Birth Annicersary of Sri Pingali Venkaiah on 2nd August......
L.Sita
Tributes to Sri
Pingali Venkaiah the designer of National Flag.
(Remembering the great legend Sri Pingali
Venkaiah, The Chief Architect and the Designer of Indian National Flag on his
Birth Anniversary by Smt. L.Sita,
Convener, and other members of Sri Pingali Venkaiah Trust. )
PINGALI VENKAIAH -139th BIRTH ANNIVERSARY
Sri Pingali Venkaiah Charitable Trust, Delhi Unit and SAIRASS NGO
paid tributes to Sri Pingali Venkaiah on his 139th
Birth Anniversary on 2, Aug. 2016 .
Birth Anniversary of Sri Pingali Venkaiah the
Designer of National Flag was celebrated at Ambedkar Auditorium, Andhra Pradesh
Bhavan in association with Team A.P.Bhavan.
Smt.
Geeta Sharma, Councillor I.P. Extn. as
Chief Guest and Sri K.Jannadha Rao,
former Secretary, Election
Commission and Dr. (Smt) Prabhala Janaki
as Guests of Honour and other Guests
Prof.Narasimhachari, World Environmentalist, Smt. Variyam Kaur, Opp. Leader in the Delhi
Govt. , Smt. Rekha Jain, Councillor, Bhajanpura graced the celebrations.
Smt. Geeta Sharma spoke about Sri Pingali Venkaiah
and encouraged the students to study well and become good citizens.
Sri K.J. Rao in his speech quoted the
saying ‘MATA, PITA, GURU’. He said parents can only provide basic necessities but Guru gives good siksha
to the students to grow and attain knowledge. Though Sri Pingali Venkaiah belongs to Andhra
Pradesh many people including Andhrites do not know who is Pingali
Venkaiah and who designed the National
Flag, he said.. Dr. (Smt) Prabhala
Janaki spoke about his history in brief and paid rich tributes to him.
The highlight of the programme is “Students
sang Patriotic songs and extempore spoke about the significance of National
Flag and the Designer Sri Pingali Venkaiah, and how, when and where the National Flag was
approved.” Very good applause and encouragement received from the audience to the students.
Around 400 students from 23 school in Delhi and NCR Delhi participated in the competitions held on the occasion by
On Pingali trust on Pingali
Venkaiah. The best adjudged students
were hounoured with a Commendation Certificate and a Memento.
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Sri Pingali Venkaiah was the Chief
architect and the Designer of Indian National Flag. In fact many people may not even know who
designed the Indian National Flag.
It is the
responsibility of every Indian citizen
to remember the Great Architect of
Indian National Flag designer Sri Pingali Venkaiah on the eve of his Birth Anniversary on 2nd August.
Sri Pingali Venkaiah was born in his maternal uncle’s house on
02.08.1878 in “Bhatlapenumarru”, a remote village of Divitaluq of Krishna
District in Andhra Pradesh. . It is a coincidence that India is
also celebrating its Independence Day in other words Birth Day of India exactly
after 14 days of its Flag designer’s birth day.
Since from his childhood Sri Pingali
Venkaiah showed interest in national
events. He studied up to elementary education in his birth place
Bhatlapenumarru and continued his studies in Hindu High School, Machilipatnam.
At the age of 19 he was inspired by some of the incidents around him and
decided to join in army. Then he left for Bombay and joined the army. He also
participated in Boyar War and visited Africa. He met Mahatma Gandhi in Africa
and inspired by the company of Mahatma and developed the idea of serving the
home land. Afterwards he never turned back except moving forward and achieving his goals. He visited Arabia,
Afghanistan and returned to India.
On his return from Africa he had undergone the
training as Work Inspector. When Chennai was experiencing the epidemic of
plague, people were very panic. He decided to serve the people and joined as
Plague Inspector. After some time he went to Ceylon (Sri Lanka ) and continued
his studies. After he returned to India from Ceylon he worked in Railways as
Railway guard for Bangalore-Madras train. He obtained proficiency in Urdu also.
In 1906 Pingali
Venkaiah attended the 22nd All India National Congress Session at
Calcutta, there he was recognized by the Congress President Shri Dadabhai,
Nauroji who was the President of Indian National Congress Session. Then he was
elected as a member of Congress Executive Committee meeting. Once he attended a
Congress session at Calcutta he noticed that our National Flag was continued
with Union Jack, and he felt that it is shameful to India to use other nation’s
flag. Since then he worked hard and wrote a book on “Indian National Flag” to
give a shape to our National flag.
