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#biography

123 articles

Khashaba Jadhav Won Wrestling Bronze at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, Independent India's First Individual Olympic Medal, Four Years After Finishing Sixth in London

Nana Patekar Won Three National Film Awards, Directed Prahaar and Co-Founded the Naam Foundation for Drought-Hit Farmers in Maharashtra

A. R. Rahman Won a National Film Award for Roja, Then a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, Two Oscars and Two Grammys for Slumdog Millionaire

Amitabh Bachchan Debuted in 1969 and Has Since Won Four National Awards for Best Actor, the Padma Vibhushan and the 50th Dadasaheb Phalke Award

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

Tipu Sultan's Rocket Corps as British Officers Recorded It in 1780, 1792 and 1799, and the Argument Over the Man Who Led It

Dadasaheb Phalke Released India's First Full-Length Feature Film, Raja Harishchandra, in Bombay on 3 May 1913, and the 72nd National Film Awards Drew 400 Feature Films in 34 Languages

In 19 Months as Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri Led India Through the 1965 War, Backed the Dairy Board That Spread Amul's Model Across the Country, and Gave It Jai Jawan Jai Kisan

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

Begum Hazrat Mahal Answered Queen Victoria's 1858 Pardon With a Five-Point Proclamation of Her Own and Died in Nepal Without Accepting It

Science & Space

Jagadish Chandra Bose Rang a Bell and Fired Gunpowder by Radio Waves in Calcutta in 1895, Took a US Patent on a Crystal Detector in 1904, and Spent His Later Years Measuring How Fast Plants Grow

Science & Space

A Madras Clerk's Letter of 16 January 1913 Held Formulas That Defeated G. H. Hardy, and Ramanujan's Last Letter of 1920 Waited 82 Years for a Theory to Explain It

Science & Space

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Worked Out the Mass Limit for White Dwarf Stars at 19 on a 1930 Voyage From Bombay, Shared the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics, and Has a NASA X-ray Observatory Named for Him

Ancient & Medieval India

In 1838 Emily Eden Called Ranjit Singh's Army Review 'a Sad Blow to Our Vanities.' Eleven Years Later the British Annexed the Punjab From a Ten-Year-Old

Salim Ali's Book of Indian Birds Described 181 Species in 1941, His Ten-Volume Handbook With S. Dillon Ripley Was Complete in 1974, and His Appeals Helped Protect Keoladeo and Silent Valley

Vinoba Bhave Walked Across India From 1951 to 1964, Collected About 40 Lakh Acres of Gifted Land for the Landless in the Bhoodan Movement, and Received the Magsaysay Award and the Bharat Ratna

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

Bhikaiji Cama Unfurled a Flag of Indian Independence Before an International Socialist Congress in Stuttgart in August 1907, Forty Years Before 1947

Ancient & Medieval India

Rajendra Chola's Army Marched to the Ganges and His Fleet Caught the King of Kadaram in 1025. The Navy and the Land Survey Behind Him Were His Father's.

Ancient & Medieval India

Peshwa Baji Rao I Led a Maratha Army to the Gates of Delhi in 1737 and Won Malwa by Treaty in 1738, While His Brother Chimaji Appa Took Vasai in 1739

Abhinandan Varthaman Flew a MiG-21 at a Pakistani Strike Package on 27 February 2019, Ejected Over Pakistan and Walked Back Into India 60 Hours Later

Tenzing Norgay Stood on Everest at 11:30 am on 29 May 1953, Then Spent 22 Years Training India's Mountaineers at the Institute in Darjeeling

Science & Space

Homi Bhabha Asked the Tata Trust for a Physics Institute on 12 March 1944, Had the Apsara Reactor Critical by 4 August 1956, and Died on Mont Blanc on 24 January 1966 at 56

Tanaji Malusare and 300 Mavla Infantry Scaled the Cliff at Kondhana on 4 February 1670 and Took the Fort Now Called Sinhagad

Mirza Ghalib Published His First Urdu Divan in Delhi in 1841, Held the Titles Dabir-ul-Mulk and Najm-ud-Daula at Bahadur Shah Zafar's Court, and Kept a Persian Diary Through the Fall of Delhi in 1857

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

The Parliament's Own History Records Applause for Several Minutes After Vivekananda's First Words on 11 September 1893, His Letter Says Two, and the Standing Ovation Comes From Later Accounts

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

Tantia Tope Was Seized Asleep in the Paron Jungle on the Night of 7 April 1859 by Man Singh of Narwar, a Chief He Trusted, and Hanged at Sipri on the 18th

