How To Draw Chakra Symbols Step By Step

By Viandra D'souza

The International Hockey Federation found itself in a soup when they omitted the Ashoka Chakra on the Indian flag.

Here's all you need to know about this national symbol:

1. Writing in his journal, Young India, Mahatma Gandhi first spoke about the need for an Indian flag in 1921. He proposed a flag with the charkha or spinning wheel at the centre.

2. The idea of the spinning wheel was put forth by Lala Hansraj, and Gandhi commissioned Pingali Venkayya to design a flag on a red and green banner. The flag underwent some changes and became the official flag of the Congress at the 1931 meeting.

Everything you need to know about the Ashoka Chakra

3. A month before Independence, the committee formed to select a flag for independent India recommended that the flag of the Indian National Congress be adopted as the national flag of India with suitable modifications. And so, the spinning wheel of the Congress flag was replaced by the chakra.

4. The chakra, which features in the middle of the tricolour, has twenty-four spokes. It was adopted on July 22, 1947.

5. The wheel is called the Ashoka Chakra because it appears on a number of edicts of Ashoka, the most prominent among which is the Lion Capital of Ashoka.

6. Each spoke on the chakra symbolises one principle of life and also the twenty-four hours in the day, which is why it is also called the 'Wheel of Time'.

7. Some of the twenty four principles that the spokes represent are — love, courage, patience, selfsacrifice, truthfulness, righteousness, spiritual knowledge, and faith, among others.