Rehman Sobhan

Prof Rehman Sobhan is one of Bangladesh's most distinguished economists and a celebrated public intellectual. During the Liberation War, he served as an emissary of the Mujibnagar Government, tirelessly garnering international support for Bangladesh's independence. Following the war, he became a key member of the Planning Commission, contributing significantly to the nation’s post-war reconstruction efforts. Prof Sobhan is also the founder and chairman of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), a leading think tank in Bangladesh. His illustrious career includes serving as an adviser to the caretaker government and championing issues of economic justice and governance.

Pathways to a new political order

The prospects for change are not without hope in Bangladesh.

1w ago

Pathways to the downfall of a regime

The erosion in the credibility of the Sheikh Hasina regime did not begin in July 2024.

1w ago

Anisur Rahman: Farewell to a fellow traveler

Anisur Rahman and I have traveled together across the troubled landscape of Bangladesh’s history over many years. We first came together in October 1957, when we were recruited as teachers by Professor M.N. Huda, then the Chairman of the Economics Department at Dhaka University (DU).

1m ago

Remembering Sir Fazle Hasan Abed: A life fulfilled

Sir Fazle Hasan Abed was a visionary leader and a social entrepreneur.

4m ago

Key questions for designing and implementing reforms

What is the process through which reforms will be enacted and who will execute the reforms?

5m ago

Yunus is exposed to an ongoing campaign of denigration and slander from both official sources and their intellectual fellow travellers.

For whom the bell tolls?

The case of Prof Yunus is symptomatic of the erosion in the credibility of our institutions.

1y ago

Nurul Islam: Celebrating the life of a freedom fighter

Nurul’s unique quality as a professional economist originated in the common sense and pragmatism which influenced his great faith in empirical work.

1y ago

Zafrullah: Tribute to a freedom fighter and revolutionary

Zafrullah believed that incremental change was not enough and that the social order itself needed to be changed.

2y ago

December 6, 2021

Bangabandhu’s vision for a just society: promises kept and promises to keep

The commemoration of the Bangabandhu centenary year and the celebrations centred around Bangladesh’s fifty years as an independent nation state will be reaching their conclusion at the end of the calendar year, 2021.

January 22, 2021

A vision for Dhaka University in the 21st century

Dhaka University was born out of a struggle by the people of eastern Bengal for asserting their regional identity. It reached its apotheosis through its vanguard role in the struggle for Bangladesh’s nationhood. It was my privilege as a teacher in Dhaka University from 1957 to 1971 to be a part of this struggle.

May 23, 2020

Good night, sweet prince

The passing of Anisuzzaman has taken from our midst one more close friend and comrade from the generation which participated in the struggle for national liberation and held steadfast to its values.

January 3, 2020

Sir Fazle Hasan Abed: A tribute to an innovator and implementer

I had my first encounter with Sir Fazle Hasan Abed in 1971 in Oxford. Abed called to inform me on the efforts by him and his group in London in support of Bangladesh’s liberation struggle.

April 3, 2017

The challenge of inequality - An agenda for action

It is only when the poor and other excluded sections of the population are sitting in the representative institutions of the state, in local elective bodies as well as in Parliament, that they will be able to ensure that their particular concerns are mainstreamed within the policymaking process.

October 18, 2016

Reimagining South Asia in 2030

The future of South Asia, as a community does not look too promising in the wake of the postponement of the SAARC summit. As a person who has been engaged over 40 years in civil society initiatives to recreate a South Asian community, I have witnessed a number of such fluctuations in the fortunes of the SAARC process.

April 26, 2016

A tribute to a champion of the deprived

I can think of few people who have done more for the world's deprived population than Fazle Hasan Abed.

February 19, 2016

Physician heal thyself

To wake up, in the best tradition of Rip Van Winkle, after all of 9 years, to a self-confessed action by Mahfuz Anam which was, at that time, practiced by most of his colleagues and continues to be practiced today, smacks of wilful amnesia or selective memory, which are common afflictions among our media, chattering classes and political community.

March 2, 2015

Prelude to an order for genocide

AS President Yahya flew out of Dacca on the night of March 25 he took with him the last hopes of a united Pakistan. For the final two days he had been holed up in the Dacca cantonment with the junta of generals who rule Pakistan, putting the finishing touches to Operation Genocide.