Bangladesh Flag - People's Republic of

The national flag of the People's Republic of Bangladesh was officially adopted on January 17, 1972. The flag consists of a red disc on a bottle green field offset slightly toward the hoist so that it appears centered when the flag is flying. The red disc symbolises the sun rising over Bengal. It is also the blood of those who died for the independence of Bangladesh. The green field represents the lushness of the land of Bangladesh and its fertility. At the time of independence the flag bore a map of the country centered in the red circle. The map was removed to simplify the design. The flag is often compared to the flag of Japan, which is similar in design. The designers of Bangladesh’s flag purposely chose to exclude both the crescent and the star in order to distance it from Pakistan’s style of Islam. Even the shade of green was changed to distinguish itself from the green on Pakistan’s flag.

Bangladesh formerly known as East Pakistan, was partitioned together with West Pakistan from India in 1947 in order to segregate the followers of Islam from the Indian Hindu population. Pairing the two Islamic regions into one nation called Pakistan, separated by 1600 km of Indian territory proved impossible for the two geographically distanced regions with only religion in common. With Economic power centered in West Pakistan, East Pakistan was subjected to neglect and discrimination. In 1971 the Bengalis majority within East Pakistan declared its independence from Pakistan. After a war of liberation, in which India and the Soviet Union played a major role, Bangladesh was born. Since its independence, the young nation has seen at least four military coups and at least fourteen heads of government.