tours Interview from December 1937 to October 1941, Na, Bombay pp. 469, 473.)

the campaign of the Government of the time, namely, “ tricolor in every house“There could have been credibility if the Bharatiya Janata Party government had been able to persuade the RSS to abandon its agenda of defaming the tricolor and its project to replace the tricolor with a saffron flag. It may be noted here that the saffron flag is part of a larger project to undermine India’s democratic-secular politics.

Shamsul Islam taught Political Science at the University of Delhi. The source material of this article is from publications of RSS and Hindu Mahasabha