The following is an excerpt from We, the People of India: Decoding a Nation’s Symbols by T.M Krishna, published by Westland Books.Nehru was not alone in being convinced that democratic India needed to remind itself of the Ashokan era. The discovery of the edicts gave Ashoka an unparalleled moral force. There was nothing about him or the old Buddhist world that anyone could object to. Even staunch Hindu members of the Constituent Assembly, such as Govind Malaviya, considered Buddha an avatara of Vishnu. All this helped the liberal Nehru sidestep the danger of a forced choice from Hindu, Islamic and Christian symbols or creating a modern symbol that would lack historical significance. The latter would have been a hard sell. And in a polarised religious environment, the last thing the leaders would have wanted was another inflection point. Ashoka came to their rescue.Though it was only from 26 January 1950 that the emblem officially replaced the Crown on government buildings, the design itself had been approved by the Government of India by 29 December 1947, five months after the flag was finalised in the Constituent Assembly. The cabinet approved Nehru’s proposal for the emblem on 11 December 1947. ‘After a short discussion the cabinet approved of the Prime Minister’s proposal with the direction that the seal should so far as possible conform to the original of the Sarnath Lion Capital of Asoka minus the lotus.’T.N. Krishna,We, the People of India: Decoding a Nation’s Symbols,Westland (January 2026)Following which, on 15 December 1947, The Hindu published a short report that read, ‘Free India’s Emblem will consist of the Sarnath Lion Capital of Ashoka as it exists at present.’ A short description of the emblem was also provided. On 28 December, the Ministry of Home Affairs sent out a letter to all state governments. This was followed by a public announcement about the emblem.On 30 December 1947, The Hindu declared, The Government of India have now approved a design for their State emblem and seal, says a Press communique. It has been decided that the State emblem and seal should consist of the Sarnath Lion capital of Asoka as it exists at present, looked at from the side which shows the lions standing on an abacus which has a Dharma Chakra in the centre, a bull on the right and a horse on the left, and the outlines of the Dharma Chakras on the extreme right and left. The bell-shaped lotus at the bottom of the capital has been omitted as the capital would become too long for effective use as a State emblem or seal. The reproduction of the capital should be enclosed in a plain double line (the inner line being thin and the outer thick) rectangular frame.Despite this decision, the official reports of the Constituent Assembly of India Debates (Legislative) continued to use the emblem design that included the bell-shaped lotus on the cover page until the end of 1948. It is only in the report for the period 1–17 February 1949 that the bell-shaped lotus is missing.Within weeks of the cabinet finalising the emblem design, anomalies began to appear in the public domain. This assertion, for instance, from the above quoted report dated 30 December, was erroneous.The reproduction of the capital should be enclosed in a plain double line (the inner line being thin and the outer thick) rectangular frame.At the cabinet meeting on 7 January 1948, Nehru pointed to this mistake. No decision on an enclosure for the crest had been taken, he said. He also observed that a rectangular frame for an emblem which consisted of a circle (chakra) would be aesthetically inappropriate.13A year later, Governor General C. Rajagopalachari flagged a square border problem. He noticed that, in government publications, the emblem was cased in a square frame. A letter was sent from his office to the prime minister’s personal secretary and orders were promptly passed for its removal. But this question of whether or not to enclose the emblem lingered on for nearly a year.In March 1949, the prime minister’s secretariat wrote to the Ministry of Works, Mines and Power, under which the Office of the Controller of Printing and Stationery functioned, complaining that there was too much variance between the crest printed on the stationaries of the governor general, ministers of the Central government, provincial governors and Indian missions abroad. There was a need for standardisation. From then on, the government took up the issue of formalising a consistent design with vigour. The final crest design which included the motto sans an enclosure was finalised in September 1949. On 21 September 1949, a letter was sent out with samples of the design to all provincial governments and chief commissioners. The Ministry of External Affairs was asked to do the needful with regard to the Indian embassies.In 1949, the prime minister’s secretariat pointed to an anomaly. The Ministry of Home Affairs had sent out the design of the emblem twice that year. First in late May, when the motto was finalised, and then again in September. The September release was supposed to be the final iteration. According to the prime minister’s secretariat, in neither version did the lion capital look like the standard that was originally approved by the cabinet in December 1947.In its response, the Ministry of Home Affairs claimed that the 1947 design was done in a ‘great hurry’ and was not a correct depiction of the Sarnath lion capital. The present design was a more accurate representation. The ministry explained that this newer design also made reproduction and resizing much easier, and argued that going back to the old design would be a ‘retrograde step’.The Ministry of Home Affairs was right. The design that the cabinet had approved was visually shabby and would have been difficult to replicate, especially in smaller sizes. Unlike the Sarnath capital in which the lion’s legs are smooth, the lion on the approved emblem had hair on it, and its mane was drawn with many more strokes. The new design avoided these mistakes and was indeed a closer adaptation of the Sarnath capital. The background of the abacus was lighter, the wheel cleaner, and the bull and horse sharper. But the back and forth between the prime minister’s secretariat and Home Affairs on which design to use for which print size continued. In December 1949, the principal secretary to the prime minister noted that the prime minister has approved the ‘original’ design for larger sizes and the design used by the legation in Berne for smaller sizes! Finally, the two offices came to a compromise. It was decided that, for bigger size reproductions, the government would go with the old design approved in December 1947, including the motto, and for smaller sizes it would use the design released by the Ministry of Home Affairs in September 1949.It is evident that the prime minister was involved in these design-related discussions. Though the crest design did not have a border, in the form of a seal, an enclosure was included. The prime minister asked for samples of the seal with a circle and oval enclosure to be sent for his perusal and personally approved the oval seal design in December 1949. By May 1950, all decisions regarding seals, rubber stamps, stationery and colour of ink had been finalised.Beyond the specifics of the design, it is refreshing to see how the political and bureaucratic class took keen interest in the design and wanted to get it just right.T.M. Krishna is a musician, author and activist.