This book studies the politics that make the tricolour flag possibly the most revered among symbols, icons and markers associated with nation and nationalism in twentieth century India. The emphasis on the flag as a visual symbol aims to question certain dominant assumptions about visuality. Anchored on Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘believing eye’, this study reveals specificities of visual experience in the South Asian milieu. This account begins with a survey of the pre-colonial period, focuses on colonial lives of the flag and moves ahead to explain contemporary dynamics of seeing the flag in India. The Flag Satyagraha of Jubblepore and Nagpur in 1922-23, the adoption of Congress Flag in 1931, the resolution for the future flag in the Constituent Assembly of India in 1947, history of the colour saffron, codes governing the flag as well as legal cases are few such examples explored in depth in this book.

Rise of the flag -- Flag on the Hut: totem and a political symbol -- The Indian national flag as a site of daily plebiscite -- Shades of history: a case of saffron colour -- Visualizing an ideal political order -- A post colonial symbol -- Gendered symbol, communal politics -- Epilogue: the flag as a sacred political symbol.

"Charts a history of the national flag of India in colonial and post-colonial periods and looks at the politics that go into the making of various discourses and ways of looking at the Indian national flag"--