The Blue Flag and Other Symbols

Walk into any Ambedkar Jayanti celebration (his birthday, 14 April) and you will see a sea of blue. People greet each other with “Jai Bhim”. A statue of a man in a blue suit, holding a book, points the way forward.

These symbols matter to millions of people. But not every story told about them is backed by records. Here we separate what old documents show from what people have come to believe.

What the old records say about blue

We found no speech or letter in which Dr. Ambedkar explains why he chose blue. Raosaheb Kasbe, a former professor at Pune University, has said there is no agreed history of how blue became the colour of Dalit protest SabrangIndia.

What the records do show is that blue flags were already used by his organisations in his lifetime. They are described in two constitutions and in several newspaper and police reports from 1946 to 1951, all reprinted in the official Writings and Speeches volumes.

The Samata Sainik Dal flag

The Samata Sainik Dal (“Army of Soldiers for Equality”) was a volunteer corps that kept order at his meetings. Its volunteers were already at work in Bombay by 1932 BAWS Vol. 17 Part III, p. 85. Most accounts date its start to 1927 Wikipedia (pointer).

Its written constitution was drafted in 1944 and sent to Dr. Ambedkar for approval BAWS Vol. 17 Part III, p. 566. It describes the flag precisely BAWS Vol. 17 Part III, p. 572:

• Four feet long and two and a half feet wide.
• “The whole ground of the flag will be deep blue”.
• Eleven white stars in the top left corner, and a white sun in the middle.
• The letters “S.C.F.” in blue under the sun, and “S.S.D.” in white in the bottom right corner.
• Its meaning: “liberty, equality & fraternity and to fight to achieve our goal.”

The Scheduled Castes Federation flag

Dr. Ambedkar founded the All-India Scheduled Castes Federation at Nagpur on 19 July 1942 BAWS Vol. 17 Part II, p. 455. Its constitution, as amended and published in January 1955, says:

“The flag of the Federation shall consist of stars against a blue cloth cut in triangle.”

— Constitution of the All India Scheduled Castes Federation, Article XXVI BAWS Vol. 17 Part II, p. 474

Reports from the time match this. On 17 February 1946 Dr. Ambedkar himself unfurled “the Scheduled Castes flag” at Nare Park, Bombay BAWS Vol. 17 Part III, p. 363. In January 1950 processions carried “blue party flags” BAWS Vol. 17 Part III, p. 397. In November 1951 a speaker praised the unity built “under the Blue Flag”, and a huge Shivaji Park rally was full of “blue star-studded flags of the Federation”, with volunteers in blue caps BAWS Vol. 17 Part III, pp. 450, 456.

His first party, the Independent Labour Party (1936), also matters here. We could not find a reliable description of its flag.

The Republican Party: blue with a wheel

In September 1956 Dr. Ambedkar decided to turn the Federation into a new Republican Party BAWS Vol. 17 Part II, p. 152. His followers launched it in October 1957, after his death Zelliot, From Untouchable to Dalit, p. 115. Its flag is blue with a white wheel, the Ashoka Chakra, in the centre The Week (PTI) Wikimedia Commons. This is the “blue flag with the chakra” most people picture today. Many Indian Buddhists also fly it Wikipedia – Buddhist flag (pointer) Wikimedia Commons photo.

Why blue? The popular explanations

These are interpretations by later writers and activists, not recorded words of Dr. Ambedkar:

• The sky. Blue is the colour of the sky, which covers everyone without discrimination SabrangIndia The Week (PTI).
• His favourite colour. One activist says blue was his favourite colour The Week (PTI).
• His blue suit. Some say the suit in his portraits inspired the flag SabrangIndia.
• A Mahar flag. A 2017 paper, citing the historian Christophe Jaffrelot, says he made an older blue Mahar flag the flag of his Labour Party. We could not check this in Jaffrelot’s book.

The wheel: Ashoka Chakra and Dhamma Chakra

The wheel comes from the Lion Capital that Emperor Ashoka, a Buddhist ruler, set up at Sarnath in the third century BCE. On the national flag it is navy blue with 24 spokes Bureau of Indian Standards. Buddhists call it the Dhamma Chakra, the “wheel of the teaching”. The Buddha’s first sermon is known as setting this wheel in motion BAWS Vol. 17 Part III, p. 552.

On 23 June 1947 the Constituent Assembly set up a Flag Committee under Dr. Rajendra Prasad Chakrabarti, FIAV. Dr. Ambedkar was a member Keer, Dr. Ambedkar: Life and Mission, p. 394. The committee kept the Congress tricolour but replaced the spinning wheel (charkha) with Ashoka’s wheel. The Assembly adopted it on 22 July 1947 Chakrabarti, FIAV.

