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Sarmila Bose is an Indian-American journalist and academic. She is currently a senior research associate at the Centre for International Studies in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford. She is the author of Dead Reckoning: Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War, a book on the Bangladesh Liberation War.

Life and family

Bose belonged to an ethnic Bengali family with extensive involvement in national politics in India. She was the grandniece of Indian nationalist Subhas Chandra Bose, granddaughter of nationalist Sarat Chandra Bose, and daughter of former Trinamool Congress parliamentarian Krishna Bose and paediatrician Sisir Kumar Bose.

Sarmila Bose was born in Boston in 1959, but grew up in Calcutta. She returned to the US for higher studies. She obtained a bachelor's degree in history from Bryn Mawr College, a master's degree in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a PhD in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University. After her doctorate, she has held teaching and research positions at Harvard University, Warwick University, George Washington University, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and Oxford University.

Bose's brother, Sumantra Bose, teaches at the London School of Economics. Her brother Sugata Bose is a member of Indian parliament since 2014.

Works

In her book, Dead Reckoning: Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War, Bose claims that atrocities were committed by both sides in the conflict, 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 Pakistani 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 criticised by Bangladeshi anthropologist Naeem Mohaiemen in the BBC for an alleged bias in the selection of her sources; Mohaiemen also criticized her articles in Economic & Political Weekly on the same subject. She has responded to three of her most notable critics — Naeem Mohaiemen, Urvashi Butalia, and Srinath Raghavan — in the same publication.

Bose advocated for the sale of F-16 fighter aircraft to Pakistan, together with William Milam, the ex-US Ambassador to Pakistan, in 2005, arguing that it would help preserve a "democratic, moderate, and modern" Pakistan by alleviating its security concerns, and that this would ultimately benefit the long-term interests of the U.S. and India.

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.

References

1. ^ Oxford University Faculty Bio
2. ^ Lawson, Alastair (16 June 2011). "Controversial book accuses Bengalis of 1971 war crimes". BBC. Retrieved 30 December 2013.
3. Sarmila Bose, Myth-busting the Bangladesh war of 1971, Al Jazeera, 9 May 2011.
4. ^ Bio, sarmilabose.com, Retrieved 8 August 2016.
5. Anjali Puri, Lunch With BS: Sugata Bose, Business Standard, 4 March 2016.
6. Bhaumik, Subir (29 April 2011). "Book, film greeted with fury among Bengalis". aljazeera. Retrieved 21 December 2013.
7. "Election results: Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's grandnephew Sugata Bose wins from Bengal's Jadavpur". Times of India.
8. Mohaiemen, Naeem (3 September 2011). "Flying Blind: Waiting for a Real Reckoning on 1971". Economic & Political Weekly. 46 (36): 40–52. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
9. Bose, Sarmila (31 December 2011). "'Dead Reckoning': A Response". Economic & Political Weekly. 46 (53): 76–79. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
10. Sobhan, Zafar. "Bose is more Pakistani than Jinnah the Quaid". The Sunday Guardian. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
11. Milam, William (11 April 2005). "The right stuff: F-16s to Pakistan is wise decision". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
12. WorldCat item record

• 1959 births
• Living people
• American women writers of Indian descent
• American people of Bengali descent
• Bryn Mawr College alumni
• Harvard University 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