During that period, his book in English named
“A National Flag for India”, in which he puts forth more than 30 designs for
our National Flag . The present tricolor flag is one among them. It was printed
at Andhra Patrika Press, Madras and got forwarded by Sir Bays Narisimheswara
Sarma. Incidentally the responsibility of designing the national flag was
totally given to him by Mahatma Gandhi.
In 1917, Indian
National Congress held a meeting under the leadership of Smt. Anne Bsent and
started ‘Home Rule’ movement, he encouraged the members to establish a National
Society, through which he propagated the
importance of creating a National Flag for India. This was supported by many
patriots and scholars throughout the country.
Mahatma Gandhi asked Sri
Pingali Venkaiah to draw a tricolor National Flag. The Tricolored flag was
designed by Shri Pingali Venkaiah within 3 hours, with the help of Sri E.V. Sastri,
who worked as a drawing teacher in Andhra National College.
The National Flag
designed by Shri Pingali Venkaiah was unanimously agreed and considered in the
presence of Mahatma Gandhi in the Congress Committee Meetings held at
Vijayawada on 31st March, and 1st April, 1921. Later on
the symbol of Charkha in the midst of the National Flag was changed to Ashoka
Chakra. He was a true patriot and used to attend every condolence meeting all
over the country. Mahatma Gandhi expressed his views on Venkaiah in the “Young
India” newspaper under the heading “Our National Flag.”
“We
should be prepared to sacrifice our lives for the sake of our National Flag.
Pingali Venkaiah who is working in Andhra National College, Machhlipatnam had
published a book describing the flags of other countries, and had designed many
models for our Indian National Flag. I appreciate his hard struggle during the
sessions of Indian National Congress for the approval of Indian National Flag.
When I visited Vijayawada I asked him to prepare a two colored flag with the
red and green colors along with the Charkha Symbol and obtained it within 3 hours
from him, later we had decided to include the white also as the color reminds
of truth and nonviolence.”
The tricolored National Flag was approved in
Independent India and the symbol of Charkha was substituted by Ashoka Chakra.
After India became republic, this was printed by Government Publications Division. Since then
India is hoisting the same Flag which was designed by Sri Pingali Venkaiah. Remembering such a great personality was
neglected by our National Leaders not mentioned anywhere his name except that
an Andhrite designed the Indian Flag. It is time now to bring his name in the
limelight and make the Indian people know about the great personality.
He died on 4 July, 1963. Another pitiable
feature about Sri Pingali Venkaiah was
he spent his last days in utter poverty. .. It is quite unfortunate to mention that this
great man could not get his share of recognition like any other leaders of India.
Some remarkable achievements of Sri Pingali Venkaiah during his life time
and his pet names by his well-wishers
for his notable contributions:
In 1904 when he heard that Japan conquered
Russia, he started thinking how it is possible to conquer such a big country by
a small country like Japan. To know the secret of Japan’s success of winning
over Russia he learned the Japanese language and got the fluency in Japanese.
He tought Telugu language to his ‘guru’ as guru dakshina. Since then he was
called as ‘Japan Venkaiah’.
He was also proficient in Geology. He did
research on coal and found out Diamonds from the coal. Then people started
calling him as “VAJRALA (Diamonds) Venkaiah. He even wrote a book named “Vajrapu
Talli Rayee.”
He wrote a book on ‘A National Flag for
India’ which was reviewed by the then editor of Krishna Patrika Shri Mutnuri
Krishna Rao, in 1916, which was the only political magazine at those days. Then
people started calling him as “Janda Venation” (Flag Venkaiah).
Munagala Raja saw Pingali Venkaiah at
National Congress Meetings and recognized his talents, invited him to his estates,
here he was assigned the job of Agricultural Research. He wrote a book on
‘Agricultural Research’.
Pingali Venkaiah was inspired by Mahatma
Gandhi’s Khaki Movement and thought to produce fine variety highbrid cotton in
India. He imported cotton seeds from America and mixed with Indian seeds and
produced the new highbrid variety cotton, then people started calling him as “Patti
Venkaiah”. At those days he was also honored by giving him the membership in
the ‘London Royal Agricitural Society’.
He also taught horse riding to the students
of Military training in National College, Machilipatnam.
Pingali Venkaiah wrote a book at those days
with a vision and predicted that China declares war on India, and their Leader
Dalai Lama will take asylum in India, which happened later.
Late Sri Pingali Venkaiah a Gandhian
contemporary, Great Patriot, Indian National Flag Designer, a Linguist,
Geologist, a Writer and had many pet titles like “Japan Venkaiah, Patti
Venkaiah, Vajrala Venkaiah, Jhanda Venkaiah “ for his valuable works.
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