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The flag that inspired 75 million people, it is sad to see that not everyone knows the background history of our national flag. The process by which Bangladesh gained the national flag in the history. Qualitatively, the process was unique. Our government has not taken any attempts or action to preserve the historic achievements. As we race in the new millennium, this symbol of our land can continue to inspire people for generations to come. Let the symbol lead us in the world.

There are many controversial subjects related to the flag. All controversial subject is to be considered as the authors personal opinion. You don't have to agree to it. The images of several flags are sketches, may not be the actual size. Let us not argue over the controversial issues.

Flags are among the most influential of man's symbols, and millions of men have given up their lives for the symbols their flags represent. Early flags evolved from totems and other three-dimensional symbols, many flags were made, but from them present flag emerged and became our official flag. Henry Ward Beecher once said, "A thoughtful mind, when it sees a nation's flag, sees not the flag but the nation itself. And whatever may be its symbol, its insignia, he reads chiefly in the flag, the government, the principles, the truths, the history that belong to the nation that sets it forth. And a symbol according to the dictionary is 'that which suggests something else by reason of relationship, especially a visible sign of something invisible, as an idea, a quality, and we might even say of a nation. So whenever we see our flag, we immediately think of Bangladesh. And other nations recognize our flag as the symbol of our country.

The history of flag as a symbol of a nation goes back to antiquity. It wasn't a flag as we know it today. Although, there was symbol for different tribes and nations.

When the cavemen emerged from their isolation and began to form tribes, they found they needed in their battles a symbol to distinguish friend from foe. At first they painted their bodies, just as the Indians in America did many years ago. But this wasn't enough. before inventing the wheels they invented shields for protection. So on their shields they placed a symbol. At first, since they all lived by hunting, it was usually an animal. Perhaps a crow showing they were active, a lion showing they were strong, or a wolf showing they were fierce. Sometimes it was the skins of animals attached to pole.

This use of ananimal as a symbol on a flag has survived even to this day. On the flag of Albania is a double-headed eagle. The flags of Ceylon, Iran, and Scotland each have a golden lion. And on the flag of Mexico is a golden eagle. Siam has an elephant on its flag. As man became more civilized and lived in towns and cities, other kinds of symbols came into being. Instead of symbols on shields nations began to use standards.

The first such use of standards goes back, as far as is known, to around 3500 B.C Sir John Marshall, a famous archaeologist, discovered in Pakistan in the ruins of two ancient cities. One was at a place named Mohenjo-Daro and the other at Harappa. Among the various relics discovered was a seal. On it were pictures of a parade of seven men holding aloft a square standard - a board on top of a pole. This type of symbol could be seen more easily in battle than one on a shield.

Today all nations have flags. While we so often think of a flag in terms of warfare, a flag has a deeper and brighter meaning, as Henry Ward Beecher said. "It is a symbol of the aspirations and hopes of a nation." Our Bottle green and red circle flag stands for freedom of all our people.

Samudragupta captured the Samatata the vicinity of Comilla during 330 - 380 A.D. Rumor has it that he was the first person to bring insign in the Bengal vecinity. However, there are no truth discovered that he carried a flag in the region. Although it is true that he captured Samatata in that time.

The Arakanese history show the Chandra kings were ousted by the Arakaneese around 788 AD. These Chandra Dynasty was chased out to Samatoth. The Chandra dynasty lived and ruled the Samatoth from Vikrampur. The list of the rulers show that King Shree Chandra ruled Samatoth from 930 till 975. The ensigna of the king Shree Chandra was a picture of a bull and a trident. Much similar to the Arakaneese bannars. The archeololical findings of 1912 and 1925 in Sylhet proved that the currency and kingdom bannar of the Samatoth are true and they flyed a long piece of hand woven white cloth with painted black Bull and trident symbol on it.

There are more stories between the independence of Bangladesh and the earliest flag of Vongh. It is detailed in the book "The Story of Our Flag" by Shamim A. Chowdhury.

The revolutionary Surja Sen raided the British armory in 1930. He held Chittagong free from the Brittish. He flewed a red square rag in front of the armory as victory for Chittagong. This victory was short lived, 3 days later the Brittish took back Chittagong and captured him and then executed him.

