Pingali Venkaiah Indian postal stamp was issued on 12th August 2009 (Dn. Rs. 05.00)
Pingali Venkaiah (August 2, 1876 - July 4, 1963) was the designer of the Indian national flag. He was born in Bhatlapenumarru, near Masulipatnam or the present day Machilipatnam of Andhra Pradesh, India to Hanumantharayudu and Venkataratnamma. After high school at Machlipatnam, he went to Colombo to complete his Senior Cambridge. On returning to India, he worked as a railway guard, then as a government employee at Bellary, and later moved to Lahore to join the Anglo-Vedic college to study Urdu and Japanese.
The call for new leadership brought Gandhi to the fore in 1921 and through him the first tricolour flag. The years 1921-31 constituted a heroic chapter in Pingali Venkayya's life. The AICC met at a historic two day session at Bezwada (March 31 and April 1, 1921). It was at this session that this frail middle aged gentleman, Pingali, approached Gandhi with the flag he designed for India. Pingali's flag was made of two colours, red and green representing the two major communities of the country. Thus the Indian flag was born but it was not officially accepted by any resolution of the All India Congress Committee. Gandhi's approval made it popular and it was hoisted at all Congress sessions. Hansraj of Jalandhar suggested the representation of the charkha, symbolising progress and the common man. Gandhi amended, insisting on the addition of a white strip to represent the remaining minority communities of India.
A consensus could not be reached until 1931. The designing of the colours in the flag ran into rough weather even as communal tension broke out on the issue of its interpretation. The final resolution was passed when the AICC met at Karachi in 1931. The flag was interpreted as saffron for courage, white for truth and peace, and green for faith and prosperity. The dharma chakhra which appears on the abacus of the Sarnath at the capital of Emperor Ashoka was adopted in the place of spindle and string as the emblem on the national flag.
ref: http://www.telugupedia.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pingali_Venkayya
