"When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be." - Patanjali

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Expressions of the Tiranga

It struck me recently that there are more Coke and Airtel signs then Indian flags around India. I found that very disappointing, but understandable, considering you don't make money by waving the Indian flag around.

However, after a bit of observation and thought, it struck me that people just express their patriotism slightly differently. I mean you don't need to wave a flag to show you're patriotic. You just have to look out for it. The signs are everywhere!

Anyways, so getting the idea from a book called "Tiranga" by Samar Singh Jodha, I hope to put up pics of the way different people show their patriotism, especially with reference to the Tiranga.

Here's the first, from Shimla (apt I thought, considering the cities role in India's Independance)...


Btw, from what I understand, Tiranga's meaning can be broken up as: rang = colour; ti = short for teen (3 in Hindi)...so, quite litterally, Tiranga means Three Colours, which equals Tricolour. Am I right?

4 comments:

KLN Prasanna said...

Hi hrish,

Yes you are quite right with your defn of tiranga. In India, tiranga almost always refers to the national flag.

btw, here is some information on what actually the colours mean...they do not represent the 3 'big' religions of India as people may think.

Saffron- colour denotes renunciation or disinterestedness. Showing indifference to material gains

White- the path of truth to guide our conduct. Represents purity

Green- shows our relation to mother earth and how she is the mother of all life forms.

Ashok Chakra- The "Ashoka Chakra" in the centre of the white is the wheel of the law of dharma. Truth or satya, dharma or virtue ought to be the controlling principle of those who work under this flag. Again, the wheel denotes motion. There is death in stagnation. There is life in movement. India should no more resist change, it must move and go forward. The wheel represents the dynamism of a peaceful change.

(taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiranga)

Regards,

Prasanna

Hrishi said...

Hey PK,
Thanks for that very insightful response. I checked out Wiki just to make sure Tiranga did refer to the flag.

Cheers
Hrishi

Anonymous said...

Your are Nice. And so is your site! Maybe you need some more pictures. Will return in the near future.
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