For Nehru, the flag represented ‘the dynamic quality of India’

In a letter to Devdas Gandhi, the then editor of Hindustan Times, Nehru maintained the flag “successfully represents, both artistically and symbolically, what it is meant to represent”

India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on August 14, 1947, said the national flag represents “our struggle for freedom and our triumph” and “the common man and the masses of India and at the same time, modern as it is, it takes us back to the great cultural traditions of ancient India” while rejecting suggestions for a change.

The letter was published in the Letters to the Editor section. (Twitter)

In a letter to Devdas Gandhi, the then editor of Hindustan Times, Nehru maintained the flag “successfully represents, both artistically and symbolically, what it is meant to represent.” Congress leader Jairam Ramesh tweeted the letter ahead of Independence Day.

In the letter published in the Letters to the Editor section, Nehru explained the blue charkha continued to represent what it meant. “This symbolic representation of the charkha retains in its entirety the conception behind the charkha and is, in fact, a continuation of that idea in a somewhat more feasible and artistic form more suited to the flag.”

He added the suggestion that the wheel should have been bigger and have covered part of the saffron and green stripes showed a lack of appreciation of the artistry of the entire design. “That should have spoilt the flag.”

He wrote the flag also shows “the dynamic quality of India today which we hope and trust, will be directed towards the betterment and liberation of the masses of this country.”