List of people from West Bengal
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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.
LiteratureEdit
Major figuresEdit
- Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay
- Manik Bandopadhyay
- Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay
- Rajshekhar Basu
- Shibram Chakraborty
- Amiya Chakravarty
- Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay
- Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay
- Pramatha Chaudhuri
- Mahasweta Devi
- Michael Madhusudan Dutt
- Sudhindranath Dutta
- Kazi Nazrul Islam
- Annada Shankar Ray
- Satyajit Ray
- Narayan Sanyal
- Rabindranath Tagore
Children's story writersEdit
Medieval Bengal literary sceneEdit
Other authors from early modern periodEdit
Prominent foreign-language authors from BengalEdit
Other authors from early/mid-twentieth century and some contemporary authorsEdit
- Jatindramohan Bagchi
- Syed Kawsar Jamal
- Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay
- Subimal Basak
- Sukanta Bhattacharya
- Nachiketa Chakraborty
- Nirendranath Chakravarty
- Shibram Chakraborty
- Sandipan Chattopadhyay
- Sanjib Chattopadhyay
- Shakti Chattopadhyay
- Malay Roy Choudhury
- Salil Chowdhury
- Alokeranjan Dasgupta
- Buddhadeb Dasgupta
- Mahasweta Devi
- Anil Kumar Gain
- Kaberi Gayen
- Narayan Gangopadhyay
- Joy Goswami
- Prabir Ghosh
- Santosh Kumar Ghosh
- Shankha Ghosh
- Subodh Ghosh
- Buddhadeb Guha
- Baby Halder
- Bimal Kar
- Binoy Majumdar
- Samaresh Majumdar
- Arun Mitra
- Bimal Mitra
- Narendranath Mitra
- Bibhutibhushan Mukhopadhyay
- Subhash Mukhopadhyay
- Kumud Ranjan Mullick
- Moti Nandi
- Purnendu Pattrea
- Dilipkumar Roy
- Samir Roychoudhury
- Narayan Sanyal
- Subodh Sarkar
- Jatindranath Sengupta
- Mallika Sengupta
- Ekram Ali
- Shankar
- Srijato
JournalistsEdit
Language/linguistics, anthropology, history, and other social sciencesEdit
- 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
- Souhardya De, Orientalist and Bal Puraskar recipient 2021
- Ranajit Guha, subaltern theorist
- Sumit Sarkar, historian
- Kirti Narayan Chaudhuri, historian
- Gayatri Spivak, feminist
- Vina Mazumdar, women's studies academic
- Hem Chandra Raychaudhuri, Indian historian
Scholars and polymathsEdit
- Radhakanta Deb, linguist
- Aghore Nath Gupta, scholar of Buddhism
- Asima Chatterjee, scholar of chemistry
- Anil Kumar Gain, scholar, mathematician
- Ramendra Sundar Tribedi, scientist
- Amlan Datta, economist, Vice Chancellor of Visva Bharati
- Prithwindra Mukherjee, scholar of Indian history, philosophy, religion and culture
- Suniti Kumar Chatterji, linguist
EducationEdit
PioneersEdit
- Girish Chandra Bose
- Begum Rokeya
- Anil Kumar Gain
- Ashutosh Mukherjee
- Satish Chandra Mukherjee
- Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
Post-independenceEdit
- Sudhi Ranjan Das, Chief Justice of India, Vice-chancellor of Visva Bharati
OthersEdit
TeachersEdit
- Susobhan Sarkar, History, Presidency College
- Katyayanidas Bhattacharya, Philosophy, Presidency College
- K. C. Nag, Mathematics, Mitra institution
- Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, Philosophy, University of Calcutta
- Barun De, History, Presidency College
PhilosophyEdit
Pre-modern periodEdit
