Q&A
Why is there a wheel on India’s flag?
SHORT ANSWER
Before the Buddhist symbol seen today, the flag featured a spinning wheel inspired by Gandhi
LONG ANSWER
In the early 1920s, the independence movement to end British rule in India found a figurehead in a lawyer named Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Committed to non-violent civil disobedience, which set an example for the world throughout the 20th century, Gandhi understood the vital importance of symbols. He dressed in a loincloth and shawl to identify with India’s traditional culture and rural poor, and he vehemently promoted the use of a spinning wheel, or charkha, as a way of boycotting British goods. To the movement, the charkha embodied India’s economic freedom and self-reliance.
So when a man named Pingali Venkayya designed a new flag for an independent India, it inevitably featured a spinning wheel on top of two bars, one red to represent Hindus and one green for Muslims. Gandhi modified the flag to include a white bar to stand for the other religions, and this flag (with the red changed to a deep saffron) was then adopted by the Indian National Congress in 1931.
When the final flag was designed in 1947, in time for independence, the charkha was replaced by the Ashoka Chakra, a 24-spoked wheel that was a key Buddhist symbol. Gandhi wasn’t that happy about losing the spinning wheel, but accepted it.