How big was his part? Keer is careful. He reports only as hearsay that Dr. Ambedkar spoke up for the chakra Keer, p. 395. In 1950 he reminded an audience that free India had turned to Buddhism for the wheel on its flag BAWS Vol. 17 Part III, p. 402. Claims that he alone chose or designed it are not supported by the records we found.

The Panchsheel (Buddhist) flag

The international Buddhist flag was designed by a committee in Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), in 1885. Its stripes are blue, yellow, red, white and orange, said to be the colours that shone from the Buddha after his enlightenment Tricycle. The World Fellowship of Buddhists adopted it as the international flag in 1950 Tricycle. Dr. Ambedkar attended that first conference in Ceylon, from 25 May to 6 June 1950 BAWS Vol. 17 Part III, p. 404.

At his conversion in Nagpur on 14 October 1956, people streamed in “with Buddhist flags in the hands” BAWS Vol. 17 Part III, p. 545. Indian Buddhists often call it the Panchsheel flag, after the Buddhist “five precepts” Wikimedia Commons photo, Nagpur.

“Jai Bhim”

“Jai Bhim” means “Victory to Bhim”, from his name Bhimrao. Followers turned the national cry “Jai Hind” into “Jai Bhim”, and invitations say “Saprem Jai Bhim” (“Jai Bhim, with love”) Zelliot, p. 144. He accepted it, and replied to his followers with “Jai Bhim” at the end of his letters Keer, p. 469.

The greeting is usually credited to Babu Hardas L. N. (Laxman Nagrale, 1904–1939), a leader from Kamptee near Nagpur and a devoted follower of Dr. Ambedkar BAWS Vol. 17 Part III, p. 15 BBC News Hindi. BBC News, quoting the Dalit Panther co-founder J. V. Pawar, reports that Hardas asked Samata Sainik Dal volunteers to greet each other with “Jai Bhim” instead of older greetings like “Ram Ram” BBC News Hindi.

The statue in the blue suit

Most of his statues show him in a blue three-piece suit, holding the Constitution of India, with a finger pointing forward SabrangIndia The Week (PTI). Zelliot described the statue placed in the grounds of Parliament House the same way: the Constitution in one hand, the other hand pointing Zelliot, p. 76.

The image has deep meaning. Under caste rules, “untouchables” were often forbidden decent clothes SabrangIndia. For many followers, the suit says: equal, educated, modern. The book is the Constitution he helped write. Zelliot noted that his popular pictures usually show him in a blue suit, with a book in his hand and a pen in his pocket Zelliot, p. 225.

The stupa at Deekshabhoomi

Deekshabhoomi (“land of initiation”) in Nagpur is where he became a Buddhist in 1956. Its great white dome was designed by the Nagpur architect Sheo Dan Mal OneIndia (UNI), 2007. It was inaugurated by President K. R. Narayanan on 18 December 2001 Times of India, 2001.

The dome is 36 metres across and, unusually for a stupa, hollow inside. The main hall measures about 64 by 64 metres India Post stamp text. India Post put it on a stamp in 2017.

Where sources disagree

• The Federation flag. Its constitution says “stars” on blue BAWS Vol. 17 Part II, p. 474. S. R. Darapuri says it was blue with an Ashoka Chakra The Week (PTI). 1950s reports describe “star-studded” flags, which supports the constitution.
• “11 pointed stars”. The Dal constitution could mean eleven stars or stars with eleven points BAWS Vol. 17 Part III, p. 572. We read it as eleven stars.
• When “Jai Bhim” began. BBC gives 1935 BBC News Hindi. The Wire says Hardas first used it in a speech at Kamptee in 1932 and spread it at Makranpur in 1938 The Wire.
• The 1947 Flag Committee. Chakrabarti says it had nine members FIAV; most lists name only six.
• Buddhist flags at Nagpur, 1956. Keer describes flags striped in blue, red and green, which does not match the five-colour flag Keer, p. 498.
• “Largest hollow stupa”. Some sources say in India, others in the world India Post stamp text The Tribune, 2002.

Read more

• Constitution of the Samata Sainik Dal (BAWS Vol. 17 Part III, Appendix II) — includes the flag description.
• Constitution of the All India Scheduled Castes Federation (BAWS Vol. 17 Part II) — includes Article XXVI on the flag.
• The Significance of the Colour Blue in the Dalit Movement (SabrangIndia) — scholars and activists on why blue.
• Who first said “Jai Bhim”? (BBC News Hindi) — the story of Babu Hardas.
• National flag and party flag (S. Chakrabarti, FIAV) — how the 1947 flag was chosen.