List of people from Kolkata

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Kolkata has been regarded as the cultural capital of India. This is a discursive list of notable people from Kolkata, in different spheres. The list is incomplete.


Contents

[edit] Authors, scholars, and social reformers

Kolkata was home to the Nobel Laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore, the Hindu social reformers: Raja Ram Mohun Roy (founder of the Brahmo Samaj), Keshab Chandra Sen, Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, David Hare (of Calcutta), Alexander Duff, Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, William Carey and Moti Lal Seal.

It has produced some great social critics, commentators on culture, religion, philosophy and scholars and writers (see Bengali language) like: Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, S. Wajid Ali, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay, Amritalal Basu, Shishir Kumar Maitra, Dinabandhu Mitra, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Dhan Gopal Mukerji, Syed Mujtaba Ali, Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, Pramath Chowdhury, Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Swami Vivekananda, linguist: Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyay, historians: Jadunath Sircar and Romesh Chunder Majumdar, philosophers, presidents and religious leaders: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, political scientist: Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri, novelists: Samaresh Majumdar, Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Bimal Mitra, Dibyendu Palit, Mani Shankar Mukhopadhyay (Popularly known as Shankar), Purnendu Pattrea, Tarashankar Bandopadhyay, Rajashekhar Basu, Premendra Mitra, Syed Mustafa Siraj, Mahasweta Devi, Anita Desai, Sanjeeb Chattopadhyay, Bimal Kar, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Amitav Ghosh, Amit Chaudhuri, Ashapoorna Devi, and poets: Buddhadev Bose, Subhas Mukhopadhyay, Jibanananda Das, Bishnu Dey, Nirendranath Chakraborty,Satyajit Ray, Annada Shankar Ray, Joseph Emin and Leela Majumdar Japamala Ghosh Roy, Tapan Roy (Katwa, Dist Burdwan, West Bengal India) (Kabi) Books, Kophay Khotan, Sisir-Network (from Kabita PakshiK)

Calcutta was the birth place of the great English novelist William Makepeace Thackeray and noted litterateurs such as Benjamin Walker, Amitav Ghosh, Vikram Seth, Bharati Mukherjee, Raj Kamal Jha, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Jayabroto Chatterjee, P. Lal, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Lali Chatterjee, Suketu Mehta, Nalinaksha Bhattacharyya, Sasthi Brata. It was also for some time, the home of German Nobel laureate Günter Grass. The renowned genetic scientist and Marxist commentator on society, culture and biology J.B.S. Haldane, spent his last days in his adopted homeland, in Kolkata.

[edit] Nobel laureates

Five Nobel Prize winners have been associated with Kolkata at some point of time. They are:

  1. Sir Ronald Ross (1902 Medicine)
  2. Rabindranath Tagore (1913 Literature, the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize)
  3. C. V. Raman (1930 Physics, the first Asian scientist to win the Nobel Prize)
  4. Mother Teresa (1979 Peace)
  5. Amartya Sen (1998 Economics)

[edit] Freedom fighters

Khudiram Bose Subhas Chandra Bose, Rash Behari Bose, Badal Gupta, Benoy Basu, Bipin Chandra Pal, Sri Aurobindo, Chittaranjan Das, Jatindra Nath Das, Dinesh Gupta, Dinesh Majumdar, Jogesh Chandra Chattopadhyay, B. C. Roy, Syama Prasad Mookerjee, Kripanath Datta, Nirmal Sen etc.

[edit] Ramon Magsaysay Award winners (incomplete list)

  1. Satyajit Ray
  2. Mahasweta Devi
  3. Samaresh Majumdar
  4. Shambhu Mitra
  5. Gourkishore Ghosh
  6. Amitabha Chowdhury
  7. Mother Teresa

[edit] Cinema, theatre and other performing arts

[edit] Cinema

The late film director Satyajit Ray, who won the Special Oscar for Lifetime Achievement or the Academy Honorary Award in 1992 lived in Kolkata and was defined by his capturing of the Bengali ethos on cinema. Considered by many film makers, Western and Eastern alike, to be among the four greatest directors of film history, he was lauded by greats like Akira Kurosawa. Indeed, the Japanese legend of film said that to have not seen Ray's films was to have never seen the light of the moon and the sun.

In fact the tradition of non-commercial, artistic, impressionistic cinema is vogue in the cinema of Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak, Buddhadev Dasgupta, Gautam Ghose, Aparna Sen,Rituparno Ghosh, Nabyendu Chatterjee among others.

In the domain of commercial or mainstream cinema, actors and thespian turned actors like Dhirendranath Ganguly, Devika Rani Roerich, Utpal Dutt, Pramathesh Barua, Pahari Sanyal, Robi Ghosh, Kali Bandyopadyay, Kanan Devi, Ruma Guha Thakurta, Suchitra Sen, Uttam Kumar, Victor Banerjee , Dhritiman Chaterji, and Soumitra Chatterjee have won international acclaim. Uttam Kumar commands a special place in the hearts of all Kolkatans. He was the recipeint of two National awards for acting. Even more than two decades after his premature death in 1980, he is loved by young and old Kolkatans alike.

