Tricolour on Public Buildings on August 15

A committee was appointed to approve the flag of the new nation. After it had approved it, the flag was presented to the Constituent Assembly by Jawaharlal Nehru with characteristic enthusiasm and eloquence. He was repeatedly cheered as he talked about the flag “representing the spirit of the nation”

New Delhi, July 18, 1947: On Friday, August 15, the tricolour flag will be hoisted on all Government and public buildings in the Indian Dominion, it is learnt. An “Ad Hoc Committee” appointed by the President of the Constituent Assembly to look into the question of the design of the Indian National Flag, decided this evening on the flag which very closely approximates the familiar tricolour.

No definite programme as yet has been chalked out to celebrate the transfer of power and it is understood the matter is being discussed between the Viceroy and the Congress High Command. According to suggestions heard from informed quarters, it is expected on August 15, the Viceroy Lord Mountbatten will drive in state to the Council Hall where he will address the Constituent Assembly, and the formal ceremonial transfer of power will take place…

All the Provincial Assemblies are also expected to meet on August 15 and go through a suitable programme for the occasion.

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It is understood that Lord Mountbatten may visit Karachi on the previous day and address the Pakistan Constituent Assembly. The following day, Mr Jinnah will be sworn in as the Governor General of Pakistan. The Congress Working Committee is meeting tomorrow afternoon to consider questions arising from the transfer of power. Mahatma Gandhi will address the meeting… Questions to be considered by the Committee include the set-up of the Indian Dominion Government, its policy, the policy governing the appointment of the Provincial Governors for the interim period and a programme for the celebration of August 15…

Nehru explains the flag

NEW DELHI, JULY 22, 1947: Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, presenting the flag of Free India to the Constituent Assembly today, declared: “It is a flag which has been variously described and some people have misunderstood it and have thought of it in communal terms; that some part of it represents this community or that, but when this flag was devised there was no communal significance attached to it. We tried to find out a flag which was beautiful to look at. We thought of a flag which would, in its combination and its separate parts, somehow represent the spirit of the nation, the tradition of the nation, the mixed spirit and tradition which have grown in these thousands of years in India. So we devised this flag.”

Moving the resolution for adoption of the new flag, Pandit Nehru said, “This resolution is in simple and slightly technical language and there is no glow or warmth in the words I have read. Yet, I am sure that many in this House will feel that glow and warmth which I feel at the present moment. Behind this resolution and the flag which I have the honour to present to this House for adoption lies history — the concentrated history of a short span in the nation’s existence, but nevertheless sometimes in a brief period we pass through the track of centuries…”