‘Untranquil Recollections’: Revisiting the past with Professor Rehman Sobhan

On March 9, 2024, University Press Limited (UPL) hosted a discussion at the UPL Head Office with Professor Rehman Sobhan, moderated by Dr Akhter Mahmood, on the two volumes of Untranquil Recollections—Untranquil Recollections: The Years of Fulfilment (Sage Publications, 2016) and Untranquil Recollections: From Dawn to Darkness (UPL, 2022).

Professor Rehman Sobhan is a Bangladeshi economist and freedom fighter, and a graduate of the University of Cambridge. He was one of the economists whose ideas influenced Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's six-point programme, which became the basis for the Bangladeshi struggle for sovereignty. During the Liberation War in 1971, he served the first government of Bangladesh as Envoy Extraordinaire with special responsibility for Economic Affairs. 

The session began by discussing Professor Rehman Sobhan's life, acquainting the audience with how he came to be who he was, and the role he played in the events of 1971, making Bangladesh what it is today. He spoke about his childhood, and how he was often referred to as an "outlaw", a nickname he attributed to his first day of school as he bit a school teacher when denied the chance to go to his mother. He then went on to talk about how he arrived at his current career in economics, even though he had initially had little to no interest in pursuing further education before he found his way to Cambridge University.

Professor Sobhan discussed how impactful his time at Cambridge was. Having dedicated a chapter to what he referred to as a very transformative time in his life, he went on to explain how Cambridge was where he had first properly learned to educate himself in politics. "Despite being generally well-read at this point, I realised I was quite politically illiterate," he said. This would go on to be a turning point in his life, as his own ideologies were shaped by books he had picked up at the local library while training for the leather business as per his father's wishes.

Mentioning two books written by Jawaharlal Nehru in particular—an autobiography and The Discovery of India (Meridian Books, 1946)—Professor Sobhan recounted, "This was quite fascinating to me. Here was a person who was coming from a very elite background and developing a very progressive demographic and socialist consciousness which took him into the independence struggle [in] India." He also attributed this experience to have been what first sparked his interest in socialism. Professor Sobhan went on to explain why he finally decided on returning to Dhaka, even when the whole world was open to him: "I wanted to be engaged in policy-making, and so this decision was more a political one than anything else."

When asked about his friendships and if they had opened any doors for him along the way, Professor Sobhan created a clear distinction: "To some extent. However, not all of my friends were on the same political wavelength as myself. So, in those regards, while many personal friendships were made, that was to the extent to which our friendship or relationship extended." He added that, although his friendships might not have always been politically aligned, all of these relationships were a great source of education, which he values to this day.

Dr Akhter Mahmood then made note of how the manifesto was, in a way, "a blending of the six points and the 11 points where the policies were discussed in detail." When asked about what exactly had happened when Bangabandhu invited a group, including Professor Sobhan, to go through the detailed implications of the six points so he could present a draft constitution, Professor Sobhan explained, "Basically, what Bangabandhu wanted to know after the election was whether the six points were implementable in the context of a united Pakistan. The question was: can we make it work?"

"My memoir said from the point that the six points were born, right up to the last day before our independence, no major Pakistani political figure sat down with Bangabandhu or people like us to have a detailed discussion regarding the plausibility of this," he continued. "We went to talk about things with them. To ask them to outline what the problems with these points may be. What I found, however, was that no one had any serious thoughts on the matter. No one was interested in debating or talking about this." 

As their discussion concerning the final days leading up to the country's independence came to an end, the floor was opened up to questions. Following audience questions about how memoirs are meant to be perceived and how Professor Sobhan was impacted by these historical events he had lived through, the session concluded.