Sarmila Bose

Sarmila Bose is an 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 controversial book on the Bangladesh Liberation War that accuses both sides of war crimes.

The grandniece of Indian nationalist Subhas Chandra Bose and granddaughter of nationalist Sarat Chandra Bose, Bose is the daughter of former Trinamool Congress parliamentarian Krishna Bose and paediatrician Sisir Kumar Bose. Bose's brother, Sumantra Bose, teaches at the London School of Economics. Her brother Sugata Bose is a member of Indian parliament since 2014. She was born in Boston, but grew up in Calcutta, returning to the US for higher studies. She obtained a bachelor's degree in history from Bryn Mawr College, and a master's and doctorate from Harvard University in Political Economy and Government.

Sarmila Bose was a political journalist in India, working for Ananda Bazar Patrika. After her higher studies, she has held teaching and research positions at Harvard University, Warwick University, George Washington University, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and Oxford University.

In her book, Dead Reckoning: Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War, Bose claims that atrocities were committed by both sides in a conflict that has been "dominated by the narrative of the victorious side". 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 Naeem Mohaiemen in the BBC for an alleged bias in the selection of her sources. Bose has also been criticized for her analysis of the 1971 Bangladesh genocide in Economic & Political Weekly. 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, in their article, The right stuff: F-16s to Pakistan is wise decision.

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.