VIJAYAWADA: Pingali Venkayya, the designer of the national flag, is a legendary freedom fighter from Andhra Pradesh, who till his last breath lived for his Gandhian ideals. Pingali was born 146 years ago in a small hamlet of Bhatlapenumarruin in Muvva mandal of Krishna district to Pingali Hanumantharayudu and Venkataratnamma.
At the age of 19, he joined the British Indian Army and fought in the Second Boer War in South Africa. During that time, he met Mahatma Gandhi, who was working as an attorney. They went on to be associated with each other for the rest of their lives. After returning to India from Africa, Pingali did different jobs. He worked as a plague inspector in Madras and as a railway guard. He was a polyglot, who knew several languages, including Sanskrit, Urdu, Japanese and English.
Pingali is often referred as ‘Japan Venkayya’ for his fluency in Japanese language and ‘Patti Venkayya’ for his expertise in cotton cultivation. He is also called ‘Diamond Venkayya’ for his expertise in gemology as a geologist and ‘Jhanda Venkayya’ for his dedication to designing the national flag.In fact, Pingali concentrated on designing flags soon after returning from Africa and even published a book with 30 different flag designs in 1916.
In the Indian National Congress session at Lucknow in 1916, the national flag was hoisted for the first time. In 1919, Lala Hans Raj of Jalandhar suggested that a symbol of Charkha be included the flag design. It was in the Indian National Congress session held in Bezawada in 1921, Mahatma Gandhi asked Venkayya to incorporate orange, green and white colours with charkha symbol in the middle of the flag. After Independence In 1947, Ashok Dharmachakra replaced Charkha on the flag.
Ghantasala Gopi Krishna said he felt great to know that youngsters want to revive his grandfather Pingali’s memories to pay a befitting tribute to the designer of national flag.“I feel proud of my grandfather. The rudimentary design of the flag designed by Pingali consisted of red and green bands to symbolise Hindus and Muslims — the two major religious communities in the country. Mahatma Gandhi suggested some changes to it and white band was added to symbolise peace and Dharmachakra to represent self-reliance,” he explained.
After Independence, Pingali lived in abject poverty. He never sought any help while living in Vijayawada. He breathed his last on July 4, 1963 at the age of 86. At the time, his name was almost forgotten and relegated to history, former CM NT Rama Rao installed Pingali’s statue on Tank Bund in Hyderabad.
The Centre released postage stamps to honour Pingali in 2009, 2011 and 2022. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who honoured Pingali’s daughter Seetha Mahalakshmi in March, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking Bharat Ratna to Pingali.