This is a list of famous and notable people from India. This would include persons who are known to a large number of people and is not based on the extent of their popularity. Neither is the list viewed from the context of the present. Their fame could be brief, what matters is that they were well-known during the peak of their popularity. For important Native Americans, also known as Indians, see List of Native Americans
Armed forces
- General Rahul Bhattacharya, Army Chief, Governor of India, Social Worker
- Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora (1917-2005)
- General Joginder Jaswant Singh
- Rakesh Sharma, First Indian cosmonaut
- Shashindra Pal Tyagi, Chief of Indian Air Force
- Sam Manekshaw, Field Marshal
Arts
- Amrita Sher-Gil, Painter
- K.M.Adimoolam, Modern painter
- B V Karanth, Musician
- Birju Maharaj, Dancer
- Girish Karnad, Playwright
- Jatin Das, Painter
- Kelucharan Mohapatra, Odissi Dancer
- M.F. Husain, Painter
- Mallika Sarabhai, Dancer
- Manick Sorcar, Animator/Director/Laserist
- P.C. Sorcar, Magician
- P.C. Sorcar, Jr., Magician
- Protima Bedi, Dancer
- Raja and Radha Reddy, Kuchipudi Dancers
- Raja Ravi Varma, Painter
- Sudha Chandran, Dancer
- Tyeb Mehta, Artist
Business and Industry
- See also: Influential businessmen of India
- Ajay Piramal, Chairman, Piramal Enterprises Limited
- Amar Bose, Founder Bose Corporation
- Anand Chandrasekaran, Founder Aeroprise Inc.
- Arjun Malhotra, co-founder, HCL Technologies
- Shiv Nadar, HCL Technologies & Forbes List of Billionaires
- Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro
- Dewang Mehta, ex-Chief of NASSCOM
- Sunil Mittal, Bharti Tele-Ventures
- Srichand Hinduja, Chairman & Patriarch, Hinduja Group
- J.R.D. Tata, Industrialist, Tata Group
- Ratan Tata, Tata Sons
- GD Birla, Industrialist, Birla Group
- Kumaramangalam Birla, Industrialist, Aditya Birla Group
- T.V. Sundaram Iyengar, Founder & Chairman, TVS Group
- Sohrab Pirojsha Godrej, Godrej Industries
- Adi Godrej, Godrej Industries
- Rohit Sethi, RS Capital
- T.T. Krishnamachari, Founder, TTK Group & 1st Finance Minister of India
- R.P. Goenka, RPG Group
- Deepak Parekh, Chairman of HDFC Bank
- Y.K. Hamied, Cipla
- M.A. Chidambaram, Madras-based Industrialist. Founder of SPIC
- Jamnalal Bajaj
- Rahul Bajaj, Bajaj Auto
- Lakshmi Narayan Mittal, Mittal Steel
- Arun Limaye
- Venugopal Dhoot, Chairman, Videocon India
- Y.C. Deveshwar, ITC Group
- Dhirubhai Ambani, Founder of Reliance Group
- Mukesh Ambani, Reliance Group
- Anil Ambani, Reliance Group
- N.R. Narayana Murthy, co-founder Infosys
- Thakiyudeen Wahid, Aviator & Founder of East-West Airlines
- Sabeer Bhatia, founder Hotmail
- Pallonji Mistry, Shapoorji Pallonji Group
- P.R.S. Oberoi, Chairman, Oberoi Group of Hotels
- Jagdish Khattar, Chief Managing Director, Maruti Udyog
- Sanjiv Sidhu, founder i2 Technologies
- Rakesh Jhunjunwala, India's biggest share broker
- Shantanu Laxmanrao Kirloskar, Kirloskar Group
- Subrata Roy, Sahara India Parivar
- Naresh Goyal, Chairman of Jet Airways
- Verghese Kurien, Founder - Operation Flood
- Bobby Kishore, General Manager, Microsoft Corporation
- Vijay Mallya, Chairman, UB group of companies
- Vinod Khosla, co-Founder Sun Microsystems
- Vivek Paul, CEO of Wipro
- Rajeev Karwal, ex-CEO, Electrolux India
- Raghvendra Narendra Dhoot, CEO, Raghav's Picks
- Harishchandra Prasad, industrialist
- Abdul Razak Allana, ARJ Allana Group
Cartoonists
- Abu Abraham, in The Guardian
- Ajit Ninan, in the India Today
- Bal Thackeray
- Jug Suraiya
- Kesav, in The Hindu
- Mario Miranda
- Ranga
- R. K. Laxman, in the Times of India
- Shanker, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, The Hindustan Times
- Yesudasan, in The Week
Economics
- Amartya Sen, Economist, Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 1998
- Partha Dasgupta, Economist
- Bimal Jalan, ex-Governor, Reserve Bank of India
