CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY OF INDIA DEBATES
(PROCEEDINGS)-
Tuesday, the 22nd July 1947
Sir S. Radhakrishnan
"
the Bhagwa represents the spirit of renunciation it is
said:
(Sarve tyage rajadharmesu drsta).
All forms of renunciation are to be embodied in Raja Dharma.
Philosophers must be Kings. Our leaders must be disinterested. They must be
dedicated spirits.' They must be people who are imbued with the spirit of
renunciation which that saffron, colour has transmitted to us from the
beginning of our history. That stands for the fact that the World belongs not
to the wealthy, not to the prosperous but to the meek and the humble, the
dedicated and the detached.
Here we are Putting in the very centre the white, the white of the
Sun's rays. The white means the path of light. There is darkness even at noon
as some People have urged, but it is necessary for us to dissipate these clouds
of darkness and control our conduct by the ideal light, the light of truth, of
transparent simplicity which is illustrated by the colour of white.
The Asoka's wheel represents to us the wheel of the Law, the wheel Dharma. Truth can be gained only by the
pursuit of the path of Dharma, by the practice of virtue. Truth,-Satya, Dharma-Virtue, these ought to be the controlling principles of all those who
work under this Flag. It also tells us that the Dharma is something which is
perpetually moving. If this country has suffered in the recent past, it is due
to our resistance to change. There are ever so many challenges hurled at us and
if we have not got the courage and the strength to move along with the times,
we will be left behind. There are ever so many institutions which are worked
into our social fabric like caste and untouchability. Unless these things are
scrapped we cannot say that we either
seek truth or practise virtue. This wheel which is a rotating thing, which is a perpetually revolving thing,
indicates to us that there is death in stagnation. There is life in movement. Our Dharma is Sanatana, eternal, not in the
sense that it is a fixed deposit but in
the sense that it is perpetually changing. Its uninterrupted continuity is its Sanatana character. So even with
regard to our social conditions it is essential
for us to move forward.
The green is there--our relation to the soil, our relation to the
plant life here on which all other life depends. We must build our Paradise
here on this green earth. If we are to succeed in this enterprise, we must be
guided. by truth (white), practise virtue (wheel), adopt the method of
self-control and renunciation (saffron). This Flag tells us 'Be ever alert, be
ever on the move, go forward, work for a free, flexible compassionate, decent,
democratic, society in which Christians, Sikhs, Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists will
all find a safe shelter.'
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