Deepak Nayyar
Emeritus Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Book Recommendations:
Recommended by Deepak Nayyar
“This second volume of Rehman Sobhan’s memoirs spans four eventful years from 1972 to 1975 when an independent Bangladesh began life. For the author, it was a period that was preceded and followed by political exile from the country he loves. Its elegant prose and engaging narrative are oral history at its best from an activist, participant and witness to that era. It will be most valuable for readers in Bangladesh and South Asia as well as for those elsewhere who wish to understand the complexities of nation building.” (from Amazon)
Rehman Sobhan was directly associated with Bangladesh’s liberation struggle. In this memoir, he provides an insightful, first-hand account of the challenges faced by the newly independent Bangladesh in the early years of its existence. This book attempts to capture the unique problems of reconstructing the war-devastated economy while building institutions from ground up for a nation which for 24 years had been run through a highly centralized system of colonial-style governance. Untranquil Recollections gives special attention to the author’s involvement, as a Member of the Planning Commission, in addressing the problem of reconstruction while coping with the political challenges associated with building institutions, formulating economic policies and overseeing their implementation. The narrative attempts to identify the economic and political forces that were inimical to the radical direction of the national policy set by Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The book concludes with a discussion of the dark events leading to Mujibur Rahman’s assassination along with his family and his closest political colleagues, which resulted in a change in the regime.