List of people from West Bengal

This is a list of notable people from West Bengal, India. This list does not include the significant number of prominent East Bengali refugees from East Bengal who settled in West Bengal after the partition of the Indian sub-continent in 1947.

Literature[edit]

Major figures[edit]

Children's story writers[edit]

Medieval Bengal literary scene[edit]

Other authors from early modern period[edit]

Prominent foreign-language authors from Bengal[edit]

Other authors from early/mid-twentieth century and some contemporary authors[edit]

Journalists[edit]

Language/linguistics, anthropology, history, and other social sciences[edit]

Raja Ram Mohan Roy, first Bengali prose writer
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, creator of Standard Bengali prose (sadhu bhasha)
Bhudev Mukhopadhyay, earliest educationist
Anil Kumar Gain, fellow of the Royal Society
Rajendralal Mitra, first Indian to work with Indologists
Haraprasad Shastri, historian of Bengali language and culture
Dinesh Chandra Sen, historian of Bengali literature and folklorist
Pramatha Chaudhuri, creator of modern Bengali prose (chalit bhasha) along with Tagore
Sir Jadunath Sarkar, historian
Rajsekhar Bose, major contributor for scientific terms in Bengali and lexicographer
Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, historian
Ramesh Chandra Dutta, historian
Girindrasekhar Bose, first non-European correspondent of Freud
Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, linguist
Harinath De, linguist
Biraja Sankar Guha, anthropologist
Sukumar Sen, linguist
Susobhan Sarkar, historian
Nirmal Kumar Bose, anthropologist, associate of Gandhi
Niharranjan Ray, historian
Dineshchandra Sircar, epigraphist
Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, social philosopher
Surajit Chandra Sinha, anthropologist
Haricharan Bandopadhayaya, lexicographer
Tapan Raychaudhuri, professor of history at Oxford University
Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize awardee in Economics
Ranajit Guha, subaltern theorist
Sumit Sarkar, historian
Kirti Narayan Chaudhuri, historian
Maniklal Sinha, novelist, historian and archaeologist of west Rarh
Gayatri Spivak, feminist
Vina Mazumdar, women's studies academic
Hem Chandra Raychaudhuri, Indian historian

Scholars and polymaths[edit]

Asima Chatterjee, scholar of chemistry
Suniti Kumar Chatterji, linguist
Amlan Datta, economist, Vice Chancellor of Visva Bharati
Radhakanta Deb, linguist
Anil Kumar Gain, scholar, mathematician
Prithwindra Mukherjee, scholar of Indian history, philosophy, religion and culture
Ramendra Sundar Tribedi, scientist

Education[edit]

Pioneers[edit]

Post-independence[edit]

Sudhi Ranjan Das, Chief Justice of India, Vice-chancellor of Visva Bharati

Modern times[edit]

Shuddhaanandaa Brahmachari

Others[edit]

Mahesh Chandra Nyayratna Bhattacharyya

Teachers[edit]

Katyayanidas Bhattacharya, philosophy, Presidency College
Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, philosophy, University of Calcutta
Barun De, history, Presidency College
K. C. Nag, mathematics, Mitra institution
Susobhan Sarkar, history, Presidency College
Babar Ali, the world's youngest headmaster, Headmaster & Founder of Ananda Siksha Niketan

Philosophy[edit]

Pre-modern period[edit]

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (Achintya Bhedabheda Vedanta) born in Nabadwip of Nadia district to parents who hailed from Sylhet in present day Bangladesh
Madhusudana Saraswati (Advaita Vedanta), born in Kotalipara, Gopalganj District in present day Bangladesh & studied at Nabadwip in Nadia district
Raghunatha Siromani (Navya Nyaya) from Nabadwip

Modern age[edit]

Balaram Hari, born in Nadia
Krishna Chandra Bhattacharya born in Serampore in Howrah district
Anukulchandra Chakravarty born in Pabna district in present day Bangladesh, worked & preached in Kolkata. After the Partition of India in 1947, he relocated to Deoghar
Surendranath Dasgupta, born in Kusthia of present day Bangladesh which was then a part of Nadia before Partition of India, studied in Kolkata
Bimal Krishna Matilal, born in Jaynagar Majilpur in South 24 Parganas district
Amartya Sen, born in Shantiniketan in Birbhum District
Keshab Chandra Sen born in Kolkata
Rabindranath Tagore born in Kolkata
Swami Vivekananda, born in Kolkata
Sri Aurobindo
Abu Sayeed Ayyub, Born in Kolkata.