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

Udham Singh Fired Six Shots at Caxton Hall on 13 March 1940, Almost 21 Years After Jallianwala Bagh, and Was Hanged at Pentonville 140 Days Later

Science & Space

Kalpana Chawla Grew Up Watching Flying Club Planes Over Karnal, Orbited the Earth 252 Times on Columbia in 1997 and Became the First Indian-Born Woman in Space

Ancient & Medieval India

Charaka's 120-Chapter Medical Textbook Set Out How Ancient India Trained Physicians, Examined Patients and Discussed Epidemics

Ancient & Medieval India

Prithviraj Chauhan won the first battle of Tarain in 1191 and held Ajmer and Delhi for about fifteen years, according to the oldest Persian and Sanskrit records

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

Khudiram Bose Was Hanged at 18 on 11 August 1908, and a Bihar Railway Station and an Indian Postage Stamp Now Carry His Name

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

A Disputed Adoption at Kittur in September 1824 Ended With the Collector of Dharwad Dead on 23 October and Rani Chennamma in Bailhongal Fort

Science & Space

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Led the SLV-3 Team That Put Rohini Into Orbit in 1980, Headed India's Five-Missile Development Programme, and Won the 2002 Presidential Election With 89.58 Per Cent of the Electoral College Vote

Ravi Shankar Took the Sitar From Maihar to Monterey and Woodstock, Won Four Grammy Awards, Organised the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh and Received the Bharat Ratna in 1999

Science & Space

Shubhanshu Shukla Became the First Indian on the International Space Station in June 2025, 41 Years After Rakesh Sharma, and Ran Seven Indian Experiments in Orbit

Ancient & Medieval India

In 499 CE, Aryabhata Fitted Digit-by-Digit Roots, Series Sums, a 24-Entry Sine Table and an Equation-Solving Method Into About 120 Verses

Ancient & Medieval India

The Mughal Historian Khafi Khan Called Shivaji a Reprobate, Then Wrote That His Troops Were Ordered to Spare Mosques, the Quran and Women

Lachit Borphukan Took Guwahati Back in 1667, Held It for Two Years Against the Mughal Army Aurangzeb Sent Under Raja Ram Singh and Won the River Battle of Saraighat in 1671

Science & Space

Har Gobind Khorana, the Son of a Punjab Village Tax Clerk, Helped Complete the Genetic Code, Built a 77-Base-Pair Gene in 1970 and Shared the 1968 Nobel Prize

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

Rash Behari Bose, Exiled in Japan Since 1915, Chaired the Indian Independence League at Bangkok, Rebuilt the Indian National Army After December 1942 and Handed Both to Subhas Chandra Bose in July 1943

Ancient & Medieval India

Kanishka's Kushan Empire Reached From Bukhara to Patna, His Gold Coins Carried the Buddha, and the Peshawar Stupa Identified as His Measured 286 Feet Across

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

Sri Aurobindo Was Acquitted in the Alipore Bomb Case on 6 May 1909, Spent the Next Four Decades in Pondicherry Where He Wrote The Life Divine, and Auroville Was Founded in 1968 on His Teaching

Six Sabres Attacked Srinagar Airfield on 14 December 1971. One Gnat Took Off Into Them, and Its Pilot Is Still the Only Airman Awarded the Param Vir Chakra

Economy & Infrastructure

Jamsetji Tata Died in 1904 Having Planned India's Steel Works, Science Institute and Hydropower Scheme, and All Three Were Running by 1915

Itihasa & Faith

Tulsidas Began the Ramcharitmanas in Awadhi on Ram Navami 1574, and Gita Press Has Printed Over 108 Million Copies of His Works

Science & Space

Satyendra Nath Bose Wrote to Einstein on 4 June 1924, Einstein Translated His Paper and Submitted It by 2 July, and Bosons Carry His Name Though He Never Won a Nobel Prize

Dhyan Chand Won Three Olympic Hockey Golds in a Row, from 1928 to 1936, With India Scoring 102 Goals and Conceding 3 in 12 Matches

Science & Space

Birbal Sahni Was Elected to the Royal Society in 1936, Named a New Group of Fossil Plants from the Rajmahal Hills in 1948, and Founded the Lucknow Institute That Now Bears His Name

Science & Space

Vikram Sarabhai Founded a Cosmic-Ray Laboratory at 28, Then Began India's Space Programme in a Church at Thumba, Where the First Rocket Flew on 21 November 1963

Ancient & Medieval India

Rani Abbakka of Ullal Refused Portugal's Tribute in 1555 and Faced Its Fleet Again in 1618, and a Five-Ship Coast Guard Class Now Carries Her Name