The star of the GSCI (Grand Commander of the Most Exalted Star of India), the highest class of the Star of India and the star that appears all over the place on British "colonial" flags in Bengal.The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India was an Order of Chivalry instituted in 1861 and discontinued in 1947.

After the independence of Pakistan Bangladesh was known as East Bengal. By 1962 the people were getting fostrated by the injustice of the west wing, so the students of the Dhaka University start forming students committies under the main political parties. Students were distributing leaflets to unite and calling for separation from west Pakistan.

In 1966 there was no flag other than the flag of Pakistan, There is a claim that the flag design of present flag was stated in the Awami Leauge manifesto of 1966, but haven't found any documents to support those claims.

On the 2rd March 1971, Dhaka University Students Union displayed the flag for the first time at the historic Dhaka University in front of the Kola Bhavan location known as "bawt-tawla" to the . This flag was also raised at the then Dhaka Race Course at then Ramna Racecourse (now Shuhrawardy Uddayan) when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman gave his historic speech proclaiming "This struggle is, the struggle for liberation." (The "bawt-tawla" means under the banyan tree in Bengali. This was, and still is, a popular meeting place for activist students of the University of Dhaka)

On 3rd March, 1971. The Joi Bangla Bahini flag was hoisted to the public for the first time by the Students Union in Polton. This was the landmark of getting message to the public that this is the symbol of Bangladesh.

In the 1970 annual celebration of the Student League of the Dhaka university, the students were displaying black and green triangle pennants with golden map of Bangladesh in it. Other color were also seen. In the same year on 15th February it was the death annavarsary of Sargent Zahur, the students formed an army named "Joy Bangla Bahini".

The Joy Bangla Bahini created the first flag. This event did not come until June 6th of 1970. It is nesesary to explain who are the Joy Bangla Army. The underground Political organization that started to rise and rebel was known "Shadeen Bangla Biplobi Porishad", the committe was formed under five members, and these memberts were taking the roll of the rebelling against the Pakistan government.

The Joy Bangla Bahini flag was the symbol of defiant against the Pakistan Rulers. The flag at the time meant that Bangladesh is green and the red is the Bangladesh coming out of Pakistan as a nation. Later the meaning of the flag changed,

The flag our symbol of today deserves more respect than the way we respect it. You see people flying the flag with the red dot in the center is not the actual flag. Our flag is off centered.

On 23rd March Mujibur Rahman raised the flag in front of his house where huge crowd gathered. People of Bangladesh asumed that this is the flag of Bangladesh. There was no inaguration or formal announcement of the deglaration of the flag. The Chatro League celebrated the Bangladesh Day in front of Polton field, they raised the Joi Bangla Bahini flag.

On December 16th, 1971, people in Bangladesh flewed the unofficial flags.
The very first flag after the war was the same flag of the Joy Bangla Bahini except that the flag was square shaped and it was raised with color guards by the Mukti Bahini in front of Christian Memorial Hospital in Malumghat, Chittagong.

Flag adopted 16 December 1971.The verry first flag had a centered red disc with a yellow map silhouette of Bangladesh. The flag adopted on 13 January 1972 had a yellow map silhouette of Bangladesh. The disc is set slightly toward the hoist so that when the flag is flying it will appear to be in the center.

The official flag did not come until the later year. The official Flag was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 4th November, 1972. And it came into force on the 16th of December of the same year. The change was that the map will not be displayed.

In the constitution there is no mention of the flags size or the conditions of the flag. However in part one article 4, section 2 states- "The national flag of the Republic shall consist of a circle, colored red throughout its area, resting on a green background." In section 4 para 4 states -" Subject to the foregoing clauses, provisions relating to the national anthem, flag and emblem shall be made by law."

As we see people display the national flag durring the 21st February, 26th March or on 16th December and other holidays, Most of these flags are unoficial or not correct flags. You will see flag with red filled circle in the center of the green field, which is unofficial and wrong. Flying an unofficial or wrong designed flag is a great disgrace to the nation that the flag represents, it shows the disobidience toward law and order by the people of the nation.