Early / Mid twenty century[edit]

Chandril Bhattacharya, born in Kolkata.
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, born in Kolkata.
Shuddhaanandaa Brahmachari, born in Kolkata.
Sibnarayan Ray, born in kolkata.
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya, born in kolkata.

Science[edit]

Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay, computer scientist
Somnath Bharadwaj, cosmology
Avik Bhattacharya, remote sensing
Santanu Bhattacharya, chemistry
Manilal Bhaumik
Satyendra Nath Bose
Upendranath Brahmachari
Bidyut Baran Chaudhuri, Computer scientist
Anil Kumar Gain, mathematics
Partha Ghose
Sankar Ghosh
P.C. Mahalanobis
Dwijesh Dutta Majumdar, Computer scientist
Ujjwal Maulik, computer scientist
Ashesh Prosad Mitra
Sisir Kumar Mitra
Subhash Mukhopadhyay, physician
Sankar Kumar Pal, Computer scientist
Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri
Anjali Roy, mycologist
Subrata Roy, plasma physics
Ram Brahma Sanyal, zoology
Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate, economist, Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences
Ashoke Sen, physics
Radhanath Sikdar

Religious scholars[edit]

Muslim[edit]

Jalaluddin Tabrizi (13th-century)
Gazi Pir (13th-century)
Pir Gorachand (13th-century)
Usman Serajuddin (1258–1357)
Alaul Haq (1301–1384)
Nur Qutb Alam (d. 1416)
Shah Mehr Ali (1808–1868)
Ubaidullah Al Ubaidi Suhrawardy (1832–1885)
Azangachhi Shaheb (1828–1932)
Mohammad Abu Bakr Siddique (1865–1943)
Abdullah al-Baqi (1886–1952)
Abbas Siddiqui (born 1987)

Pre-modern period[edit]

The Brahmo Samaj[edit]

Hindu revival movement[edit]

Mid-twentieth-century religious figures[edit]

Social reformation and social work[edit]

Major figures[edit]

Derozians[edit]

Women's rights[edit]

Military[edit]

Subhas Chandra Bose, founder, Indian National Army
General Jayanto Nath Chaudhuri, Indian Army Chief during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965
Admiral Adhar Kumar Chatterji, Indian Navy Chief between 1966 and 1970.
Air Commodore Sudhindra Kumar Majumdar (1927–2011), India's first military helicopter pilot
Air Marshal Subroto Mukherjee, former Head of Indian Air Force
Chief of the Air Staff Designate Arup Raha, 24th chief of Indian Air Force.
Indra Lal Roy, first Indian (pre Independence) flying ace
General Shankar Roychowdhury, former Indian Army Chief
Flight Lieutenant Suhas Biswas, recipient of Ashoka Chakra
Captain Man Bahadur Rai, recipient of Ashoka Chakra
Air Vice Marshal Madhavendra Banerji, recipient of Maha Vir Chakra

Art[edit]

Early modern period[edit]

From mid-twentieth century[edit]

Film and photography[edit]

Dulal Dutta
Subrata Mitra, cinematographer
Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri
Ajoy Kar, cinematographer, filmmaker, screenwriter
Hrishikesh Mukherjee,Indian film director, editor and writer.
Satyajit Roy, filmmaker, screenwriter, author, illustrator and music composer
Mrinal Sen, filmmaker, screenwriter, autho
Rituparno Ghosh, filmmaker
Tarun Majumdar, filmmaker, screenwriter, author, illustrator
Goutam Ghose, filmmaker, cinematographer, and music composer
Suman Ghosh (director), filmmaker, documentary filmmaker
Atiul islam, filmmaker, screenwriter.

Music[edit]

Composers[edit]

Performers (instrumental)[edit]

Allauddin Khan, sarod and multi-instrumentalist
Ali Akbar Khan, sarod
Annapurna Devi, surbahar
Buddhadeb Dasgupta, sarod
Manilal Nag, sitar
Nikhil Banerjee, sitar
Ravi Shankar, sitar
Radhika Mohan Maitra, Sarod and Mohanveena
Sankha Chatterjee, tabla
Shankar Ghosh, tabla
Pannalal Ghosh, flute
Jnan Prakash Ghosh, Harmonium and tabla

Performers (vocal)[edit]

Classical[edit]

Songs of Tagore and his contemporaries[edit]

Modern[edit]

