This year, the period between August 9 and August 17, 2026, is being celebrated as Har Ghar Tiranga week to foster nationalistic pride and fervour among citizens. The Har Ghar Tiranga campaign started in 2022 under the aegis of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav to celebrate 75 years of India's independence, encouraging citizens to hoist the national flag at their homes. The Tiranga, bearing the colours saffron, white, and green, unites the nation like none other, especially when it flutters in the backdrop of a full-throated rendition of the national anthem in unison by the gathering.
In the World Cup football and hockey matches, rival teams respect the others’ national anthems in silence, if not in admiration. Olympic flagbearers from each nation use their nation’s flag to salute the dignitaries in the opening session. National flags then speak for themselves more than the words and utterances can.
The Indian law on the national flag is governed by the Flag Code of India, 2002, the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, and the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950. These rules control how citizens and governments make, display, and respect the Tiranga. The Flag Code of India, 2002, combines all practices and guidelines for displaying the flag. It allows citizens and private groups to display the flag respectfully on any day of the year. The Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, makes burning, mutilating, defacing, or showing disrespect to the flag in public a crime punishable by up to three years in prison, a fine, or both. The Emblems and Names Act, 1950, restricts the commercial use and improper use of the national flag and symbols.
Being held sacred, there is no way it can be trivialised or taken liberties with. Accordingly, its display rules are cast in the straight and narrow—it must be rectangular in shape with a length-to-height ratio of 3:2 and made from hand-spun and hand-woven or machine-made cotton, wool, silk, khadi, or polyester bunting. The flag must always be placed in a high, honoured position and never displayed upside down. It must never touch the ground, floor, or trail in water. It cannot be trivialised by using as a costume, uniform, drapery, or general decoration like a festoon or bunting. On Independence Day, it is hoisted, and on Republic Day, it is unfurled with their own subtle differences befitting the respective occasions.
Indians are known for littering in the world. It seems to be a way of life in India. Our sanctuaries, picnic spots, rivers, and historical places are proof of that, with wrappers and plastic waste thrown carelessly. Sadly, the same carelessness is shown after the national holidays, when the streets are strewn with Tricolour stickers and small plastic or paper flags. Respect for the national flag must continue till its safe disposal, which can be done in private, consistent with the dignity of the flag.
At a seminal and philosophical level, its three main colour bands represent distinct national values: saffron stands for courage and sacrifice, white signifies peace and truth, and green indicates fertility and growth. A navy-blue Ashoka Chakra wheel sits in the centre with 24 spokes, representing the eternal wheel of law of dharma and continuous progress. It is these sublime messages that are lost on the nation, which is riven by caste, parochial and communal divides. The Indian diaspora abroad is united and enjoys community celebrations of Indian festivals. The Indian sports teams wear nationhood on their sleeves, but elsewhere narrow chauvinistic considerations rear their ugly heads. Unity in diversity thus remains a platitude, a buzzword. Gen Z, now the most popular buzzword, is perhaps refreshingly devoid of this narrow, chauvinistic baggage. One hopes they have a chastening and sobering effect on their parents, who are still clinging on to pettiness in all its hue.
Along with the Har Ghar Tiranga initiative, there is an urgent need to restructure school education, focusing on national heroes, inventors, and artists. By making history tangible through visits to museums and monuments and teaching about diverse cultures, music, and different forms of arts to young impressionable minds, we can imbue a nationalistic spirit in them and help them build a personal and emotional connection with their country. And in the process, get ourselves educated.
The Indian armed forces not only hold the national flag in highest esteem but also unite as one under it, forgetting their caste and communal differences, which is more than what one can say about our police forces, which often get embroiled in politics. The much-talked-about police reforms must also include the training of policing without a jaundiced eye.
In India, a country full of diversities, politics is the breeding ground for divisiveness in general. All hell breaks loose on the campaign trail, with politicians resorting to petty demagoguery to win votes on communal, regional, and caste planks. Though the law frowns on these, the legal exhortations in such matters are flouted with singular nonchalance. Amidst all this, the Tiranga stands tall to remind us that just as the different colours of the tricolour combine to form our national flag, we, the people of India, constitute the nation, irrespective of our differences.
In sum, Har Ghar Tiranga must resonate not only on every 15th August and 26th January but also come to unite the nation all 365 days of the year.
S Murlidharan is a freelance columnist and writes on economics, business, legal and taxation issues.
