The Flag Unfurled

The flag which was recorded in Guinness World Records as the world’s largest human national flag. Photo: Prabir Das

The month of March brings back to memory many significant events from our history. One of them is achieving a flag for the nation. It was March 2 of 1971 when the flag of Bangladesh was first hoisted. It was the day when the people of Bangladesh conveyed their nationalistic aspiration by hoisting their flag of independence.
June, 1970. The students of Dhaka University were leading the movement for the self determination of Bangladesh. The West Pakistani rulers were replying to their legitimate demands with iron fist. In response to the torture and oppression an the student leaders took the fierce and uncompromising steps that culminated in the liberation of the country.
On the night of June 6, some prominent student leaders gathered in the middle of the night at room number 118 of the then Iqbal Hall of Dhaka University (now Shahid Sergeant Jahurul Huq Hall). ASM Abdur Rob, Shibnarayan Das, AFM Mahbubul Huq, Shahjahan Siraj, Kazi Aref Ahmed, Manirul Islam (Marshal Moni), Swapan Kumar Choudhury, Quamrul Alam Khan were present in the room. They were the members of a secret group struggling for the liberation called Shadhin Bangla Biplobi Parishad (Revolutionary Committee for Free Bengal). The code name of the team was Nucleus.

The first flag of Bangladesh hoisted by the students of Dhaka University. Photo: courtesy

On that night their plan was to design a flag for Bangladesh, keeping in mind the nature of Bangladesh's land and its people. The green in the flag symbolises the lushness of Bangladesh's landscape and the red circle represents the sun of sovereignty rising over the country. It also symbolises the blood of the martyrs who sacrificed their lives during the war of liberation.  At that time there was a golden map of Bangladesh in the centre of the red circle. Artist Shib Naryan Das designed  the map in golden colour to show the richness of Bangladesh. The map was hoisted at the night of June 6 and was later brought down on June 7.
Then the fateful election of 1970 came. Despite the landslide victory in the election, the West Pakistani leaders refused to hand over power to Sheikh Mujibor Rahman. Due to undemocratic and fascist approach taken by the power hungry West Pakistani rulers, the people of Bangladesh realised that there was no alternative but to liberate their country.
The struggle for liberation took a new turn. Now the student leaders had made it very clear that they had no intention to compromise with the Pakistani rulers. So on March 2, 1971 the initial version of the national flag of Bangladesh was publicly hoisted in Dhaka University. The then Vice President of Dhaka University Students' Union ASM Abdur Rob unfurled the flag from the rooftop of the western porch of the Arts Faculty of Dhaka University.
The flag of Bangladesh was very different from that of Pakistan. The crescent and star of Pakistani flag was excluded. Rather the red circle bearing the map of Bangladesh on the green field became the ultimate expression of our national spirit. The cloth of the first flag was donated by Bazlur Rahman Lashkar, a tailor at the New Market.
Hundreds of students and common people saluted the flag expressing their solidarity with the movement for liberation, and it became the emblem of national spirit of the people. During the historic speech of March 7, thousands of people gathered at Suhrawardi Uddyan (the then Race Course) holding the flag in their hand. On March 23, 1971 on the Republic Day of Pakistan, the flag of Bangladesh was hoisted from the residence of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
During the entire nine months of the liberation war our freedom fighters have fought and sacrificed their lives for this flag. In 1972, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman ordered renowned Artist Quamrul Hassan to redesign the flag and to submit a detailed explanation of his design. The contortion of Bangladesh's southern islands made it very difficult to place the map inside the red circle. The map was removed from the flag. Quamrul Hassan's design and report was accepted as the standard dimension of the national flag.
Our people's love for this hard-earned flag is second to none in the world. They have topped the world in making the largest human flag on December 16, 2013, which marked the 42nd Victory Day of Bangladesh.  
But excessive use of the national flag while celebrating the national days resulted in some form of disrespect. Before using the flag we must learn the rules and regulations of using it.  It is our duty to give proper respect to this emblem of sovereignty as honouring the flag means showing respect to our struggle for liberation.