Sarmila Bose is an

Indian-American Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are citizens of the United States with ancestry from India. The United States Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Native Americans, who have also historically been referred t ...

journalist and academic. She has served as a senior research associate at the Centre for International Studies in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. She is the author of '' Dead Reckoning: Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War,'' a controversial book on the

Bangladesh Liberation War The Bangladesh Liberation War ( bn, মুক্তিযুদ্ধ, , also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, or simply the Liberation War in Bangladesh) was a revolution and armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali ...

.Sarmila Bose
Myth-busting the Bangladesh war of 1971
Al Jazeera, 9 May 2011.

Early life and education

Bose belongs to an ethnic

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

family with extensive involvement in national politics in India. She is the grandniece of Indian nationalist

Subhas Chandra Bose Subhas Chandra Bose ( ; 23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945 * * * * * * * * *) was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperi ...

, granddaughter of nationalist

Sarat Chandra Bose Sarat Chandra Bose ( Bengali: শরৎচন্দ্র বসু) (6 September 1889 – 20 February 1950) was an Indian barrister and independence activist. Early life He was born to Janakinath Bose (father) and Prabhabati Devi in Cutta ...

, and daughter of former

Trinamool Congress The All India Trinamool Congress ( English: All India Grassroots Congress; AITC), colloquially the Trinamool Congress ( TMC) is an Indian political party which is predominantly active in West Bengal. The party is led by Mamata Banerjee, the c ...

parliamentarian Krishna Bose and

paediatrician Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...

Sisir Kumar Bose Sisir Kumar Bose (2 February 1920 – 30 September 2000) was an Indian freedom fighter, pediatrician and legislator. He was the son of Indian nationalist leader Sarat Chandra Bose, nephew of Indian freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose and husband ...

. Bose was born in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

in 1959, but grew up in

Calcutta, India Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comm ...

, where she attended Modern High School for Girls. She returned to the US for higher studies. She obtained a bachelor's degree in history from

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United ...

, a master's degree in public administration from the

Harvard Kennedy School The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, publi ...

, and a PhD in Political Economy and Government from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

. After her doctorate, she has held teaching and research positions at Harvard University,

Warwick University , mottoeng = Mind moves matter , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £7.0 million (2021) , budget = £698.2 million (2020� ...

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , presi ...

Tata Institute of Social Sciences Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) is a multi-campus public research university in Mumbai, India. It is Asia's oldest institute for professional social work education and was founded in 1936 in then Bombay Presidency of British Ind ...

, and

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. She has also worked in

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the " news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (p ...

, writing in both

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

Works

In her book, '' Dead Reckoning: Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War,'' Bose claims that atrocities were committed by both sides in the 1971 Bangladesh War, but that memories of the atrocities had been "dominated by the narrative of the victorious side", pointing to Indian and Bangladeshi "myths" and "exaggerations" which were not historically or statistically plausible. While the book does not exonerate the

West Pakistan West Pakistan ( ur, , translit=Mag̱ẖribī Pākistān, ; bn, পশ্চিম পাকিস্তান, translit=Pôścim Pakistan) was one of the two Provincial exclaves created during the One Unit Scheme in 1955 in Pakistan. It was ...

i forces, it claims that the army officers "turned out to be fine men doing their best to fight an unconventional war within the conventions of warfare". The book was criticized by Columbia University professor Naeem Mohaiemen in BBC and ''Economic & Political Weekly'' for ahistorical bias in sources. She has responded to three of her critics — Naeem Mohaiemen, Urvashi Butalia, and Srinath Raghavan. She has also authored ''Money, Energy, and Welfare: the state and the household in India's rural electrification policy'', published by Oxford University Press in 1993.

Personal life and family

Bose has trained in Indian music and has performed in Calcutta. Bose's brother, Sumantra Bose, teaches at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 milli ...

.Anjali Puri
Lunch With BS: Sugata Bose
Business Standard, 4 March 2016. Her brother Sugata Bose has been a member of Indian parliament since 2014.

External Links

Official Website

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bose, Sarmila 1959 births Indian writers Indian women writers 21st-century Indian writers Bengali Hindus 20th-century Bengalis 21st-century Bengalis 20th-century Indian scholars Indian journalists 21st-century Indian journalists Indian women journalists Indian historians Bengali historians Indian women historians 20th-century Indian historians 21st-century Indian historians Indian historical novelists 21st-century Indian novelists West Bengal academics Indian women novelists Indian women non-fiction writers 21st-century Indian non-fiction writers Indian scholars Indian women scholars Living people American women writers of Indian descent American people of Bengali descent Bryn Mawr College alumni Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni American emigrants to England English people of Indian descent Academics of the University of Oxford Writers from Boston Writers from Kolkata Women writers from West Bengal American women academics Harvard Kennedy School alumni