A fact from Flag of the East India Company appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 4 July 2017 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that Benjamin Franklin suggested to George Washington that he adopt the Flag of the East India Company(pictured) as the flag of the United States?
Flag of the East India Company is within the scope of the Heraldry and vexillology WikiProject, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of heraldry and vexillology. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.Heraldry and vexillologyWikipedia:WikiProject Heraldry and vexillologyTemplate:WikiProject Heraldry and vexillologyheraldry and vexillology articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject British Empire, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of British Empire on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.British EmpireWikipedia:WikiProject British EmpireTemplate:WikiProject British EmpireBritish Empire articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject India, which aims to improve Wikipedia's coverage of India-related topics. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page.IndiaWikipedia:WikiProject IndiaTemplate:WikiProject IndiaIndia articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject United Kingdom, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the United Kingdom on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.United KingdomWikipedia:WikiProject United KingdomTemplate:WikiProject United KingdomUnited Kingdom articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Companies, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of companies on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CompaniesWikipedia:WikiProject CompaniesTemplate:WikiProject Companiescompany articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Economics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Economics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.EconomicsWikipedia:WikiProject EconomicsTemplate:WikiProject EconomicsEconomics articles
While British flags of all varieties are habitually "double square" (twice as long as they are tall), none of these illustrations (with the possible exception of the "first") appears to be anywhere near that long. Were the Company's flags shorter? Did double square not get established until the 18th century? Was proportion not important 250 years ago? Is this a big unknown? This should be explained. --Piledhigheranddeeper (talk) 12:53, 4 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
While I don't have any specific evidence against this claim, the source cited seems very, very dubious (vanity press, no reviews, not even available on Amazon) Dstone6 (talk) 22:04, 10 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Re recent edits, in which Negitota (now blocked) has twice removed the claim that the EIC flag might be derived from that of the Majapahit Empire, and has twice been reverted by other editors. These reverts are understandable – but the claim is described as "unconfirmed speculation" and is unsourced. At the very least, we need to know who has speculated, otherwise the claim is just WP:OR. Even if horizontally striped flags were in widespread use in South East Asia, it actually seems pretty unlikely to me that the EIC might have adopted the design as a conscious nod to local tradition: 17th-century European merchant venturers just didn't go in for that sort of cultural homage. I'm therefore adding a cn tag. GrindtXX (talk) 13:19, 23 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
