Amartya Sen’s tribute to Ali Kaiser Hasan Morshed

I cannot express adequately how devastated I feel on the news about Kaiser. He was such a wonderful person, and one I had the privilege to have as a friend since the summer of 1953, when we travelled together to England and came to know each other extremely closely. I always enjoyed Kaiser's company, and of course his friendship, and it is difficult to think that he could be no more. I remember sitting on the deck over the Mediterranean and talking about the future of the world, despite our unstoppable pessimism in a world that seemed doomed to come to a sad end. I think I enjoyed Kaiser's company more than anyone else's in those difficult days, when both of us were moving from the world of Asia to the new surroundings of Europe.

Kaiser's memory will always be active and alive in my mind, but it is hard to think that he himself could move on. I know that Kaiser had some religious beliefs—restrained as they were—which I never managed to cultivate, and I can only hope that he will get a sense of being that will not desert him.

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen sent this tribute to the family of Barrister Kaiser Morshed, a former foreign secretary, who passed away on November 23, 2023.