Rajendra Prasad Presided Over the Constituent Assembly, Served 12 Years and 107 Days as India's First President, and Is the Only President Elected Twice, in 1952 and 1957

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

Jinnah Helped Draft the 1916 Lucknow Pact, Argued in 1929 Against a Bill to Try Bhagat Singh and His Fellow Hunger-Strikers in Their Absence, and Accepted the Cabinet Mission Plan for 53 Days in 1946

Itihasa & Faith

Adi Shankara Wrote the Earliest Complete Commentaries That Survive on the Brahma Sutras, the Gita and Ten Upanishads, and Four Monasteries Tradition Credits to Him Teach His Advaita Today

Manoj Kumar's Directing Debut Upkar Won Seven Filmfare Awards, and He Went On to Receive India's Highest Cinema Honour, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award

Satyajit Ray Won the Best Human Document Prize at Cannes in 1956 and the Golden Lion at Venice in 1957, Then Received an Honorary Oscar and the Bharat Ratna in 1992

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

One Soldier's Act of Defiance: How Mangal Pandey Lit the Fuse of 1857

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

Matangini Hazra Was Shot Holding the Flag at Tamluk on 29 September 1942, and Within Three Months the Sub-Division Had a National Government of Its Own That Ran Until 1944

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

The Revolutionary Who Threw a Bomb Meant to Hurt No One, and Was Hanged at 23

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

Subhas Chandra Bose Raised the Indian National Army Twice, Marched It into Manipur on 18 March 1944, and Left Three Official Inquiries Split on Whether He Died in the 1945 Air Crash

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

Jyotirao Phule Dedicated Gulamgiri to the People of the United States in 1873, Founded the Satyashodhak Samaj That September, and Asked the Hunter Commission in 1882 to Make Primary Schooling Compulsory

Sundarlal Bahuguna Walked 4,870 Kilometres From Kashmir to Kohima for the Himalayan Forests, Declined the Padma Shri in 1981 and Was Named a Padma Vibhushan in 2009

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

Sarojini Naidu Published Three Books of Verse Between 1905 and 1917, Presided Over the Congress at Kanpur in 1925, and Led the Dharasana Salt Raid in 1930 After Gandhi Was Jailed

Ancient & Medieval India

Razia Sultan Ruled Delhi From 1236 to 1240, Led Her Own Army Into the Punjab and Struck Coins in Her Own Name

Economy & Infrastructure

India Made About 21 Million Tonnes of Milk a Year When Verghese Kurien's Operation Flood Began in 1970, and 247.87 Million Tonnes in 2024-25

M. S. Subbulakshmi Gave a Recital in the UN General Assembly Hall on 23 October 1966 and in 1998 Became the First Musician to Receive the Bharat Ratna

Dilip Kumar Won Eight Filmfare Best Actor Awards, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award and the Padma Vibhushan, in a Screen Career That Began With Jwar Bhata in 1944

Itihasa & Faith

Kabir, the Fifteenth-Century Weaver of Banaras, Has Verses in the Guru Granth Sahib, a Sacred Book of His Own in the Bijak, and a Hindu Samadhi and a Muslim Mazar Side by Side at Maghar

Aamir Khan's Lagaan Was One of Five Oscar Nominees in 2002 and His Dangal Took About $190 Million in China by July 2017, Then the Biggest Non-Hollywood Release There

Itihasa & Faith

Mirabai of Merta Left a Mewar Court to Sing to Krishna, and the Bhaktamal Had Named Her Among the Great Devotees by About 1600

Raj Kapoor's Awaara Competed at Cannes in 1953 and Is Reported to Have Sold 63.7 Million Tickets in the Soviet Union, and He Received the Padma Bhushan in 1971 and the Phalke Award for 1987

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

The Raj Hanged Mangal Pandey Ten Days After Barrackpore, Dismissed Seven Companies of His Regiment Four Weeks Later and Made His Surname a Word for Every Rebel

Ancient & Medieval India

Badauni Fired Into the Rajput Ranks at Haldighati in 1576 and Called It a Mughal Victory. In 2017 a Rajasthan Textbook Said Pratap Won.

Ancient & Medieval India

Sambhaji Was Dragged by the Hair From a Hole in His Minister's House in February 1689 and Executed Five Weeks Later. The War Went On for Eighteen More Years.

Ancient & Medieval India

Ashoka Put the Kalinga Toll in Stone, 150,000 Deported and 100,000 Killed, and for Centuries No One Could Read It Until a Calcutta Mint Official Did in 1837

Ancient & Medieval India

Rani Durgavati Ruled Garha-Katanga for About 15 Years, Won the First Day's Fight Against Asaf Khan at Narrai in 1564, and Now Gives Her Name to a University, a Tiger Reserve and a Planned Rs 100 Crore Memorial

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

Gandhi Walked 240 Miles to Pick Up a Lump of Salt. By the End of 1930 Some 60,000 Indians Were in British Jails.

