Pingali Venkayya

01Soldier and scholar

Venkayya was born at Bhatlapenumarru in the Krishna district; some records give the year as 1878. As a young man he served in the British Indian army in South Africa during the Boer War, where he first met Gandhi. Back home he became a man of many studies. He learned Japanese and lectured in it, which earned him the name Japan Venkayya, and he worked on a variety of Cambodia cotton, which made him Patti Venkayya, cotton Venkayya. He also taught at the Andhra Jatheeya Kalasala in Machilipatnam and studied geology, mining for mica and diamonds.

02The flag at Bezwada

From the Congress session of 1906 onwards he pressed for a flag of India’s own, and in 1916 he published a book of some thirty designs. When Gandhi came to Bezwada, now Vijayawada, for the All India Congress Committee meeting in 1921, Venkayya gave him a flag of two bands, red and green, for the two great communities. Gandhi asked for a white band for the rest and the charkha across all three. This flag flew over the struggle for two decades and, with saffron in place of red and the Ashoka Chakra in place of the charkha, was adopted on 22 July 1947. Venkayya died in poverty at Vijayawada in 1963. India Post issued a stamp on him in 2009.