Nazrul geeti[edit]

Bengali Folk Song[edit]

Movies[edit]

Directors[edit]

Actors[edit]

Actresses[edit]

Cinematographer[edit]

Editor[edit]

Screenplay Writer[edit]

Dance[edit]

Doctors[edit]

Modern Days[edit]

Shyama Prasad Mandal

Drama/theatre[edit]

Magicians[edit]

Politicians and revolutionaries[edit]

Pre-modern[edit]

Colonial period[edit]

Titumir
Alimuddin Ahmad
Satyendranath Tagore
Romesh Chunder Dutt
Lord Satyendra Prasanna Sinha
Nripendra Narayan, philanthropist and ruler of Cooch Behar
Kalim Sharafi

Indian freedom fighters[edit]

Early figures[edit]

Durjan Singh, leader of Chuar Rebellion
Rani Shiromani, queen of Karnagarh and leader of Chuar Rebellion
Surendranath Banerjee
Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee

Twentieth century[edit]

Politicians[edit]

Others[edit]

Abul Barkat

Donation and social welfare[edit]

Old Calcutta / Bengal legends[edit]

Raja Nabakrishna Deb
Raja Radhakanta Deb, published two Sanskrit dictionaries used by Westerners
Gobindram Mitter
Anil Kumar Gain
Mutty Lal Seal
Bijoy Chand Mahtab
Uday Chand Mahtab
Mother Teresa
Manindra Chandra Nandy, Maharaja of Cossimbazar

Sports[edit]

Chess[edit]

Dibyendu Barua, Grandmaster
Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Grandmaster
Nisha Mohota, first woman Grandmaster of West Bengal

Cricket[edit]

Football[edit]

Lawn tennis[edit]

Leander Paes, noted lawn tennis player of India
Jaidip Mukerjea

Squash[edit]

Saurav Ghosal, currently highest ranked Indian player
Ritwik Bhattacharya, currently second highest ranked Indian player

Bodybuilding[edit]

Manohar Aich, Mr. Universe, 1952
Monotosh Roy, Mr. Universe, 1951
Bishnu Charan Ghosh, Noted bodybuilder and hathayogi

Swimming[edit]

Arati Saha, first Asian woman to swim English Channel in 1959
Bula Choudhury, first Indian woman to swim the English Channel twice
Mihir Sen, first Indian to swim across the English Channel in 1958
Prasanta Karmakar, para swimmer, 2010 Commonwealth Games, bronze medal
Masudur Rahman Baidya, world's first physically handicapped swimmer to swim across the Strait of Gibraltar

Table tennis[edit]

Subhajit Saha, Commonwealth games gold medalist
Mouma Das, table tennis player
Poulomi Ghatak, table tennis player
Ankita Das, table tennis player, 2012 Summer Olympics; participant in women's singles event, 2014 Commonwealth Games; participant in women's doubles even
Soumyajit Ghosh, table tennis player; as of January 2013, his rank is 1st in India and 68th in Asia; 2014 Commonwealth Games, Participant in men's doubles event.

Weightlifting[edit]

Anil Mondal, Indian weightlifter.competed at the 1972 Summer Olympics and the 1976 Summer Olympics, the Arjuna Award in the year (1972).
Sukhen Dey, Indian weightlifter; 2014 Commonwealth Games, gold medal; 2010 Commonwealth Games, gold medal

Others[edit]

Arjun Atwal, golfer
Anirban Lahiri, Indian golfer
Balaram Bose, philanthropist
Chhanda Gain, mountaineering, first Bengali woman to climb Mount Everest
Dipa Karmakar, Indian artistic gymnast; 2014 Commonwealth Games, bronze medal; 2010 Commonwealth Games participant
Jyotirmoyee Sikdar, athletics, double gold medallist at Bangkok Asiad, 1996
Joydeep Karmakar, Indian shooter, 2012 Summer Olympics; qualified to represent India in men's 50m rifle prone event; 2014 Commonwealth Games participant
Mohammad Ali Qamar, boxing, Commonwealth games gold medalist
Mohammed Ali Qamar, Indian boxer, 2002 Commonwealth Games, gold medal

Industry/business[edit]

Other areas[edit]

Ashis Nandy, author, political psychologist
Subroto Mukerjee
Shankar Roychowdhury
William Tolly
P. C. Sorcar, Jr., magician from Kolkata
Arup Raha
Narayan Debnath
Joyita Mondal, Social Worker