Meet the man who sold his house to weave India’s first ‘Tiranga’ on a single fabric without stitches for Rs 6.5 lakh

New Delhi: The Har Ghar Tiranga campaign, a brainchild of Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi, was bound to push R Satyanarayana, a petty weaver from the West Godavari district of coastal Andhra Pradesh, into the limelight.

The man sold his house to weave arguably the world’s first seamless national flag at a cost of Rs 6.5 lakh with the sole wish of seeing his flag being hoisted atop the Red Fort.

Satyanarayana has weaved a rare Indian national flag as one fabric without any stitches in four years.

Speaking to Firstpost, Satyanarayana, a resident of Vemavaram village of Andhra, said: “I spent Rs 6.5 lakhs for weaving the flag. I failed many times because to make the flag with one fabric is very tricky, especially when it comes to the Ashok Chakra part. Several times I failed because the Chakra part got tilted and then I had to start all over again. This is why it took me four years.”

Currently, the practice is to make the flag by stitching the three stripes together after being dyed in the specified colours of the ‘tiranga’.

“At first I thought it would be an easy task and I wouldn't need a huge amount of money. Later, when I got to know the actual dimension of the flag hoisted at Red Fort, I realised it will not be an easy journey,” he added.

The weaver told Firstpost that the inspiration to achieve this feat came after he watched ‘Little Indians’, a movie where the protagonist stitched three colours and the Ashok Chakra to make the National flag.

Satyanarayana watched this film in 2016 and since then he has dreamt of weaving the flag with only one fabric.

Before actually making the flag, he used to work as a designer in a saree shop. One fine day he met with an accident while he was on his bike with 80 sarees. His bike skidded and fell on the road. The sarees fell into an open drain and got destroyed. Each saree was worth Rs.15,000.

After this incident, Satyanarayan was in 20 lakh debt. He had to choose whether he will repay that huge amount or still go on making the flag of his dreams.

Ultimately, he sold his house and got money from some of his friends, as he decided to pursue his dream.

After successfully designing the flag, he had to struggle to actually market the wonder he had made. He got close to realising his dream in 2019, when PM Modi visited Vizag and he had a chance to meet him, thanks to a local politician.

Satyanarayana finally got the appointment and met PM Modi, but just fell short of mentioning what he wanted: his flag be hoisted by the prime minister.

Satyanarayana’s dream of seeing the tricolor being hoisted at Red Fort hasn’t been fulfilled yet, but he continues to chase it. When asked about his thoughts about the Har Ghar Tiranga campaign, he said that he really liked the concept. He added that the government should also ask him to make more such one fabric flags, which will be a unique concept to the campaign.

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