Krishnan Srinivasan
Former Indian Foreign Secretary and Former Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh
Book Recommendations:
Recommended by Krishnan Srinivasan
“Rehman Sobhan is a witness and vivid chronicler of one of the most tragic, turbulent and eventually triumphant episodes of the second half of the 20th century, the liberation struggle and the creation of the nation of Bangladesh. Sobhan played an important role in the independence movement, discussed in the first volume of these memoirs, and formulated economic policy for the Mujib government, which is the narrative of this present volume. This book describes the task of nation building in a country emerging from a searing trauma and shortly to be plunged into another crisis, whose many consequences endure to this day. Absorbing and essential reading for historians, economists and general readers.” (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.