Prothom Bangladesh

"Prothom Bangladesh" is a patriotic song by Shahnaz Rahmatullah. Moniruzzaman Monir wrote and Alauddin Ali composed the song. The song was first broadcast in a TV program on Bangladesh Television in the late 1970s.

On 12 December 1978, when the Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yusuf asked president Zia in a session to change the national flag, he replied with assurance that he would think about it after changing the national anthem of the country, "Amar Sonar Bangla", which was written by a Hindu. On 30 April 1979, Shah Azizur Rahman, prime minister of Bangladesh, sent a secret letter to the cabinet department, which stated that Rabindranath Tagore, the writer of the national anthem of the country was the writer of "Jana Gana Mana", national anthem of India, and not a citizen of Bangladesh. The national anthem made the Islamic world worried because it is written by a person who religiously adhered to Hinduism. Because the national anthem is contradictory with the spirit of culture of Bangladesh, it needs to be changed. In the letter, the prime minister proposed this song as the new national anthem. After receiving this letter from the prime minister, the cabinet department issued instructions to broadcast the song on radio, television and all government programs. Meanwhile, the proposed national anthem song started singing along with the National Anthem at the president's functions. But after the initiative stalled after Zia was assassinated in 1981. Around the 1980s, the song was announced as the official anthem of the Zia's Party. The party's official website mentions the song as its anthem. However, the singer Shahnaz Rahmatullah and composer Alauddin Ali claimed that the party is using the song as the official anthem without their permission.