In 1613, the British East India Company set up their first trading centre at Surat. Soon, the armies of the East India Company grew so powerful that they began defeating local rulers and taking over their kingdoms. Wars of rebellion broke out in different corners of India. Long before the first War of Independence in 1857, a group of chieftains or Paliyakkarars from Tamil Nadu fought against the East India Company troops from 1798 – 1805 (the Polygar Wars). Between 1766 and 1799, four Mysore Wars were fought between the British and Hyder Ali (and later his son Tipu Sultan).
There were many fierce tribal rebellions against the British too, the most famous being the uprising led by Birsa Munda. Anti-British wars were fought in Punjab and many other regions. Unfortunately, all these battles were localised and not part of a pan-India movement.
The Partition of Bengal changed the political climate in India. Protests that broke out in Bengal quickly spread to the rest of India. Suddenly, gaining Independence became a goal shared by people across the subcontinent. Yet this powerful pan-India movement did not have a unifying flag which could be a symbol of the people’s struggle! So, many patriotic Indians (and foreigners) stepped up to design one.
In 1903, Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India, announced that the vast Bengal province was going to be partitioned. The British claimed that this province, which then included Bengal, Assam, Orissa, Bihar and a few other districts, was too large to administer efficiently.
That was just part of the truth behind Lord Curzon’s partition plan. For the British, the more urgent need was to stem the growing momentum for Independence that was building in Calcutta and across the Bengal province.
With his partition plan, this wily viceroy was playing the old English game of divide-and-rule. The British were clearly dividing the province along religious lines, creating West Bengal (primarily Hindu) and East Bengal with Assam, which was primarily Muslim.
Protests broke out but Viceroy Curzon did not relent. Having been given a second term as viceroy in 1904, he was convinced his plan to kill the nascent Independence struggle would work.
Finally, when Bengal’s first partition came into force on 16 October 1905, Indian nationalists stepped up with their protests. Schools and colleges closed on that day and Indian leaders decided to launch the Boycott Movement.
The partitioning of Bengal had consequences across India. The Congress passed a resolution in 1905 in support of the Boycott Movement, and the next Congress Committee meeting in 1906 was held in Calcutta, with Dadabhai Naoroji presiding over the session.
Clearly, Lord Curzon’s plans of killing the Indian Independence struggle early on had backfired.
At the Calcutta session, riding on the Bengal nationalists’ call to boycott British goods, the Swadeshi Movement was launched, which soon spread like wildfire beyond Bengal, and across India.
A dramatic new phase in India’s Independence movement had begun. And when freedom fighters from across the country arrived for the 1906 Congress Committee meeting in Calcutta, they were introduced to a new flag representing their dreams. This is often referred to as the Calcutta flag.
It was designed by Sachindra Prasad Bose and Hemchandra Kanungo and was unfurled with much fanfare at Parsi Bagan Square on 7 August 1906.
It had three horizontal bands – orange on top with eight flowers in the band; the middle band was yellow with “Vande Mataram” written across it in Devanagari script. The bottom band was green and had the symbol of the sun in one corner and the crescent moon and star in the other.
The eight flowers in the flag represented the eight major provinces of British India where the fight for freedom was ongoing. When we see India’s map today made up of twenty-eight states and eight Union Territories, it’s difficult to imagine India’s pre-Independence state lines. Apart from the eight large British-ruled provinces, there were princely states. Some, like Hyderabad and Mysore, were as large as European countries while others were merely the size of today’s districts.
The designers of this flag were ardent nationalists, and they went on to play even bigger roles in the struggle against the British. Sachindra Prasad Bose had dived into politics while in college. When campus protests erupted after the partitioning of Bengal, the government issued a circular prohibiting students from participating in politics. So Sachindra Bose promptly launched the “Anti-Circular Society”!
For his deep involvement in the boycott movement, he was arrested in 1908 and incarcerated far away from Calcutta in Rawalpindi jail in what was then west Punjab.
The British did this often – disperse freedom fighters in prisons far from their homes, and away from their fellow revolutionaries. Sadly, Bose would not live to see the British leave India. He passed away in February 1941.
After the Calcutta flag hoisting, Hemchandra Kanungo’s life got more adventurous. He sold his house to fund his studies abroad. He went to France, specifically to learn about bomb manufacturing! After returning to India, he worked closely with Aurobindo Ghosh, Barin Ghosh, and other revolutionaries.
He was involved in many armed attacks against British officials, and was sentenced to life imprisonment at the dreaded Cellular Jail in the Andamans. Luckily, he was freed in 1921, and lived on till 1951, long enough to become a citizen of a free India.
Excerpted with permission from The Story of India’s National Flag, Kavitha Mandana, Talking Cub.
