Fifty Years of Bangladesh

Rounaq Jahan, Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Bangladesh was a Professor of Political Science, Dhaka University; Adjunct Professor, Columbia University and a Research Fellow at Harvard, Chicago and Boston Universities. She headed the women’s programmes at UNAPDC, Malaysia and the ILO, Geneva. Her publications include Pakistan: Failure in National Integration (1972), Bangladesh Politics: Problems and Issues (1980, 2005), The Elusive Agenda: Mainstreaming Women in Development (1995), Political Parties in Bangladesh: Challenges of Democratization (2015). She serves on the boards of several national and international organisations.Rehman Sobhan, a recipient of Shadhinata Puraskar, Bangladesh’s highest civilian award, is founder and chairman, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD). He served as a member of the first caretaker government in Bangladesh in 1991 and a member, Bangladesh Planning Commission 1972–75. He was a Professor, Economics Department, Dhaka University, and Director General, BIDS, Bangladesh. He was actively associated with the Bengali nationalist movement during the 1960s and the Bangladesh liberation struggle in 1971. His publications include Challenging the Injustice of Poverty: Agendas for Inclusive Development in South Asia (2010), Untranquil Recollections: The Years of Fulfilment (2015) and Untranquil Recollections: Nation Building in Post-Liberation Bangladesh (2021).

• Chapter 1: Introduction: Transformation, contestation and challenges in Bangladesh Part 1. Economic transformation Chapter 2: Policy actions, market responses and economic growth in Bangladesh; Chapter 3: Bangladesh in dual transition: Attendant challenges and the next steps; Chapter 4: Institutional challenges in Bangladesh’s economic transformation Part 2. Costs and challenges of development Chapter 5: Fifty years of development experience of Bangladesh: An employment and labour perspective; Chapter 6: Inequality and human development: The Bangladesh perspective; Chapter 7: Bangladesh between world system and green growth: Past trends, future trajectories Part 3. Social transitions Chapter 8: Fifty years of human development in Bangladesh: Achievements and challenges; Chapter 9: Contentious empowerment? Women, development and change in Bangladesh Part 4. Cultural contestations Chapter 10: Shahbagh, Shapla Chottor and Bangladesh’s meandering, contending mindscapes; Chapter 11: Building Bangladesh: Critical orientations in architecture; Chapter 12: The changing faces of culture: Notes from a time of crisis Part 5. State, society, politics Chapter 13: Evolution of state-society relations in Bangladesh over the last five decades: An analytical narrative; Chapter 14: Islamist politics in Bangladesh: The nature, scope, and the pathway; Chapter 15: State-making, violence, and political muscle: Bangladesh as a polycratic state Part 6. The coming challenge for Bangladesh Chapter 16: Democratising the ‘Middle-Income’ dream: The coming challenge for Bangladesh at 50; Index

“The latest in a growing number of scholarly collections on Bangladesh’s 50th year of national independence takes on all the big issues it promises to, and delivers a thorough, authoritative and occasionally startling set of essays. The editors, Rounaq Jahan and Rehman Sobhan, are currently, and through those 50 years, two of the country’s leading public intellectuals and scholars of its polity and economy, respectively. […] it is an excellent source for the well-informed general reader, and a valuable source for students of development studies, South Asian or Bangladesh politics, or for researchers looking for specific expertise and further reading on Bangladesh.”-- Naomi Hossain, University of London, UK, Journal of Bangladesh Studies, Vol 26, No. 1, 2024.“This book features articles by some of the finest economists, social scientists, and other leading intellectuals of Bangladesh who have been engaged with the country’s development history professionally. […] The book offers intriguing yet varied perspectives on Bangladesh’s evolving economic fortunes. Such multifocal yet complementary takes are of great value to the students who seek to understand the remarkable economic transformation of the country from a basket-case to a lower-middle-income economy with aspirations to be a middle-income economy in the not-too-distant future in all its complexities. […] The book will make an enduring contribution to Bangladesh studies as more narratives and counter-narratives are likely to emerge in the days to come.”-- Habibul Haque Khondker, Zayed University, UAE, Economic & Political Weekly, February 8, 2025 vol LX no 6.