At the United Nations: A Founder’s New Flag

The mast among the member masts

Deep-dyed and squared to its dark mast, this flag has the bearing of the ones outside international headquarters — one mast in a long row of nations. India’s place in that row is older than this flag.

India signed the United Nations Charter in 1945 as one of the organisation’s founding members — two full years before the tricolour became its national flag. So when adoption came in 1947, India did something few founders ever do: it kept its seat and changed its flag, the new tricolour rising among the member masts in place of the colonial-era ensign.