Sarmila Bose is an

Indian-American Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from India. The terms Asian Indian and East Indian are used to avoid confusion with Native Americans in the United States, who are also referred to as "Indians" or "Am ...

journalist, academic and lawyer. 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 The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. 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 (, ), also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, was an War, armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali nationalism, Bengali nationalist and self-determination movement in East Pakistan, which res ...

.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 Indian nationalism is an instance of civic nationalism. It is inclusive of all of the people of India, despite their diverse ethnic, linguistic and religious backgrounds. Indian nationalism can trace roots to pre-colonial India, but was f ...

Subhas Chandra Bose Subhas Chandra Bose (23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945) was an Indian independence movement, Indian nationalist whose defiance of British raj, British authority in India made him a hero among many Indians, but his wartime alliances with ...

, granddaughter of nationalist Sarat Chandra Bose, and daughter of former

Trinamool Congress The All India Trinamool Congress (; AITC), simply known as Trinamool Congress, is an Indian political party that is mainly influential in the Federated state, state of West Bengal. It was founded by Mamata Banerjee on 1 January 1998 as a Lis ...

parliamentarian Krishna Bose and

paediatrician Pediatrics (American English) also spelled paediatrics (British English), is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, pediatrics covers many of their yout ...

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 husba ...

. Bose was born in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

in 1959, but grew up in

Calcutta, India Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary fin ...

, 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 language, Welsh: ) is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as a ...

, a master's degree in public administration from the

Harvard Kennedy School The John F. Kennedy School of Government, commonly referred to as Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is the school of public policy of Harvard University, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Kennedy School offers master's de ...

, and a PhD in Political Economy and Government from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

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

Warwick University The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of a ...

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

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

, and

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

. 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 of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

, writing in both

and English. In 2024, she advises at the Work Rights Centre in England.

Works

In her 2011 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 was the western province of Pakistan between One Unit, 1955 and Legal Framework Order, 1970, 1970, covering the territory of present-day Pakistan. Its land borders were with Afghanistan, India and Iran, with a maritime border wit ...

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 later responded to three of her critics - Naeem Mohaiemen,

Urvashi Butalia Urvashi Butalia (born 1952) is an Indian feminist writer, publisher and activist. She is known for her work in the women's movement of India, as well as for authoring books such as ''The Other Side of Silence: Voices from and the Partition of I ...

, and Srinath Raghavan. She published ''Jyotibabu'r Pashchimbanga: ekti adhapataner adhyay'' the following year; the book looked at the effects of 25 years of Communist authority on education, health and industry in West Bengal. 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. In 2021, she published a novella entitled ''Under Such a Sheltering Sky''.

Personal life and family

Bose has trained in Indian music and has performed in Calcutta. Bose's brother,

Sumantra Bose Sumantra Bose is an Indian political scientist and professor of international and comparative politics at the London School of Economics. He specialises in the study of ethnic and national conflicts and their management, with a particular focu ...

, teaches at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

.Anjali Puri
Lunch With BS: Sugata Bose
Business Standard, 4 March 2016. Her brother

Sugata Bose Sugata Bose (born 7 September 1956) is an Indian historian and politician who has taught and worked in the United States since the mid-1980s. His fields of study are South Asian and Indian Ocean history. Bose taught at Tufts University until 2 ...

was a member of Indian parliament from 2014 to 2019.

External links

Official Website

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bose, Sarmila 1959 births 21st-century Indian women writers Bengali Hindus 20th-century Bengalis 21st-century Bengalis 20th-century Indian scholars 21st-century Indian journalists 21st-century Indian women journalists 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 21st-century 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 Journalists from Boston Writers from Kolkata Journalists from Kolkata Women writers from West Bengal 21st-century American women academics 21st-century American academics Harvard Kennedy School alumni