Famous people from West Bengal

During the independence movement, Bengal took a leading and especially militant role. Subhash Chandra Bose, who was belovedly called “Netaji”, is still considered an exemplar of courage for Indian youth. S. N. Bose, FRS 1958, from whom the boson particle and Bose-Einstein theory get their names, was also a Bengali. Rabindranath Tagore also won the Nobel Prize in Literature for “Gitanjali” in 1913.

Amartya Sen, who won Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998 is a Bengali. Other scientists of repute from Bengal have been Jagadish Chandra Bose (FRS 1920), M. N. Saha (FRS 1927), P.C. Mahalanobis (FRS, 1945), S. K. Mitra (FRS, 1958) and Ashesh Prosad Mitra (FRS 1988), all Fellows of the Royal Society.

Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy was a nationalist teacher (Professor of Chemistry and the Founder of Bengal Chemicals). The noted educationist Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee was known as the Tiger of Bengal. Pundit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was a great reformist of Bengal. Incidentally, Raja Ram Mohan Roy is considered to be the First Modern Man of India.

In politics, Shri Ashoke Kumar Sen was among the first cabinet ministers of India, most remembered for being the Minister of Law and Justice. From independence to 1996, he was a member of parliament, holding the seat for a record number of years which is yet to be broken.

In the religious realm, Bengal gave birth to great Hindu sages and saints like Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (a 15th century major Vaishnava leader), Ramprasad Sen (a famous Kali Bhakta and poet) and Ramakrishna Paramhansa; others include Swami Vivekananda (the most renowned of Shri Ramakrishna’s disciples), Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, Shrii Shrii Anandamurti, founder of the socio-spiritual organisation Ananda Marga and A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder-acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).

P. C. Sorcar was a famous magician. Famous athletes from this state include the cricketer and former Indian Cricket Captain, Sourav Ganguly, tennis star Leander Paes, athlete Jyotirmoyee Sikdar. Former Cricketer Pankaj Roy had also been the skipper of the Indian cricket team.