- 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 ageEdit
- Keshab Chandra Sen born in Kolkata
- Rabindranath Tagore born in Kolkata
- Swami Vivekananda born in Kolkata
- 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
- Krishna Chandra Bhattacharya born in Serampore in Howrah district
- Bimal Krishna Matilal, born in Jaynagar in South 24 Parganas district
- Amartya Sen, born in Shantiniketan in Birbhum District
- Chandril Bhattacharya, born in kolkata
ScienceEdit
- Radhanath Sikdar
- Satyendra Nath Bose
- Upendranath Brahmachari
- P.C. Mahalanobis
- Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri
- Ashoke Sen, physics
- Jagadish Chandra Bose, polymath- physicist, biologist, botanist, archaeologist
- Somnath Bharadwaj, cosmology
- Manilal Bhaumik
- Anil Kumar Gain, mathematics
- Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay, computer scientist
- Subhash Mukhopadhyay, physician
- Sisir Kumar Mitra
- Ashesh Prosad Mitra
- Subrata Roy, plasma physics
- Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate, economist, Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences
- Ram Brahma Sanyal, zoology
- Partha Ghose
- Ujjwal Maulik, computer scientist
- Sankar Ghosh
Religious reformationEdit
Pre-modern periodEdit
The Brahmo SamajEdit
Hindu revival movementEdit
Mid-twentieth-century religious figuresEdit
Social reformation and social workEdit
Major figuresEdit
- Ram Mohan Roy
- Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
- Keshab Chandra Sen
- Swami Vivekananda
- Protap Chunder Mozoomdar
- Anil Kumar Gain
- Nibaran Chandra Mukherjee
- Umesh Chandra Dutta
- Sri Sri Harichand Thakur
- Satish Chandra Mukherjee
- Dwarkanath Ganguly
DeroziansEdit
- Ramtanu Lahiri
- Radhanath Sikdar
- Rajnarayan Basu
- Sib Chandra Deb
- Peary Chand Mitra
- Rasik Krishna Mallick
- Krishna Mohan Banerjee
- Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee
- Madhusudan Dutta
Women's rightsEdit
MilitaryEdit
- 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
ArtEdit
Early modern periodEdit
- Abanindranath Tagore
- Gaganendranath Tagore
- Nandalal Bose
- Kalipada Ghoshal
- Mukul Dey
- Jamini Roy
- Ramkinkar Baij
- Binode Bihari Mukherjee
- Sailoz Mookherjea
From mid-twentieth centuryEdit
- Anil Karanjai
- Bikash Bhattacharjee
- Chintamani Kar
- Ganesh Pyne
- Hemen Majumdar
- Jahar Dasgupta
- Jogen Chowdhury
- Paresh Maity
- Paritosh Sen
- Samir Mondal
- Somenath Hore
Film and photographyEdit
- Dulal Dutta
- Subrata Mitra, cinematographer
- Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri,
- Satyajit Roy, director, photographer, and digital artist
MusicEdit
ComposersEdit
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
- Abanindra Mohon Maitra. Sarod
Performers (vocal)Edit
ClassicalEdit
- Gopeshwar Banerjee
- Naina Devi
- Ajoy Chakrabarty, vocal
- Bishnupur Gharana
- Tarapada Chakraborty
- Kaushiki Chakraborty
Songs of Tagore and his contemporariesEdit
ModernEdit
- K. C. Dey
- Sachin Dev Burman
- Pankaj Kumar Mullick
- Kanan Devi
- Hemanta Mukherjee
- Sandhya Mukhopadhyay
- Amit Kumar
- Abhijeet Bhattacharya
- Bappi Lahiri
- Babul Supriyo
- Indrani Sen
- R D Burman
- Kishore Kumar
- Kumar Sanu
- Madhushree
- Kabir Suman
- Manna Dey
- Manabendra Mukherjee
- Mohammed Aziz
- Monali Thakur
