BANGLADESH Postage Stamps Catalogue 1971-2023

Description

BANGLADESH Postage Stamps Catalogue 1971-2023

Introduction: I began to collect postage stamps and other philatelic items, at the age of 8, it was in the year 1954 or 1955. I was staying with my father, Mr. Fazlur Rahman, an employee of Pakistan Deputy High Commission, Calcutta. He worked in the visa section, so many letters came to his office and he used to give the envelopes to me. So, I have accumulated many Indian stamps and as Calcutta GPO was not far from our residence and could easily be reached by tram, so I also collected First Day Covers. Then the prices of the FDCs were only 15 paisa (10 paisa stamp and 5 paisa cover).
When I passed School Final Examination I came to Jessore, East Pakistan, for higher study in 1965. A year later, I started publishing a penfriendship newsletter ‘Prachyobani (Asian Voice)’. The paper gave me more stamps, coins, FDCs and many more collectibles. My collection went on growing. The items I accumulated in those years were all destroyed or looted during the Libeartion War of Bangladesh, in 1971, which devastated the entire country.Then I started to collect only Bangladesh stamps and concentrated on research and study and writing history on the evolution of postal history and stories behind Bangladesh stamps.
Eventually, I published as many as 30 research works, including four stamp catalogues, first in 1987, then in 1995, then in 2008 and the last one came out in 2016. Only recently, when I was updating my stamp catalogue for the next revised edition, it came to my knowledge that this will be the fifth edition during the last 50 years and the ONLY Stamps catalogue ever published from Bangladesh. I hope, this catalogue will be useful for anyone interested in the stamps of Bangladesh.
I hope, like all other studies on Bangladesh postal history and stamps, this catalogue will also be appreciated by all other people who love philately and me, too.

Five Decades of Bangladesh Philately
1971 – 2023

Introduction: The word PHILATELY is derived from the two Greek words, ‘Philos’ means ‘love’ and ‘atelia’ means ‘exemption of tax or tariff’. So it denotes ‘love for the materials that exempt tax’. Postage stamps was the method of ‘prepayment of tax’, which were issued to affix on a material to be sent to a destination to ensure that the material was ‘prepaid’.
The area now comprises ‘Bangladesh’, came into being on 14 August 1947, as ‘East Bengal’ after the Bengal Province of British India was divided. Then it was renamed ‘East Pakistan’ in 1956, and since 16 December 1971, it became independent and sovereign ‘Bangladesh’.
Communication among the people dates back to the time immemorial. People used to depend on other people to exchange their feelings to another person living in faraway places. The rulers used to employ messengers to get and send information of their realm. In later years the more systematic courier service developed which led to the introduction of postal services in and among the countries.
The world’s first postage stamp was issued in England on May 1, 1840. These stamps have no name. First postage stamp was introduced in this sub-continent was in 1854 under the British rule. Since 1947, the people of this area started using stamps issued by Pakistan, until 16 December 1971, when ‘East Pakistan’ had to break all relation with Pakistan and assumed the name ‘Bangladesh’ and declared independence in the night of 25 March 1971.

Postal Service and Postage Stamps
during the Liberation War of Bangladesh

The LiberationWar broke out all over Bangladesh, after the Pakistan Army suddenly attacked the innocent civilians at the mid-night of 25 March 1971. It was so sudden that nobody could retaliate the attack. There was, of course some sporadic and short-lived counter attacks took palce during the last week of March, but after very short time people started to organise, a prvisional government started functioning and all-out liberation war started by mid-April 1971.
The Mujibnagar Government was arranging its administration; it did not have a fully administrable postal service. Several stamp dealers in Calcutta realized the commercial advantage of this chaotic situation in Bangladesh and the seals and namestamps showing names of various Field Post Offices (FPOs) constituting names of some places adjacent to the border with India, were prepared. Using these, postally-used (?) covers were prepared.