Editing Notable Personalities in Indian History and Culture

{{Short description|List of significant figures in Indian history, arts, politics and science}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox
| title       = Notable Personalities – India
| label1      = Domain
| data1       = Politics, Literature, Science, Arts, Sports
| label2      = Country
| data2       = [[India]]
| label3      = Coverage
| data3       = Ancient to Contemporary
}}

This article lists notable personalities significant to Indian history, politics, arts, and science, along with their key achievements.

== Indian Nobel Prize Winners ==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Name !! Field !! Year !! Notes
|-
| [[Rabindranath Tagore]] || Literature || 1913 || Author of ''Gitanjali''; won Knighthood 1915
|-
| [[C. V. Raman]] || Physics || 1930 || Discovery of Raman Effect
|-
| [[Hargobind Khorana]] || Medicine || 1968 || Work on genetic code
|-
| [[Mother Teresa]] || Peace || 1979 || Founded Missionaries of Charity
|-
| [[Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar]] || Physics || 1983 || Chandrasekhar limit
|-
| [[Amartya Sen]] || Economics || 1998 || Welfare economics
|-
| [[Venkatraman Ramakrishnan]] || Chemistry || 2009 || Studies of ribosome structure
|-
| [[Kailash Satyarthi]] || Peace || 2014 || Child rights activism
|-
| [[Abhijit Banerjee]] || Economics || 2019 || Experimental approach to poverty
|}

== Women Pioneers of India ==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Name !! Achievement !! Notes
|-
| Anandi Gopal Rao Joshi || First female doctor of India || —
|-
| [[Anna Chandy]] || First woman High Court judge || Kerala High Court
|-
| Anna Rajam Malhotra || First woman IAS officer of India || —
|-
| [[Indira Gandhi]] || First female Prime Minister of India || 1966–1977 and 1980–1984; Bharat Ratna 1971
|-
| [[Pratibha Patil]] || First female President of India || 2007–2012
|-
| [[Sarojini Naidu]] || First Indian female President of INC (1925) || Also first woman Governor (U.P.)
|-
| [[Sucheta Kriplani]] || First female CM of India (U.P.) || 1963–1967
|-
| [[Bachendri Pal]] || First Indian woman to summit Everest || —
|-
| Rani Rampaul || First woman to win Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna || —
|-
| Nalini Bala Devi || First woman Padma Shri from Assam || Poet; Sahitya Akademi Award 1968
|-
| Kanaklata Barua || Martyr; shot at age 15 during Quit India Movement || At Gohpur, Assam
|-
| Tileswari Barua || Joined 1942 Quit India Movement; shot dead at age 12 || Father: Bhabhakanta Barua
|-
| [[Santosh Yadav]] || First woman to climb Everest twice || —
|}

== Bharat Ratna Women Awardees ==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Name !! Year !! Known For
|-
| [[Indira Gandhi]] || 1971 || First female PM; Indo-Pakistani War 1971
|-
| [[Mother Teresa]] || 1980 || Founded Missionaries of Charity; Nobel Peace Prize
|-
| [[Aruna Asaf Ali]] || 1997 || Active in Quit India Movement
|-
| [[M. S. Subbulakshmi]] || 1998 || Renowned Carnatic vocalist
|-
| [[Lata Mangeshkar]] || 2001 || Iconic playback singer
|}

== Everest Summiteers ==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Name !! Distinction
|-
| [[Edmund Hillary]] and [[Tenzing Norgay]] || First people to reach the summit of Mount Everest (8,848 m)
|-
| Lt. Col. Avtar S. Cheema and Nawang Gombu Sherpa || First Indians to ascend Mount Everest
|-
| [[Bachendri Pal]] || First Indian woman to summit Mount Everest
|-
| [[Junko Tabei]] || First woman in the world to summit Mount Everest
|-
| [[Santosh Yadav]] || First woman to climb Mount Everest twice
|}

== Arts and Music ==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Name !! Instrument / Art Form !! Notes
|-
| [[Bismillah Khan]] || [[Shehnai]] || Bharat Ratna 2001; played at Red Fort on Independence Day 1947
|-
| [[Ravi Shankar (musician)|Ravi Shankar]] || [[Sitar]] || Bharat Ratna 1999
|-
| [[N. Rajam]] || Violin || Veteran classical musician
|-
| Asad Ali Khan || Rudra Veena || —
|-
| Shakoor Khan / Pandit Ram Narayan || Sarangi || —
|-
| Kellu Chandra Mohapatra || Odissi dance || First Odissi dancer to receive Padma Vibhushan
|-
| Sruti Bandopadhay || Manipuri dance || Sangeet Natak Akademi Award 2020
|-
| Guru Bipin Singh || Manipuri dance || Veteran
|-
| Indira PP Bora || Sattriya dance || First Sattriya female dancer to receive Padma Shri (2020)
|-
| [[Yamini Krishnamurthy]] || Bharatanatyam / Kuchipudi || —
|}

== Notable Assamese Personalities ==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Name !! Known For
|-
| [[Jyoti Prasad Agarwal]] || Directed first Assamese film ''Joymoti'' (1935)
|-
| Jahnu Barua || Directed first national award-winning film from Assam (1988)
|-
| Lovlina Borgohain || First athlete to win a medal at Summer Olympics from Assam
|-
| Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya || First Assamese writer to win the Jnanpith Award
|-
| Purnima Devi Barman || Whitley Award (AKA Green Oscar)
|-
| Rima Das || Directed ''Village Rockstar'' (2017)
|-
| Binoy Kumar Saikia || Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology 2021
|-
| Rudra Barua (Luit Konawar) || Musician, Singer; Prince of Brahmaputra
|-
| Dev Kanta Barua || First Assamese President of INC; Governor of Bihar (1975–1977)
|}

== Science and Space ==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Name !! Achievement
|-
| [[Albert Einstein]] || Nobel Prize 1921 for Photoelectric Effect
|-
| [[Yuri Gagarin]] || First man in space
|-
| William Bradford Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain || Joint Nobel Prize in Physics 1956 for discovery of transistor effect
|-
| [[Edwin Hubble]] || Discovered the concept of the Expanding Universe
|-
| [[Fred Hoyle]] || Proposed the concept of Steady State of the Universe
|}

== Man Booker Prize – Indian Winners ==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Author !! Title !! Year
|-
| [[V. S. Naipaul]] || ''In a Free State'' || 1971
|-
| [[Salman Rushdie]] || ''Midnight's Children'' || 1981
|-
| [[Arundhati Roy]] || ''The God of Small Things'' || 1997
|-
| [[Kiran Desai]] || ''The Inheritance of Loss'' || 2006
|-
| [[Aravind Adiga]] || ''The White Tiger'' || 2008
|}

== See also ==
* [[Bharat Ratna]]
* [[Padma awards]]
* [[Indian Nobel laureates]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Indian personalities]]
[[Category:Indian Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:Assamese people]]
[[Category:Women in India]]