The Ashoka Chakra in the centre of the white band of the National Flag of India is a navy-blue wheel with:

The Ashoka Chakra, in the centre of the white band of the National Flag, is a navy-blue wheel with 24 spokes.

The National Flag:

• It is a horizontal tricolour of deep saffron (kesaria) at the top, white in the middle and dark green at the bottom, in equal proportion.
• The ratio of the width (length) to the height of the flag is three to two.
• The Ashoka Chakra represents the wheel of law (dharma chakra).
• Its design is taken from the wheel on the abacus of the Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath.
• Its diameter is about the same as the width of the white band.

Meaning of the colours and the wheel:

• Saffron stands for courage and sacrifice.
• White stands for peace and truth.
• Green stands for faith, fertility and the growth of the land.
• The wheel shows that there is life in movement and death in stagnation.

History of the flag:

• An earlier tricolour used by the Congress had a spinning wheel (charkha) in the centre.
• The Constituent Assembly adopted the present design in July 1947, replacing the charkha with the Ashoka Chakra.
• The flag was designed on the basis of a design by Pingali Venkayya.

Rules about the flag:

• The use and display of the National Flag is governed by the Flag Code of India, 2002, and the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971.
• The flag is to be made of hand-spun and hand-woven wool, cotton, silk or khadi; the Flag Code was amended in 2021-2022 to allow machine-made and polyester flags as well.
• Good to know
• 12, 16 and 32 are not the number of spokes in the Ashoka Chakra.