The importance of culture in building up a well-balanced social structure cannot be over-emphasized. Furthermore it is no exaggeration to say that the birth of Bangladesh was largely a result of the people's struggle to preserve their own cultural identity. After independence it became obvious that measures should be taken to keep alive the past memories and preserve the country's cultural heritage through institution building. As a sovereign nation, it has also become imperative that to develop friendly and cultural relationships with partner countries/foreign nations cultural pacts and cultural exchange programmes have to be implemented. Out of such self-interest a necessity arose to establish a separate body to deal with such matters. Hence, since after independence a separate division was created within the Ministry of Education called Cultural Affairs and Sports Division on 26 May 1972. From then the new Division devoted itself to promote the cultural sector of the country.

Later in 1975, the Division was adjoined with Labour and Welfare Ministry. However, in the same year it was returned to the Ministry of Education.

In 1978 it was renamed as Ministry of Cultural Affairs & Sports. In 1979 again it was named as Ministry of Religious Affairs, Culture and Sports. Afterwards it was named as Ministry of Sports, Culture and Religious Affairs.

In 1980 these three sectors were divided into two different ministries named as Ministry of Religious Affairs and Ministry of Sports & Cultural Affairs.

In 1982 by the then government's policy of administrative rearrangement, this ministry was converted to Sports & Culture Division under the secretariat of Chief Martial Law Administrator. Next in 1983 it was transferred to President's secretariat.

Afterwards in 1984 the Sport & Culture Division was transferred from President's secretariat to the Ministry of Education. In the same year sports related works were separated from Sports & Culture Division and separately made a ministry and named as Ministry of Youth & Sports. And under the Ministry of Education a separate division was made named as Cultural Affairs Division.

Now it is working as a full fledged ministry under the name of Ministry of Cultural Affairs. Honourable  Adviser  Rasheda K. Choudhury is  in  charge of  the Ministry  and  Md. Sharful Alam is the Secretary in-charge of the Ministry.