The true official standard regulation of the flag is, -
a) The national flag will consist of a circle colored red throughout its area, resting on a green rectangular background.
b) The length to width ratio of the rectangle is 10:6.
c) The circle has a radius of one fifth of the length. It's center is 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 it's width.

It is prescribed that the sizes of flag for buildings are 305cm X 183cm, 152cm X 91cm, 76cm X 46cm and for cars are 38cm X 23cm and 25cm X 15cm. Other sizes can exist as long as it meets the standard regulations.

Vertical red-white with a golden star in the white stripe. Chittagong Hill Tracts is a mountain of rugged, thickly forested district along the Bay of Bengal and Mynmar that is inhabited by 1.7 million primitive mountain tribes who have opposed Bengali settlement in the area. These animist of buddhist tribes remained isolated in the forsts, where they live from burn-and-slash agriculture. Demographic pressure exerted by the Bengali inhabitants and tactless actions of December 1974 by Shiek Mujibur Rahmans Operation Dragon Drive, which contributed and planted the seeds of a long-term violent jungle war in Chittagong Hill Tract district. The flag died in 1997, when Mujib's doughter Prime Minister Shiek Hasina made a peace accord with the Shanti-Bahini.

Who was the first architecturer of our flag?
The creation of Bangladesh flag was made possible by the involvement of several then students and leaders.
Shahajan Siraj, Shirajul Alam Khan, Monirul Islam Martial Moni, Kazi Aref Ahmed, Abdur Rajjak, Nazrul Islam, Shopon Chowdhury, Hasanul Huq Inu, Shib Narayan, A. S. M. Abdur Rob,

When was the birth of our flag?
The historical moment in the night of June 6th, 1970 in room #116 of Iqbal hall of Dhaka University. (Some witnesses say the room was 118.)

When and where was the first color gaurd given?
In 23rd March 1971, the color was gaurded by film producer Khosru and Hasanul Huq Inu in Polton field. The first honor riffle salute was given by Khosru.

Why did the map got ommited from the flag?
The map from the original flag was omitted because of the difficulty involved in displaying it correctly on both sides. In the National Assembly the other arguments was that the map have been an unpleasant reminder of the partition of Bengal. Some suggestions were that, they do not know whether the Bengal will be reunited or not, the map will change. Others has suggested that it is better to put a symbol of an animal rather than the map. These difficulties lead to dropping the map.

Why was the color golden changed to yellow?
The yellow color was more flashier than the golden and the golden color looked dirtier and tornish light brown on the flag.

Where was our flag first flown?
The Joy Bangla Bahini created the first flag in June 6th of 1970.
On the 3rd March 1971, Dhaka University Students Union hoisted the Joi Bangla Bahini flag for the first time at the historic Dhaka University in front of the Kola Bhavan location known as "bawt-tawla". This flag was not an official flag of Bangladesh.

The pre-independence flag was seen on top of small boats in Dewangonj and Rowmari durring the war when 'Z' force was in control of that sector. Also it has been spoted in other parts of the country durring war time.

On March 24, 1971 The pre-independence flag; Joi Bangla Bahini flag was flown in front of Chittagong University by the students and the teachers comittee.

On April 1971, people of Bangladesh and American activist were flying a similiar flag of the present day flag. Protesting in front of the capitol of USA. Remark that this flag did not have the map of Bangladesh in it and it was closest to the actual flag of today.

On December 16th, 1971, people in Bangladesh flied the unofficial flag all over Bangladesh. The very first flag after the war was the same flag of the Joy Bangla Bahini flag except that the flag was square shaped and it was raised with color guards by the Mukti Bahini in front of Christian Memorial Hospital in Malumghat, Chittagong.

Bangladesh flag officialy was raised for the first time in a forign country was at Bangladesh embassy Calcutta.

What is the meaning of our flag?
The meaning of our flag is to broad, it consist of the long tragic history. However, in short terms we say the background colour symbolizes the greenery of Bangladesh with its vitality and youthfulness while the red disc represents the rising sun and the sacrifice of life and blood of our people to obtain our independence.