VISAKHAPATNAM: “A flag is a necessity for all nations,” Mahatma Gandhi once said. “Millions have died for it. It is no doubt a kind of idolatry which it would be a sin to destroy.”
Living up to Gandhiji’s saying, R Satyanarayana, a weaver from West Godavari district, has devoted his life and spent all his earnings to produce a handwoven flag to see it fluttering on Red Fort. He literally devoted his blood, sweat and tears to weave a unique handmade national flag without any joints or stitches.
The feat took him four long years of hard work, passion and patience, besides the lakhs he spent in realising his dream. Generally, pieces of cloth of different colours are stitched together to make the flag. He produced the flag, measuring 8x12 feet in size, after he came to know that a flag of the same dimension is hoisted from the Red Fort on August 15 every year. But his dream of his flag being unfurled from there is yet to be fulfilled.
Satyanarayana told TOI that a short film — in which three kids make a national flag and hoist it themselves — sowed the seed in his mind of making the flag. “As a weaver, I thought the national flag, which instils a sense of pride in every Indian’s heart, should be unique from others. Pingali Venkayya, the man from Andhra Pradesh whose draft design of the Congress flag was later adopted as the Indian flag after some changes, is an inspiration for me,” he said. He first designed a 4x6 feet flag in 2019. “But later I came to know of the dimensions of the national flag that is unfurled from the Red Fort every year. I procured a special weaving machine for this purpose. Not only the monetary investment, it took me four years of skill and patience to bring out the first flag with Ashok Chakra,” Satyanarayana, who hails from Vemavaram in Achanta mandal, said.
He added that he has so far produced 28 unique handwoven national flags of different sizes without any stitches or joints. “I presented one such flag to PM Narendra Modi in Visakhapatnam. But I could not explain the distinctive features of the flag to him due to my language barrier,” said the handloom weaver.
Satyanarayana said he has so far spent about 6.5 lakh on all these national flags. “While the smaller ones cost between 10,000 to 20,000, I have to spend 60,000 to 70,000 on each flag that meets the Red Fort flag criteria. As the process involves a lot of craftsmanship, delicacy, and expertise, the material gets wasted a lot of times, which brings the entire process to square one. Recently, the district collector appreciated my work and told me he will write to the PM’s office, explaining the unique features of the flag. I know that flags made in Hubli in Karnataka are hoisted from the Red Fort. But I request the Indian government to give an opportunity to my flag, considering the artwork, uniqueness, and passion involved,” he pleaded.
