Book Review | A Flag To Die For: History And Emotions Behind The Making Of Tiranga |
Book Review | A Flag To Die For: History And Emotions Behind The Making Of Tiranga
Navtej Sarna’s book is rich in anecdotes and grounded in meticulous historical research, yet it never dilutes the emotional bond that people share with the National Flag.
Captain Vikram Batra will always be remembered for successfully leading one of the toughest operations in mountain warfare in Indian history. As narrated by Harinder Baweja in her book Soldier’s Diary: Kargil, The Inside Story, when one of Captain Batra’s friends had told him to be careful since war had begun, he had replied: “Don’t worry. I will either come back after raising the Indian flag in victory or return wrapped in it."
Baweja writes that Captain Batra fulfilled both his assertions. He raised India’s victorious tricolour at a height of 17,000 feet when he captured Point 5140. Later, when he fell fighting for the country at Point 4875, his body was brought back home wrapped in our national flag.
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The words of Captain Vikram Batra continue to resonate deeply with people even today. They compel us to ask a question that appears simple, yet whose answer lies in an intricate web of patriotism, pride, duty, and an abiding sense of belonging.
The question is: what is it that fills an individual with such profound pride for the flag?
The answer, perhaps, lies in the fact that the flag is not merely a piece of cloth, nor just an insignia. In India, it embodies the memory of hard-won freedom, the sacrifices and the struggles of those countless people who earned it. That is why, when the tricolour is hoisted, and the national anthem begins to play, it evokes a deep sense of belonging. It transforms the nation from an abstract idea into a lived emotional reality.
A nation, after all, is not just a geographical entity; it is the glue that binds people of a country together by shared history, sacrifice, and love for the land they inhabit. It is this very sentiment that finds eloquent expression in Navtej Sarna’s book, A Flag to Die For: A Short History of India’s Tricolour, where the story of the Indian flag is not merely told, but felt.
At its heart, this book brings together the history, emotions, ideas, and deliberations that went into the making of the national flag. It is not merely a chronicle of events that led to ‘Tiranga’ as we see it today, but a compelling account of how people rose against colonial rule to assert their identity as Indians and fought to create symbols and insignia of their own.
Sarna beautifully captures this emotion when he writes: This reverence for the national flag does not come fully grown overnight, nor can it be imposed by diktat. It is born in mysterious places and is part of a deep love for one’s country, an instinctive inspiration for a higher collective ideal, for that extra effort of mind and body, that keenness for sacrifice. This reverence, this pride for the national symbol of the tricolour draws its strength from emotional well-springs hidden deep in one’s soul, folded away in layers of inherited memory.
He quotes from an article written by Mahatma Gandhi in Young India, published on 13 April 1921: “A flag is a necessity for all nations. Millions have died for it. It is, no doubt, a kind of idolatry which it would be a sin to destroy, for a flag represents an ideal. The unfurling of the Union Jack evokes in the English breast sentiments whose strength it is difficult to measure. The Stars and Stripes mean a world to the Americans. The Stars and the Crescent will call forth the best bravery in Islam. It will be necessary for us Indians—Hindus, Mahomedans, Christians, Jews, Parsis, and all others to whom India is their home—to recognise a common flag to live and to die for."
Beginning with the observation that the use of flags, pennants, and banners as markers of political or military power, as well as religious or communal identity, is as old as Indian civilisation itself, the book traces this legacy with remarkable depth. However, it is the vivid and layered narrative of the evolution of the national flag as we see it today that makes the book not only informative and insightful, but also deeply evocative.
The first clearly recorded attempt to conceive a national flag of our own dates back to 1883, when a 23-year-old Srish Chandra Bose designed a flag and paraded it through the streets of Lahore during protests against the imprisonment of Surendranath Banerjee. The period following the Partition of Bengal marks another crucial juncture, when the idea and use of a national flag began to gain wider prominence.
Before the tricolour came into being, there existed earlier iterations such as the Calcutta Flag, also known as the Vande Mataram Flag, designed primarily by Sachindra Prasad Bose and Sukumar Mitra. The evolution of the national flag is thus a tapestry woven from diverse strands of ideas and the contributions of many individuals.
From Sister Nivedita to Pingali Venkayya, whom the author describes as “the true hero in the story of India’s national flag," the journey towards the Tiranga was long, complex, and deeply inspiring.
By the mid-1920s, the idea of the national flag had begun to assume a more definite form. A tricolour featuring the charkha at its centre emerged as the dominant design, along with the emphasis that it be crafted in khaddar. Although it was never formally ratified, it functioned in practice as the Congress flag and enjoyed the backing of Mahatma Gandhi. As Sarna observes, it gradually moved to the heart of the popular imagination of Indians across the country.
The author refers to a letter written by C. Rajagopalachari in 1923, wherein he had suggested that flags, large and small, made of khaddar, cloth, or paper, should be displayed on houses, offices, and places of public gathering, and should become a ubiquitous feature of daily life. They should be everywhere, symbolising the presence of the national spirit in ordinary spaces.
In this context, it becomes surprising that even after five decades of independence, citizens were not allowed to hoist the national flag on private premises. It was 2004 in the Union of India, India v. Naveen Jindal case, that the apex court agreed that no law can prohibit an Indian citizen from flying the National Flag, so long as it is done with honour and within the bounds of respecting the Flag’s dignity.
In a country divided along lines of religion, region, political allegiance, ideology, and faith, the final shape of the Tiranga was far from easy to arrive at. It was the outcome of sustained deliberation, intense debate, and careful accommodation of differing views.
The book interestingly notes that, in the early stages, Mahatma Gandhi envisaged a tricolour in red and green, representing Hindu and Muslim communities, with the charkha placed at its centre. He later proposed the addition of a white stripe to represent all other faiths, making the flag more inclusive in its symbolism. Gandhi also suggested an order of placement — white, green and red — explaining that the strongest would act as a shield for the weakest, reflecting a carefully layered idea of protection and harmony.
However, the final design that was ultimately adopted decisively moved away from any communal interpretation of colours, reimagining them instead as universal values; saffron symbolising courage, white representing truth, and green denoting faith. In a further significant shift, the charkha was replaced by the Ashoka Chakra, drawn from ancient Indian symbolism of dharma, continuity, and progress, while also lending the flag a sense of balance and symmetry.
The book is rich in anecdotes and grounded in meticulous historical research, yet it never dilutes the emotional bond that people share with the National Flag. On the contrary, that connection only deepens as one reads it, understanding the long and arduous journey behind the Tiranga. It is this very legacy for which bravehearts like Captain Vikram Batra were ready to lay down their lives.
Pragati Pandey is a Noida-based freelance writer who writes on books, pop culture, and ideas. Views expressed are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of News18.