Chakra of the Brave: The Gallantry Trio

Named after the wheel

Worn diagonally with a medallion at the chest, this composition is dressed exactly like a decorated officer — and the decoration it evokes shares the flag’s own vocabulary.

India’s highest wartime gallantry honours all answer to the wheel: the Param Vir Chakra at the summit, then the Maha Vir Chakra and the Vir Chakra. The Param Vir Chakra was instituted on 26 January 1950 — the republic’s first morning — with effect back to 15 August 1947, so that the earliest heroes of freedom’s first battles could wear the wheel the flag had just raised.