- Nachiketa Chakraborty
- Ruma Guha Thakurta
- Shaan
- Silajit Majumder
- Shyamal Mitra
- Shreya Ghoshal
- Antara Chowdhury
- Srikanta Acharya
- Anjan Dutt
- Arijit Singh
- Rupam Islam
- Anupam Roy
Nazrul geetiEdit
MoviesEdit
DirectorsEdit
- Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury
- Anjan Dutt
- Anurag Basu
- Aparna Sen
- Basu Bhattacharya
- Basu Chatterjee
- Bimal Roy
- Buddhadeb Dasgupta
- Chidananda Dasgupta
- Debaki Bose
- Goutam Ghose
- Hrishikesh Mukherjee
- Mrinal Sen
- Pritish Chakraborty
- Raj Chakraborty
- Rituparno Ghosh
- Ritwik Ghatak
- Satyajit Ray
- Shiboprosad Mukherjee
- Shoojit Sircar
- Srijit Mukherji
- Sujit Mondal
- Sujoy Ghosh
- Suman Mukhopadhyay
- Tapan Sinha
- Tarun Majumdar
ActorsEdit
- Abhishek Chatterjee
- Abir Chatterjee
- Anil Chatterjee
- Anirban Bhattacharya
- Ankush Hazra
- Apurva Agnihotri
- Arun Mukherjee
- Asit Sen
- Bhanu Bandopadhyay
- Biswajit Chakraborty
- Chhabi Biswas
- Chinmoy Roy
- Chiranjeet Chakraborty
- Dev
- Dhritiman Chatterjee
- Harindranath Chattopadhyay
- Hiran Chatterjee
- Jeet
- Jisshu Sengupta
- Joy Kumar Mukherjee
- Kali Banerjee
- Kamal Mitra
- Keshto Mukherjee
- Lokesh
- Mir Afsar Ali
- Mithun Chakraborty
- Pahari Sanyal
- Parambrata Chatterjee
- Pradeep Kumar
- Pritish Chakraborty
- Priyanshu
- Prosenjit Chatterjee
- Rabi Ghosh
- Rahul Roy
- Ranjit Mallick
- Saswata Chatterjee
- Soumitra Chatterjee
- Subhendu Chatterjee
- Tapas Paul
- Tathagata Mukherjee
- Tulsi Chakraborty
- Utpal Datta
- Uttam Kumar
- Victor Banerjee
ActressesEdit
- Anita Guha
- Aparna Sen
- Arundhati Devi
- Chhaya Devi
- Debashree Roy
- Devika Rani
- Indrani Haldar
- Joya Ahsan
- June Malia
- Kananbala
- Kanan Devi
- Koel Mullick
- Madhabi Mukherjee
- Mala Sinha
- Mamata Shankar
- Mimi Chakraborty
- Nusrat Jahan
- Moon Moon Sen
- Moushmi Chatterji
- Pratyusha Banerjee
- Raakhee
- Rachna Banerjee
- Raima Sen
- Reema Sen
- Rimi Sen
- Rituparna Sengupta
- Riya Sen
- Ruma Guha Thakurta
- Sabitri Chatterjee
- Sharmila Tagore
- Srabanti Chatterjee
- Subhashree Ganguly
- Suchitra Sen
- Sumita Sanyal
- Supriya Devi
- Sushmita Sen
- Varsha Ashwathi
DanceEdit
DoctorsEdit
Drama/theatreEdit
MagiciansEdit
Politicians and revolutionariesEdit
Pre-modernEdit
Colonial periodEdit
- Satyendranath Tagore
- Romesh Chunder Dutt
- Lord Satyendra Prasanna Sinha
- Nripendra Narayan, philanthropist and ruler of Cooch Behar
- Durjan Singh
- Rani Shiromoni
Indian freedom fightersEdit
Early figuresEdit
Twentieth centuryEdit
- Bipin Chandra Pal
- Sri Aurobindo
- Barindra Kumar Ghosh
- Khudiram Bose
- Bagha Jatin
- Chittaranjan Das
- Rash Behari Bose
- Sarat Chandra Bose
- Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose
- Jatindra Nath Das
- Bina Das
- Matangini Hazra
- B. C. Roy
- Titumir
- Triguna Sen
- Panchanan Chakraborty
- Syama Prasad Mookerjee
- Basanta Kumar Biswas
- Ambika Chakrobarty
- Bipin Behari Ganguli
- Jogesh Chandra Chattopadhyay
- Narendra Mohan Sen
- Birendranath Sasmal
- Jnananjan Niyogi
- Sudhamoy Pramanick
- Saroj Mukherjee
- Renuka Ray
- Shyama Prasad Mukherjee
- Hemchandra Kanungo
- Kanailal Bhattacharyya
- Kanailal Bhattacharjee
PoliticiansEdit
- Ashok Mitra
- Ajit Kumar Panja
- A. B. A. Ghani Khan Choudhury
- Atulya Ghosh
- Bidhan Chandra Roy
- Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
- Derek O'Brien
- Dev
- Firhad Hakim
- Hashim Abdul Halim
- Prafulla Chandra Sen
- Mamata Banerjee
- Mukul Roy
- Siddhartha Shankar Ray
- Subrata Mukherjee
- Suvendu Adhikari
- Sisir Adhikari
- Saugata Roy
- Tanmoy Bhattacharya
- Tathagata Roy
- Bir Singh Mahato
- Kamal Guha
- Tathagata Roy
- Abha Maiti
- Pratap Chandra Chunder
- Pranab Mukherjee
- Dilip Ghosh
- Jyoti Basu
- Somnath Chatterjee
- Babul Supriyo
- Amit Mitra
- Partha Chatterjee
- Kanailal Bhattacharyya
- Kedarnath Bhattacharya
- Sovandeb Chattopadhyay
- Narahari Mahato
- Mriganko Mahato
- Mohammed Salim
- Sabina Yeasmin
OthersEdit
Donation and social welfareEdit
Old Calcutta / Bengal legendsEdit
- Raja Nabakrishna Deb
- Raja Radhakanta Deb, brought out two Sanskrit dictionaries used by Westerners as reference
- Gouri Sen
- Hari Ghosh
- Banamali Sarkar
- Gobindram Mitter
- Prasanna Coomar Tagore
- Ramanath Tagore
- Anil Kumar Gain
- Mutty Lal Seal
- Bijoy Chand Mahtab
- Uday Chand Mahtab
- Mother Teresa
SportsEdit
ChessEdit
- Dibyendu Barua, Grandmaster
- Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Grandmaster
- Nisha Mohota, first woman Grandmaster of West Bengal
CricketEdit
- Arun Lal
- Benu Dasgupta
- Jhulan Goswami
- Pankaj Roy
- Priyanka Roy
- Rumeli Dhar
- Ambar Roy
- Saba Karim
- Sourav Ganguly
- Ashok Dinda
- Manoj Tiwary
- Wriddhiman Saha
- Shreevats Goswami
FootballEdit
- P. K. Banerjee
- Samar Banerjee
- Shibdas Bhaduri
- Subrata Bhattacharya
- Gostho Pal
- Krishanu Dey
- Sailen Manna
- Chuni Goswami
- Gautam Sarkar
Lawn tennisEdit
- Leander Paes, noted lawn tennis player of India
- Jaidip Mukerjea
SquashEdit
- Saurav Ghosal, currently highest ranked Indian player
- Ritwik Bhattacharya, currently second highest ranked Indian player
SwimmingEdit
- 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 tennisEdit
- 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
OthersEdit
- Chhanda Gain, mountaineering, first Bengali woman to climb Mount Everest
- Jyotirmoyee Sikdar, athletics, double gold medallist at Bangkok Asiad, 1996
- Mohammad Ali Qamar, boxing, Commonwealth games gold medalist
- Arjun Atwal, golfer
- Anirban Lahiri, Indian golfer
- Balaram Bose, philanthropist
- Mohammed Ali Qamar, Indian boxer, 2002 Commonwealth Games, gold medal
- Sukhen Dey, Indian weightlifter; 2014 Commonwealth Games, gold medal; 2010 Commonwealth Games, gold medal
- Dipa Karmakar, Indian artistic gymnast; 2014 Commonwealth Games, bronze medal; 2010 Commonwealth Games participant
- Joydeep Karmakar, Indian shooter, 2012 Summer Olympics; qualified to represent India in men's 50m rifle prone event; 2014 Commonwealth Games participant
Industry/businessEdit
- Jagat Seth
- Dwarakanath Tagore
- Diptendu Pramanick
- Rajen Mookerjee
- Biren Mookerjee
- S. K. Burman
- Ghanshyam Das Birla
- Jugal Kishore Birla
- Ram Nath Goenka
- Madhav Prasad Birla
- Rajat Kumar Gupta
- Purnendu Chatterjee
- Sadhan Dutt
- Subir Raha
- Sumantra Ghoshal
- Pritish Chakraborty
- Alamohan Das
- Dilip Shanghvi
- Amar Bose
Other areasEdit
- Ashis Nandy, author, political psychologist
- Subroto Mukerjee
- Shankar Roychowdhury
- William Tolly
- P. C. Sorcar, Jr., magician from Kolkata
- Arup Raha
- Narayan Debnath