Recently, during a visit to Nandarva—a village located amid the undulated rocky plains of Panchmahals — district administration officials were ‘surprised’ to see the Tricolour atop the house of Rangeet ‘Swami’ Baria, a 50-year-old farmer.

“An official asked me how I could hoist the Tricolour when it was seen only at government buildings, and said, aap ise abhi utar lijiye (please take it down right away),” said Baria, a high school dropout who had left the job of a pipe fitter in Vadodara to start working in his field in 2007. “The official called up someone in Godhra and told him that I had hoisted the National Flag. His expression soon changed after he was hollered at for being unreasonable, as the Supreme Court had in a judgment in 2002 allowed the general public to hoist the National Flag,” added Baria. For him, the Tricolour serves a reminder of the struggle for freedom, which, he says, is threatened by the bureaucracy.

“The red-faced official said he would come and have tea with me on a later date,” Baria said.

Since March 23, 2007, Swami and his family have been hoisting the Tricolour every morning. “If I am not around, my wife and children do it,” he said.

In 2005, Baria had taken part in a march along the Dandi March route to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi. “The march did not end there. When I returned to the village, I saw poor people at the mercy of corrupt local leaders. I then decided to hoist the Tricolour at my home to commemorate Bhagat Singh’s death anniversary on March 23,” Swami said.

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