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Famous People of India
Kal Penn
1977- Present
Former director of the White House office of Public Engagement and Actor known for the Harold and Kumar movies.
Vice President Kamala Harris
1964-Present
In November 2020, Kamala Harris became the first woman, the first Black American, and first Asian American to be elected vice president of the United States. She represented California as a US senator from 2017 to 2021, and mounted her own presidential campaign before becoming Joe Biden's running mate in 2020. Harris previously served as the thirty-second attorney general of California from 2011 to 2017, becoming known for her smart-on-crime approach. She was the first woman, first South Asian American, and first African American to hold the office of attorney general in California’s history as well as the first Indian American attorney general in the United States.
Mohandas Gandhi
1869- 1948
Leadership of Indian independence movement, philosophy of Satyagraha, Ahimsa or nonviolence. Gandhi is considered the greatest Indian since the Buddha. His unifying ability and his unusual methods of nonviolent resistance contributed materially to the liberation of India in 1947. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the preeminent leader of Indian independence movement in British-ruled India. Employing nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.
Sarojini Naidu
1879- 1949
First governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh Influential poets of the last two centuries include the Bengalis Iswar Chandra Gupta (1812–59) and Sarojini Naidu (1879–1949), known as "the nightingale of India," a close associate of Gandhi and a political leader in her own right.Sarojini Naidu also known by the sobriquet as The Nightingale of India, was an Indian independence activist and poet. Naidu served as the first governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh from 1947 to 1949; the first woman to become the governor of an Indian state. She was the second woman to become the president of the Indian National Congress in 1925 and the first Indian woman to do so.
Mother Teresa
1910- 1997
Working with the poor, Mother Teresa (Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, 1910–97, in what is now Yugoslavia) won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her 30 years of work among Calcutta's poor. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, MC, commonly known as Mother Teresa was a Roman Catholic religious sister and missionary who lived most of her life in India. She was born in today's Macedonia, with her family being of Albanian descent originating in Kosovo. Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation, which in 2012 consisted of over 4,500 sisters and is active in 133 countries. They run hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis; soup kitchens; dispensaries and mobile clinics; children's and family counselling programmes; orphanages; and schools. Members must adhere to the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience as well as a fourth vow, to give "wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor". Mother Teresa was the recipient of numerous honours including the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. In 2003, she was beatified as "Blessed Teresa of Calcutta". A second miracle credited to her intercession is required before she can be recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church. A controversial figure both during her life and after her death, Mother Teresa was widely admired by many for her charitable works, but also widely criticized, particularly for her efforts opposing contraception and for substandard conditions in the hospices for which she was responsible.
Abhinav Bindra
1982 - Present
Abhinav Bindra, (born September 28, 1982, Dehradun, India), Indian rifle shooter and winner of the men’s 10-metre air rifle competition at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. He is India’s first-ever individual Olympic gold medalist.
Kalpana Chawla
1962- 2003
Indian-born scientist and astronaut. Astronaut and engineer Kalpana Chawla was an aerospace engineering researcher, flight instructor, and astronaut. After conducting computational fluid dynamics research for Overset Methods, Inc., she became the first Indian-born woman in space in 1997. She died in the space shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003.
Kapil Dev
1959 - Present
Kapil Dev, in full Kapil Dev Ramlal Nikhanj, (born January 6, 1959, Chandigarh, India), Indian cricketer and the greatest pace bowler in his country’s history. He is the only cricketer to have scored over 5,000 runs and taken more than 400 wickets in Test (international match) cricket.
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan
1973 - Present
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, née Aishwarya Rai, (born November 1, 1973, Mangalore, Karnataka state, India), Indian actress whose classic beauty made her one of Bollywood’s premier stars. She was crowned Miss World 1994.
M Night Shyamalan
1970- Present
Film Director and Writer known for the Sixth Sense.
Mindy Kalling
1979- Present
American actress, writer, and comedian, known for her offbeat humour, which was on display in such projects as the television show The Mindy Project (2012–17).
Priyanka Chopra Jonas
1982 - Present
Priyanka Chopra Jonas, née Priyanka Chopra, (born July 18, 1982, Jamshedpur, Bihar [now in Jharkhand], India), Indian actor, model, and singer who rose to international stardom after she was crowned Miss World in 2000.
Shah Rukh Khan
1965 - Present
Shah Rukh Khan, Shah Rukh also spelled Shahrukh, (born November 2, 1965, Delhi, India), Indian actor known for his powerful screen presence. He is one of the most sought-after Bollywood actors, and the co-owner of the Knight Riders professional cricket franhise teams.
Salman Rushdie
1947- Present
British Indian satirist and magical realist novelist. Ahmed Salman Rushdie may be the most famous novelist of the Indian diaspora, though for some unfortunate reasons. Born into an affluent Muslim family in India, Rushdie began his education in 1954 at Bombay’s Cathedral School. His family sent him to Rugby, one of England’s finest boys’ schools, when he was thirteen. In 1964, his family moved to Karachi, Pakistan, where Rushdie spent his school vacations. From 1965 to 1968, he attended King’s College at Cambridge University, where he read history with an emphasis on Islamic religion and culture. After graduation, he returned to Karachi and worked briefly for Pakistani television. Within a year he had returned to England because of political difficulties, including conflict over his television production of Edward Albee’s play The Zoo Story, which had been censored due to the play’s references to pork.
Ramakrishna MathSwami Vivekananda
1863- 1902
Founder of Ramakrishna Mission, Ramakrishna MathSwami Vivekananda (1863–1902), founder of the nonsectarian Ramakrishna Mission and a great traveler both in India and abroad, did much to explain the Hindu philosophy to the world and to India as well.Swami Vivekananda born Narendra Nath Datta, was an Indian Hindu monk and chief disciple of the 19th-century saint Ramakrishna. He was a key figure in the introduction of the Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the Western world and is credited with raising interfaith awareness, bringing Hinduism to the status of a major world religion during the late 19th century. He was a major force in the revival of Hinduism in India, and contributed to the concept of nationalism in colonial India. Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission. He is perhaps best known for his speech which began, "Sisters and brothers of America ...," in which he introduced Hinduism at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago in 1893. Born into an aristocratic Bengali family of Calcutta, Vivekananda was inclined towards spirituality. He was influenced by his guru, Ramakrishna, from whom he learnt that all living beings were an embodiment of the divine self; therefore, service to God could be rendered by service to mankind. After Ramakrishna's death, Vivekananda toured the Indian subcontinent extensively and acquired first-hand knowledge of the conditions prevailing in British India. He later travelled to the United States, representing India at the 1893 Parliament of the World Religions. Vivekananda conducted hundreds of public and private lectures and classes, disseminating tenets of Hindu philosophy in the United States, England and Europe. In India, Vivekananda is regarded as a patriotic saint and his birthday is celebrated there as National Youth Day.
