>>3366125As a vexillologist I often get questions about flags, their meaning and their origin. People often get surprised when I tell them that most of the currently used flags in the world are from the 20th century. One flag that has an interesting story is the Indian flag. It was adopted in 1947 and it served not only as a flag but also as a tool of guidance. It is a so called horizontal tricolor in orange, white and green with a blue symbol in the middle of the white area. It has been debated what the symbol is and the official story is that it is a spinning wheel but the truth is something completely different.
You see in 1921, when the flag was designed, India had a big problem with outdoor defecation. The orange stripe symbolizes a mud street, the green stripe symbolizes a forest and the white stripe symbolises a white marble bathroom. The blue symbol is a bottomless toilet and it's placed in the middle as a guidance as to where people should "go to the bathroom" so to speak. The orange and green parts are placed on the outskirts to say "don't go here". The flag was made official in 1947 and it came with a message to once and for all end the problem of outdoor defecation. That message was "Poo in loo". It was a call for a cleaner india. It was not very successful and their problem with designated streets and wood areas for defecation still stands to this day.
