Bangladesh’s national flag was officially adopted on January 17, 1972. It is based on a similar flag that was used during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. The present flag of Bangladesh resembles the flag of Japan with a different coloured background. The national flag of Bangladesh has a red disc placed almost in the middle of a bottle green background.

The red disc represents a rising sun over Bengal. It also represents the blood of the martyrs who gave their lives for the independence of Bangladesh. The red disc is also a socialist symbol of the rising Sun of independence after the dark and fateful night of a blood-soaked battle against Pakistan. The green colour denotes lushness of the country.

Bangladesh’s original flag was traced first on a tracing paper from an atlas by Hasanul Haq Inu, Enamul Haq Yousuf and Salahuddin Ahmed. Quamrul Hassan, a prominent artist, redesigned the flag on January 13, 1972, by removing the map from within the round disc as the contortion of country’s southern islands made it very difficult to place the map inside the disc. Also, the red disk was slightly shifted towards the hoist so that when the flag is flying the disc may appear to be in the centre.

The original version of the flag was first hoisted in Bangladesh on March 2, 1971, at the Dhaka University by A. S. M. Abdur Rab, student leader and the Vice President of Dhaka University Students’ Union (DUCSU). On March 26, 1971, on the declaration of Bangladesh’s independence, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman hoisted the flag in his residence.

Today the national flag of Bangladesh occupies an important place in the heart and the mind of the Bangladeshi people.
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