The Bollywood cinema superstar Amitabh Bachchan started his career as a clerk for an insurance company in Kolkata. Bollywood action hero Mithun Chakraborty started his career in a non-commercial Bengali film directed by Mrinal Sen.

[edit] Theatre

Despite its decline from the pre-eminent position of the cultural capital of India in recent times, it still retains a strong tradition in cinema and theatre. Renowned thespians include Utpal Dutt, Sambhu Mitra, Badal Sircar, Tripti Mitra, theatre directors Rudraprasad Sengupta, Shymanand Jalan, Sohag Sen, Usha Ganguli, Ashok Mukhopadhyay and Vinay Sharma, actors Rudraprasad Sengupta, Shymanand Jalan, Sohag Sen, Usha Ganguli, Ashok Mukhopadhyay,Vinay Sharma,Kunal Padhi,Subrat Chowdhary,Shakil Khan and Sanchayita Bhattcharya among others. Kolkata is the capital of the Hindi theatre stage in India and home to the nationally renowned theatre groups Padatik,Rangakarmee,Nandipaat Ajantrik and Nandikar.Kolkata is host to several acclaimed mime theatre groups and mime artists, like Jogesh Dutt among others. The Kolkata stage has time and again been inspired and enriched by the translated and transcreated oeuvres of William Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, Guy de Maupassant, T. S. Eliot, Leo Tolstoy, Thomas Mann, Alexander Pushkin, Maxim Gorky, Maurice Maeterlinck, Jean Paul Sartre, Sean O'Casey, J.M. Synge, Henrik Ibsen, George Bernard Shaw, Eugène Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Arthur Miller, Harold Pinter, Ernest Hemingway, Lorraine Hansberry, Girish Karnad and Chinua Achebe.

[edit] Music

Kolkata has produced talented vocal artists like Gaharjaan, Angurbala Dasi, Supriyo Dutta Shri Supriyo Dutta, Indubala Dasi, Dwijendra Lal Roy, Acharya K. C. Dey (also known as Kana Kesto), Kazi Nazrul Islam, Pankaj Mullick, Kanan Devi, Feroza Begum, Kanika Bandyopadhyay, Suchitra Mitra, Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay, Manna Dey, Kishore Kumar, Geetashree Sandhya Mukhopadhyay, Debabrata Biswas, Shyama Chattopadhyay, Krishna Chattopadhyay, Sarbani Sen, Robin Bandyopadhyay, Ramkumar Chattopadhyay and son Shreekumar, Arati Mukhopadhyay, Anjali Mukhopadhyay, Begum Akhtar, Ajoy Chakraborty, Usha Uthup, Ruma Guha Thakurta, Anirban Ghosh, Indrani Sen, Haimanti Shukla, Shreekanta Acharya, Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta, Suman Chatterjee, Salil Chowdhury, Rahul Deb Burman, Nirmalendu Chowdhury, Sachin Dev Burman, Purna Das Baul, Pramita Mallick, Anjan Dutta, Nachiketa, Choir Groups Calcutta Youth Choir, IPTA and Kolkata Peoples Choir, Bengali bands Mohiner Ghoraguli, Chandrabindoo, Fossils, Cactus, Crosswindz and Bhoomi. The Bombay-based (or Bollywood) film musicians Geeta Dutt, Bappi Lahiri, Kumar Sanu, Abhijeet, Babul Supriyo, Shantanu Moitra, Pritam started their careers in Kolkata.

Globally acclaimed instrumental virtuosos in Hindustani classical music like Jnan Gossain, Dhruv Tara Joshi, Ali Akbar Khan, Ravi Shankar, Nikhil Chatterjee, Radhika Mohon Maitra, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Ananda Shankar, Enayet Khan and son Vilayat Khan, Imdaad Khan, Imaraat Khan, Wahid Khan, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Jnan Prakash Ghosh, Nasir Aminuddin Dagar, Asifuddin Dagar, Rashid Khan, Nikhil Banerjee, Amjad Ali Khan, V. G. Jog, Bahadur Khan, Budhaditya Mukhopadhyay, Shahid Pervez, Anjan Chattopadhyay, Keramatullah Khan, V.Balsara, Shankar Ghosh, Anindo Chatterjee, Swapan Choudhuri, Subhankar Banerjee, Bikram Ghosh, Tanmoy Bose, and Louis Banks, among others, hail from Kolkata. The Dover Lane Music Conference held every January celebrates the tradition of Indian classical music. It is also said that Kolkata has the finest connoisseurs of Western classical music in India.

