On 13 April 1923, during a procession by local Congress volunteers in Nagpur remembering the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre, the Swaraj flag with the spinning wheel, designed by Pingali Venkayya, was hoisted.
This event resulted in a confrontation between the Congressmen and the police, after which five people were imprisoned. Over a hundred other protesters continued the flag procession after a meeting.
The Flag Satyagraha term was coined to describe the hoisting of the flag as a defiance against British-imposed restrictions on civil freedom and also the legitimacy of British rule in India altogether.
Subsequently, on the first of May, Jamnalal Bajaj, the secretary of the Nagpur Congress Committee, started the Flag Satyagraha gaining national attention and marking a significant point in the flag movement.
Nationalist leaders such as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Jamnalal Bajaj, Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari, Dr. Rajendra Prasad and Vinoba Bhave organised the revolt and thousands of people from different regions including as far south as the Princely state of Travancore traveled to Nagpur and other parts of the Central Provinces to participate in civil disobedience.
News reports, editorials and letters to editors published in various journals and newspapers of the time attest to the subsequent development of a bond between the flag and the nation.
Flag Satyagrahas were conducted most notably in the city of Jabalpur and Nagpur in 1923 but also in many other parts of India.
At Jabalpur when the police commissioner insulted our national flag, the national flag was hoisted across the state and Sarojini Naidu and Maulana Azad hoisted the flag at the town hall of Jabalpur. The flag or Jhanda Satyagrah occurred in Nagpur and Jabalpur for several months in 1923.
With the observance of the All India Flag Day on June 18, 1923, the Jhanda Satyagraha assumed national complexion with Nagpur as its headquarters and “Nagpur Chalo” as its slogan.
Soon, the concept of preserving the honour of the national flag became an integral component of the independence struggle.