From the tricolour that will be unfurled at your nearest government school tomorrow to the one that will be flying high at the Red Fort in the national capital as the Prime Minister addresses the nation, each and every national flag has a story behind it. Ahead of Independence Day, we go behind the scenes to bring to you the story of how and where the national flag is made in the country.

Khadi’s own

The flags hoisted by numerous state heads or government offices are handspun and handwoven. These flags are made, as per the law, from khadi. But while you might see hundreds of such flags fluttering across the country, there’s every chance that their origin can be traced back to only a couple of states in India. “The national flag is made in Hubli (Karnataka) and Borivali (Mumbai, Maharashtra). The khadi cloth required to make the flags is sourced from Dharwad (Karnataka). These production and processing centres make the Indian Tricolour as per the specifications set by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and the Flag Code of India,” says a senior Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) official, who did not wish to be named.

The handwoven and handspun cloth goes through a proper bleaching and dyeing process, which involves checking the pH value and dimensions, as per the BIS norms. The cloth is then divided into three parts. The Ashok Chakra is screen-printed manually with navy blue colour on the white cloth. Lastly, the three pieces are stitched together, ironed, folded neatly and packed. “Even though the demand for flags is highest during just two days of the year (August 15 and January 26), we remain busy with flag production for almost 300 days of the year. For the entire process, we use 40 spinning looms and 50 sewing machines,” says BS Hiremat, secretary, Karnataka Khadi Gramodyoga Samyukta Sangha (Federation), a national flag manufacturing unit in Hubli, Karanataka.

The Hubli unit currently has around 80 workers and a production capacity of 30,000 flags every year. The flags made in Hubli are available in the price range of

R195-R15,000. Once manufactured, the flags are supplied all over the country, from New Delhi, Sikkim, Aizawl, West Bengal, Karnataka, Bihar and Rajasthan to Gujarat, Odisha, Maharashtra, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.
At Khadi Dyers & Printers in Borivali, Mumbai, another licensed manufacturer of the national flag, a small yet effective unit of 18 people produce the Tricolour for government departments across India. “This is a small-scale industry, where all indigenous products must be utilised. Screen-printing is done manually. We have started designing the dimensions of the Ashok Chakra on computer systems recently, but its printing happens only by hand,” says Dhanesh Bhatt, proprietor, Khadi Dyers & Printers (KDP).
Once KDP receives the raw cloth from Dharwad, Karnataka, it is sent to printing mills in Ahmedabad for the dyeing process. The wet colours used here need to be of standard quality and shouldn’t fade after the printing process, Bhatt explains. “Currently, we use colours from a Gujarat-based company. The colours should not bleed or get mixed. Stitching has to be done, as per the fabrication norms set by the ISI (now known as the BIS),” he adds.

In a day, one person can stitch a minimum of 20-30 flags, depending on its size, says Bhatt. As the size increases, the quantity comes down. KDP currently manufactures 12,000-15,000 units of the 2×3 feet size annually—the smallest size. These are mostly used in police stations or schools. The biggest available size is 14×21 feet, which goes to government departments. “We make around 100-150 such flags in a year. Our smallest flag is available for approximately R600 and the biggest can cost up to R20,000,” Bhatt says.
The process behind making the biggest size needs utmost caution, so that the final product is devoid of any defects or colour-mixing issues. This is precisely why, at KDP, one person can stitch only one 14×21 feet flag per day.
Bhatt says the credit goes to the workers who follow the meticulous manufacturing guidelines “to a T”. “It is important that people are encouraged to buy at least one national flag made at the khadi centres because it helps the workers who put in so much effort. For us, this is not a business, but a matter of national pride,” Bhatt says.

The bulk of the flags produced by these production centres go to government departments—the highest number to the ministry of foreign affairs—and khadi bhandaars across India, the KVIC official says.

Private party

The production of the national flag isn’t necessarily restricted to khadi or government agencies. Some private companies also manufacture the Tricolour in compliance with the Flag Code of India and BIS specifications.
One such maker is Mumbai-based The Flag Company, which has been manufacturing flags and related products since 2006. The Flag Company’s founder Dalvir Singh Nagi has been part of his family’s two-decade-long fabric business. In 2006, a client from Africa requested if they could make a flag of Tanzania. After some R&D, the company submitted a sample of the flag to their client. The flag was prepared using a specialised fabric called ‘spun polyester’ and was made as per the specifications of that country. “That was the turning point… we decided to then form The Flag Company. It was something different. Also, when you are working on flags, it is patriotic,” says Nagi.

Initially, the company used to outsource the printing, but slowly, the entire process started being done inhouse. The company uses the ‘disperse screen-printing’ process, wherein once the printing is done on one side of the flag, the colour penetration is also visible prominently on the other side. After the printing is done, the cloth goes into a machine called pressure edger. “It is like a giant pressure cooker, where the flag is cured. Steam is passed through it at 15 pounds per square inch,” Nagi says. This process ensures that the colours on the flag become pukka. After the washing process, the flags are stitched, as per the standards, individually tagged in polybags and despatched for delivery.

“Even if you want just one flag, we can print it and give it to you,” Nagi says. “We buy our own yarn and do our own weaving. We have supplied flags to the ministry of external affairs and for major events like the 2010 Commonwealth Games and the recently-concluded South Asian Games in Guwahati as well,” Nagi says. The company also exports flags to 15 countries and even supplies flags to corporates in India.

The sizes of the flags made by the company start from 2×3 inches and can go up to 120×80 feet. A small table flag is priced at R100 and the 120×80-feet flag is priced at R90,000. “The Indian flag market is very unorganised. A lot of people import these flags from China, which are not made as per the Flag Code and are of bad quality. It is impossible to track them,” says Nagi, adding that they sell their flags on Amazon.in as well. This business, says Nagi, is not about profitability, but about bringing a paradigm shift in the unorganised Indian flag market.