Among the styles and traditions of vocal music in vogue in Kolkata are Nidhu Babur Toppa, Mujraah, Kheyaal, Kavi Gaan, Jatra Gaan, Rabindra Sangeet, Carnatic, Hindustani, Atulprasadi, Shyama Sangeet, Adhunik, Nazrul Geeti, Lok Geeti, Ghazals, Bhakti Geeti, Jibanmukhi, Pop, IndiPop, Rock and Roll, Santhal Lok Sangeet and Hindi film music.

[edit] Dance

Some of the most beautiful dance themes are based on the eternal songs, and song and dance based plays of Tagore like Chandalika, The Country of Cards (Tasher Desh), Red Oleanders (Rakta Karabi) among others. Prominent dancers and dance troupes of the city include late Uday Shankar and Amala Shankar, Indrani Rahaman, Manjushree Chaki Sircar, Ranjabati Sircar, Ananda Shankar, Tanushree Shankar and group, Mamata Shankar Ballet Troupe, Calcutta Youth Choir, Madhuboni Chattopadhyay, Italian born Ileana Citaristi, American born Leela Samson, Sushmita Bandopadhyay, Gaudiya Nritya, Odissi Kala Kendra, Mallhar, Anurekha Ghosh and Company, The Nupur Dance Academy, Padatik Dance Centre, Durga Prasdee Sangeet Vidyalaya, Pandit Chitresh Das among others.

The different dance schools prevalent in Kolkata are Rabindra Nritya Natya, Adhunik, Bharatnatyam, Manipuri, Kathak, Kuchipudi, Santhal Folk Dance, among others.

[edit] Magic and astrology

Kolkata is the magic capital of India and has produced internationally famous magicians and performers including P. C. Sorcar, P. C. Sorcar, Jr., Manick Sorcar, and P. C. Sorcar Young. K Lal, Prince Seal and numerous nationally and internationally acclaimed astrologers. Kolkata hosts the headquarters of the All India Magic Circle.

[edit] Artists

Artists, painters and sculptors like those of the Tagore family (Gaganendranath, Abanindranath, Samarendranath, Sunayani Devi, Rabindranath, Rathindranath), Nandalal Bose, Jamini Roy, Ganesh Pyne, Bikash Bhattacharya, Paritosh Sen, Paresh Maity, Thankappan Kutty, Chittravanu Majumdar, Chintamoni Kar, Anil Kumar Dutta, Rathin Mitra and M.F. Husain have at some time in their careers, been associated with Kolkata.

Among the major styles of Art that Bengal is credited for includes the Art of Bengal School[1], and Kalighat Patachitra.

[edit] Scientists

Scientific greats of Kolkata include Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, Sir Prafulla Chandra Roy, Sir C. V. Raman, Sir K. S. Krishnan, Dr. Megh Nad Saha, Professor Satyendra Nath Bose, Dr. Sisir Kumar Mitra, Sir Jnan Chandra Ghosh, and Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis. The first in-vitro fertilization (to produce test tube baby "Durga") in India (and second in the world) was performed by city doctor Dr. Subhash Mukhopadhyay on October 3, 1978.

[edit] Sports and Miscellaneous records

[edit] Summer Olympic medallists

[edit] International sportspersons

  • Sourav Ganguly
  • Pankaj Roy
  • Gobor Goho (World Amateur Wrestling Championship USA 1900-2)
  • Manotosh Roy (former Mr Universe - 1950s)
  • Manohar Aich (former Mr. World - 1950s)
  • Chandra Hirjee (1958 winner of the inaugural World Amateur Snooker Championship held at Kolkata. Also Indian Open Billiards Championship winner in 1946, 47, 56 and 58, runner-up in 1952, 54, 55, 57 and Indian Snooker Championship runner-up in 1952, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58)
  • Mihir Sen (Guinness Record holder of being the first person to swim across the English Channel in 1958 and the seven straits across all major continents)
  • Jyotirmoyee Sikdar (1998 Asian Games Gold medallist in four events in racing)
  • Arjun Atwal
  • Dibyendu Barua and Surya Sekhar Ganguly (current FIDE Chess Grandmasters)
  • Trans-continental wizards Mohammed Salahuddin Choudhury and his wife Neena, have the acknowledgement of the Guinness Book of World Records for the first and fastest circum-navigation of the world by car – under the rules applicable in 1989 (in a "Contessa Classic" 1989 car) and 1991 (in a Nissan jeep), and thereby embracing more than an equator's length of driving (40,750 km or 24,901 road miles) in 69 days, 19 hours and 5 minutes in 1989 and in 39 days and 20 hours in 1991 respectively.
  • Kolkata has also produced most of the successful footballers of India. Many of the members of the India Teams which won Gold Medal in Asian Games (1951 and 1962), hailed from Kolkata.

[edit] Sports administrators

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