Tricolour’s Inherent Message: Sacrifice, Peace And Unity In Diversity
By
Ram Puniyani for New Age Islam
23 August
2024
The Same Tiranga Has Also Been Used As An Instrument
Of Intimidation, When Hoards Of Youth On The Pretext Of Religious Celebrations
Take Out Their Rallies Waving Tricolour Through The Muslim Majority Areas Or
Climb Up Mosques To Hoist Tricolour Particularly On Ram Navami Days! The Deeper
Intent Of 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.
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On the
occasion of this Independence Day (2024) NDA Government gave a call for the
third edition of Har Ghar Tiranga (Tricolour in every house). This event first
began in 2022 by the BJP government. It was a great surprise; as BJP’s
ideological parent RSS has been opposed to the tricolour as the national flag
all through, till 26th January 2001, when
“According to the case, three activists Baba Mendhe, Ramesh Kalambe and Dilip
Chatwani — along with others allegedly entered the RSS premises in Reshimbagh
on 26 January in 2001 and hoisted the national flag there amid patriotic
slogans.”
A police
case was registered against them and they were jailed (Case no 176), Nagpur
2001. They were acquitted and the 51 years of RSS not hoisting tricolour came
to an end. Tricolour (that time with Charkha in the middle) had emerged as an
inspiring flag during the freedom movement. When Jawaharlal Nehru became the
President of INC 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 BhagvaJhenda (Saffron
Flag). Circular instructed the members of 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 flag except those who kept aloof from 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,
he stated “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.”
At every
stage the RSS’s unofficial mouthpiece used to come out with editorials opposing
tricolor 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
finalize Congress’s flag, the tricolour with the difference that the Charkha in
the flag was replaced by Ashok Chakra with 24 spokes in the flag. 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 Asoka 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 in 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 Asoka, one of the most magnificent names not only in
India's history but in world history “
Despite
this the RSS, Sangh Parivar, continued with glorifying of Hindu nationalist
ideology. Golwalkar further wrote in "Bunch of Thoughts“. 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’ (collection of writings/speeches of Golwalkar), 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: “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 Tiranga is a clever move by the BJP Government. As per the
changing times, it keeps its core agenda of Hindu nationalism unchanged and is
adept to symbolic changes. It has a twin policy about symbols.
On one hand
to adopt some symbols which are very deeply rooted in the peoples’ psyche. On
the other it has also tried 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 partition
led to the tragedy for Hindus, while keeping mum on the loss of Muslim
community. The 25th December 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 hoards of
youth on the pretext of religious celebrations take out their rallies waving
tricolour through the Muslim majority areas or climb up mosques to hoist
tricolour particularly on Ram Navami days! The deeper intent of 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.
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