Page 233 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

230 ART AND CRAFTS

On the three stamps among eight
published by the Government of
Mujibnagar, there was an overprint
of the phrase ‘Bangladesh
Liberated’. However, the first stamp
to be published in Bangladesh after
liberation was on the 20th
anniversary of the Language
Movement on February 21, 1972.
B.P.Chitnish of India was its
designer and it was printed from the
Security Printing Press of India. The
subject of this first memorial stamp
of independent Bangladesh was the
central Shaheed Minar of Dhaka. 75
After independence, naturally, the
subject matter of stamps printed
from Bangladesh gave preference to
the glorious tales of the
independence war, portraits of
fig. 4.30 First published renowned personalities, and themes that represent the country. In the last three decades
stamps of Bangladesh, we observe some significant changes in stamp design never seen before. Firstly,
collection A.T.M portraits of great people (political personalities, intellectuals, artist, poets, etc.) found
Anwarul Kadir their place on stamps. This is not something new, but when it is discovered that during
the Pakistani regime there had been no portraits of any Bengali featured on stamps
other than Kazi Nazrul Islam and after liberation there are numerous portraits of
successful Bengalis on the stamps, the change seems quite obvious. In this context, we
can mention the stamps of the martyred intellectual series.
Secondly, subjects representing the country, for example architectural and
archaeological sites were also seen in stamps during the British and Pakistani regimes.
However, we find some new subjects representing the country and its people depicted
in stamps of Bangladesh after liberation: for example, nakshi kantha, national flower,
national fruit, tea garden, scenes of collecting date sap from date palm, rivers and
boats, farmers, fishermen, weavers etc. added a new dimension to stamp design.
Among those who showed excellence in stamp designing in Bangladesh K.G.Mostafa,
Ahmed F. Karim, Pranesh Kumar Mandal, Mahbub Akand, Manzare Shamim, Nitun
Kundu, Anwar Hossain, Muslim Mia, Shamsuddoha, Mrinal Chakrabarty and others
are important names.
With the development of technology, some strategic changes occurred in stamp
design. In the past, all the designs were done by hand but nowadays computer graphics
are used. The use of photographs is a significant addition in recent stamp design.