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

Ashfaqulla Khan Was Pressed to Turn on His Hindu Comrades in the Kakori Case. He Refused, and the Raj Hanged Him at 27.

Ancient & Medieval India

Abbas Sarwani Counted 1,700 Rest Houses on Sher Shah Suri's Roads, and the Silver Rupee He Struck Outlasted His Five-Year Reign

Sardar Patel and V. P. Menon Turned 554 Princely States Into 14 Administrative Units, and Offered the Rulers a Tax-Free Privy Purse to Sign

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

Bal Gangadhar Tilak Was Convicted of Sedition by a 6 to 3 Jury in 1897 and a 7 to 2 Jury in 1908, and His Printed Speeches Use the Birthright Idea by 1917, With No Single Dated Source for the Famous Line

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

Savitribai Phule Ran Girls' Schools in Pune From 1848 for No Pay, Was Pelted With Mud and Stones on the Way, and Died of Plague in 1897 Nursing the Sick

Science & Space

CV Raman Saw New Lines of Light in a Calcutta Laboratory on 28 February 1928, and Two Years Later Became the First Asian to Win a Science Nobel

Shah Rukh Khan Went From the 1989 Army Serial Fauji to a Padma Shri, the Legion of Honour, Two 1,000-Crore Films and the 2025 National Film Award for Best Actor

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

Aruna Asaf Ali Hoisted the Congress Flag at Gowalia Tank on 9 August 1942, Stayed Underground for Three and a Half Years, and Came Out Only When the Warrant Against Her Was Cancelled on 29 January 1946

Rabindranath Tagore Won the 1913 Nobel Prize for Poems He Translated Himself, Then Wrote to the Viceroy in 1919 to Ask to Be Relieved of His Knighthood

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

Chandrashekhar Azad Evaded the Police for More Than Five Years After Kakori. It Took Them Half an Hour to Stop Him in Alfred Park, and the Records Still Disagree on Who Fired the Last Shot

Captain Vikram Batra Led the Capture of Point 5140 on 20 June 1999 and the Assault on Point 4875 on 7 July, Was Awarded the Param Vir Chakra, and Is the Subject of the Film Shershaah

Ancient & Medieval India

In 628 CE, Brahmagupta Wrote Down Rules for Zero and Negative Numbers, a Quadratic Solution and an Area Formula for Four-Sided Figures

Ancient & Medieval India

Panini Fitted the Grammar of Sanskrit Into About 4,000 Rules That Build Words Step by Step, and Linguists and Computer Scientists Study the System as a Machine

Ancient & Medieval India

Ahilyabai Holkar Built the Present Kashi Vishwanath Temple in 1780, Added a New Shrine at Somnath in 1783 and Raised Indore From a Village to a City, and India Marked Her 300th Birth Anniversary on 31 May 2025

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

Ram Mohan Roy Wrote the Case Against Sati in 1818. The 1829 Ban Was Bentinck's Law, Passed Against Roy's Advice on How to Do It

Economy & Infrastructure

J. R. D. Tata Held India's Pilot Licence No. 1, Flew the First Tata Airmail From Karachi to Bombay on 15 October 1932 and Chaired Air India for 25 Years

Science & Space

Meghnad Saha Sent His Ionisation Paper From Calcutta on 4 March 1920, Gave Astronomers a Temperature Scale for the Stars, and Was Nominated for the Nobel Prize Seven Times Without Winning

Ancient & Medieval India

Abu'l Fazl Put Akbar's Assessed Revenue at 3.6 Billion Dams and Wrote Down the Ranks, Rates and Rules That Raised and Spent It

Mohammed Rafi Won the National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer for 1977 and the Padma Shri in 1967, After Three Decades of Singing for Hindi Cinema's Leading Actors

Ancient & Medieval India

In 499 CE, a 23-Year-Old Said the Earth Spins

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

Ram Prasad Bismil Led the Kakori Raid, Then Wrote From Death Row That Revolutionaries Could Not Win for Fifty Years. The Raj Hanged Him at 30.

