As a Bangladeshi, we all need to know about our national flag. The national flag of Bangladesh is the symbol of independent Bangladesh. Locally it is known as “Jatiyo Potaka”. Here “Jatiyo” means “National” and “Potaka” means “Flag”. The national flag of Bangladesh was obtained officially on 17 January 1972. It has a red circle on the background of green. The green background illustrates the everlasting freshness, the lushness of the natural of Bangladesh while the red circle symbolizes the rising sun over Bengal and also the blood of those who died for the freedom of Bangladesh.
National Flag of Bangladesh and History
Our first national flag was planned by a section of student leaders and activists of Swadheen Bangla Nucleus on 6 June 1970, which had a yellow map of the country inside the red circle. The first flag was designed by students of Dhaka University and their name: Kazi Aref Ahmed, ASM Abdur Rab, Shahjahan Siraj, Manirul Islam (Marshal Moni), Swapan Kumar Choudhury, Quamrul Alam Khan (Khasru), Hasanul Haq Inu, Yousuf Salahuddin Ahmed and few others. The map was later deleted from the flag by the order of General Abul Manzur, most likely to simplify the design.
They had taken several months to design the flag. It is said that the original flag was designed by Quamrul Hassan and most of the people believe that it was Shib Narayan Das.
On 2 March 1971, the original flag was hoisted in Bangladesh for the first time at the Dhaka University by student leader A. S. M. Abdur Rab, then Vice President of Dhaka University Students’ Union (DUCSU). On the announcement of freedom on 26 March 1971, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman flew the flag in his residence.
Design and Right Measurement
There have some rules about our national flag according to flag rules (1972):
- The flag must have bottle green color rectangular size in the proportion of 10:6 with a deep red circle in near middle.
- The green base of the flag must have Procion Brilliant Green H-2RS 50 parts per 1000 and the red circular part will be of Procion Brilliant red H-2RS 60 parts per 1000.
- The red circle will have a radius of one-fifth of the length of the flag. Its center will be placed on the intersecting point of the perpendicular drawn from the nine-twentieth part of the length of the flag, and the horizontal line drawn through the middle of its width.
- Depending on the size of the building the flag sizes will be 10 × 6 ft (3.0 × 1.8 m); 5 × 3 ft (1.5 × 0.91 m); 2.5 × 1.5 ft (760 × 460 mm). The size of the flag for the car is 12.5 × 7.5 in (320 × 190 mm), and the size of the table flag for bilateral conferences is 10 × 6 in (250 × 150 mm).
Besides this, the national flag has to be flown on all working days on important government buildings and offices, in any special day, such as Independence Day, Victory Day and any other day which may be notified by the Bangladesh government. But The Shaheed Dibos (21 February), the National Flag shall be flown at half-mast and any other day which may be notified by the government.
