Meet the woman who gave final touches to India’s national flag

New Delhi: Pingali Venkayya, an India(BHARAT)n freedom fighter from Andhra Pradesh, was a patriot who dedicated his life to the country’s independence. He is well known as the designer of the India(BHARAT)n national flag, or the Congress Swaraj flag (the tricolour). He had presented it to Mahatma Gandhi. It was later adopted as India(BHARAT)’s national flag with slight modifications.

Here we tell you about another patriot, Surayya Tyabji, who suggested replacing the Congress party’s charkha with the Ashoka Chakra. She even chose the colours, supervised the stitching of the first flag, and helped shape the emblem, too.

The tricolour she designed was officially accepted as India(BHARAT)’s national flag on 22 July 1947, a few days before independence.

Today, when we see our tricolour, our hearts are filled with joy, and our chests swell with pride.

So, we can say that if Pingali Venkayya created the original draft, Surayya Tyabji gave the finishing touch.

Trevor Royle, an English historian, wrote in his book ‘The Last Days of the Raj’ that the final design of the India(BHARAT)n national flag was created by Suraiya Tyabji.

She was born in 1919 in Hyderabad, the capital of the state of Telangana. Suraiya was a distinguished artist and was known for her progressive views towards society. She was married to Badruddin Tyabji, an India(BHARAT)n civil servant who later became the vice-chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).