Ancient & Medieval India

Bhaskara II Completed the Siddhanta Shiromani in 1150, and Its Algebra Solved the Equation Fermat Set as a Challenge to Europe in 1657

Ancient & Medieval India

Pulakeshin II Ruled the Deccan for More Than 30 Years, Turned Back Harsha at the Narmada, and Had a Court Poet Record His Conquests on a Temple Wall at Aihole

Ancient & Medieval India

Seleucus Gave Chandragupta the Lands Along the Indus for 500 Elephants. Four Greek and Roman Writers Recorded the Deal, and It Took Until 1793 to Say Who the King Was

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

Dadabhai Naoroji Counted the Drain of Indian Wealth in 1876, Won Finsbury Central by Five Votes in 1892 and Presided Over the Indian National Congress Three Times

Science & Space

In 1963 M. S. Swaminathan Helped Put 100 Kilograms of Mexican Wheat Seed Into Indian Trial Plots. By 1967-68 India's Wheat Output Was 16.5 Million Tonnes, Up From 12.3

Ancient & Medieval India

Krishnadevaraya Beat the Sultan of Bijapur at Raichur in May 1520, and the Portuguese Chronicler Who Told It Put the Date Two Years Late

Ustad Bismillah Khan Carried the Shehnai From a Varanasi Temple Courtyard to the Edinburgh Festival, the Independence Celebrations of 1947 and the Bharat Ratna of 2001

Milkha Singh Won Four Asian Games Golds and the 1958 Commonwealth Games 440 Yards, and His 45.73 Seconds at the Rome Olympics in 1960 Stood as India's 400 Metres Record for 38 Years

Sam Manekshaw Was Army Chief When About 93,000 Pakistani Personnel Surrendered at Dhaka on 16 December 1971, Became India's First Field Marshal on 1 January 1973, and Is the Subject of the National Award Film Sam Bahadur

Ancient & Medieval India

Kautilya's Arthashastra Reached Print in 1909 From a Single Manuscript Handed to a Mysore Librarian, and Scholars Still Date Its 15 Books Anywhere From the Fourth Century BCE to the Third Century CE

Mother Teresa Won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and the Bharat Ratna in 1980, and the Order She Founded in Calcutta in 1950 Had 754 Missions in 138 Countries by 2025

Ancient & Medieval India

Kalidasa's Shakuntala Reached English in 1789 and German in 1791, and Goethe Answered It With a Four-Line Poem

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

Gopal Krishna Gokhale Asked the Viceroy's Council to Cut the Salt Duty on 26 March 1902, Founded the Servants of India Society on 12 June 1905, and Became the Man Gandhi Called His Political Guru

Guru Dutt's Pyaasa Is on TIME's All-TIME 100 Movies List and at Joint 185th in the BFI's 2022 Critics' Poll, and His Kaagaz Ke Phool Was the First Indian Film Shot in CinemaScope

Ancient & Medieval India

Aurangzeb Held the Mughal Throne From 1658 to 1707, Took the Empire to Its Greatest Size and Spent the Last 25 Years of His Life Fighting in the Deccan

Itihasa & Faith

Guru Nanak, Born in 1469, Founded the First Sikh Community at Kartarpur and Left 974 Hymns in a 1,430-Page Scripture

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

Birsa Munda Died in Ranchi Jail on 9 June 1900, Five Months After Troops Fired on His Followers at Dombari Hill. The Chota Nagpur Tenancy Act Followed in 1908.

Science & Space

Rakesh Sharma Flew 126 Orbits in April 1984, Ran 43 Experiment Sessions and Did Yoga in a Harness, and Became the First Indian in Space

A Seven-Member Committee Sat 141 Days to Draft India's Constitution, and Its Chairman B. R. Ambedkar Told the Assembly the Credit Did Not Really Belong to Him

Ancient & Medieval India

Harsha Held Northern India for 41 Years, and Much of What We Know About Him Comes From a Court Poet and a Chinese Monk He Patronised

Lata Mangeshkar Sang Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon at Delhi's National Stadium on 27 January 1963 and Received the Bharat Ratna in 2001

Ancient & Medieval India

The Allahabad Pillar Names 9 Northern Kings and 12 Southern Kings in Samudragupta's Campaigns, and His Gold Coins Show Him Playing the Veena

Ancient & Medieval India

The One Rajput King Who Wouldn't Marry His Daughter to the Emperor

The Raj & the Freedom Struggle

The Rani of Jhansi: How a Legal Loophole Made the Company Its Most Dangerous Enemy

Ancient & Medieval India

One Eye, One Kingdom: The Lion of Punjab Who Stopped the British at the River

Ancient & Medieval India

The Poet Who Ruled an Empire: Krishnadevaraya and the Golden Age of Vijayanagara

Ancient & Medieval India

The Emperor Who Turned the Bay of Bengal Into a Chola Lake

Ancient & Medieval India

The Emperor Who Won a War, Counted the Dead, and Renounced Conquest