- Rajendra Singh Lodha, Chartered Accountant
Fashion, modelling and beauty
- For a list of women who have won the Miss India titles see : Miss India
- For a list of Indian Models, see the Category Indian Models
- Dino Morea, model and actor
- John Abraham, model and actor
- Madhu Sapre
- Manish Malhotra, designer
- Milind Soman, model and actor
- Nafisa Joseph, model and VJ
- Ritu Beri, designer
- Rohit Bal, designer
Literature
See also: Indian writing in English
- Allama Iqbal Urdu poet
- Arundhati Roy - Booker Prize for The God of Small Things
- Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Dom Moraes, poet, author
- Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Hindi poet
- Jayakanthan, Tamil writer, Jnanpith awardee
- Jaishankar Prasad, Hindi Chhayavaadi poet, writer
- Jaspreet Singh, writer
- Jhumpa Lahiri - Pulitzer Prize winner for "Interpreter of Maladies"
- Kabir
- Kaifi Azmi, poet
- Kalhana
- Kalidasa, playwright, creator of Shakuntalam
- Kamala Markandaya, poetess
- Khushwant Singh, novelist
- Manil Suri novelist
- Mahadevi Verma, Hindi poetess
- Maithilisharan Gupta, Hindi poet
- Mirza Ghalib, Urdu poet
- Mulk Raj Anand
- Munshi Premchand, Hindi novelist
- Nissim Ezekiel - poet, art critic
- Rabindranath Tagore - Nobel Prize in Literature, composer of the national anthems of India and Bangladesh
- R.K. Narayan, English short-story writer
- Rohinton Mistry, Canadian writer
- Salman Rushdie - Booker Prize for Midnight's Children
- Shashi Tharoor - UN Diplomat & Author of The Great Indian Novel besides other books
- Subhash Kak, writer
- Sumitranandan Pant, Hindi poet
- Suryakant Tripathi Nirala, Hindi poet
- Tulsidas, poet, author of the Ramayana in Hindi
- Vikram Seth, English novelist, poet
- V.S. Naipaul - Nobel Prize 2001 (Trinidad-born, grandson of an Indian, never an Indian citizen)
- Vaikom Muhammad Basheer - Malayalam novelist
- Vayalar Ramavarma - Malayalam poet
- Aditya Nitsure
Mass Media
- P. Sainath,award winning development journalist.
- Aniruddha Bahal, writer and Tehelka journalist
- Barkha Dutt, television journalist and anchor, NDTV
- Daljeet Dhaliwal, anchor CNN
- Deepak Chaurasia, consulting editor and anchor, Doordarshan
- G.S.Pradeep,anchor of Aswamedham Kairali
News
- Khushwant Singh
- M. J. Akbar, chief editor, Asian Age
- Prannoy Roy, president, NDTV
- Arun Shourie, journalist
- Pritish Nandy
- Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, research coordinator, Doordarshan
- Saeed Naqvi
- Sanjay Pugalia, director, STAR News
- Sanjay Gupta, Anchor, CNN CNN Page on Sanjay Gupta
- Vir Sanghvi, editor, Hindustan Times
- Vinod Mehta, editor Outlook
- Monita Rajpal, Anchor, CNN CNN Page on Monita Rajpal
Movies
See also: Dadasaheb Phalke Award winners
Actors
Actresses
Music
- Ali Akbar Khan- Sarod Legend
- Abhijeet - Singer
- Alka Yagnik - Singer
- Allarakha- Tabla Maestro
- Amjad Ali Khan
- Anil Biswas - Composer
- Anjan Chattopadhyay - Notable Sitarist
- Subhabnkar Banerjee - Tabla Musician
- Bikram Ghaosh - Grammy awardee Tabla musician and composer
- Anu Malik - Composer
- A.R. Rahman - Composer
- Asha Bhosle - Singer
- Babul Supriyo - Singer
- Bappi Lahiri
- Balamurali Krishna
- Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar
- Freddie Mercury - Singer of band Queen(born in Zanzibar to Indian parents,later British citizen)
- Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao - Composer and Singer
- Geeta Dutt - Singer
- Hariharan - Singer
- Hemant Kumar - Composer and Singer
- Himesh Reshamiya - Composer and Singer
- Hridaynath Mangeshkar - Composer
- Ilayaraja - Composer
- Ismail Darbar
- Kalyanji Anandji - Composers (Kalyanji Shah and Anandji Shah)
- Kartik Seshadri - Sitarist
- Kavita Krishnamurthy
- Kay Kay - singer
- Khayyam - Composer
- Kishan Maharaj - Tabla Maestro
- Kishore Kumar - playback singer, actor
- Kumar Sanu - playback singer, actor, director, producer, love of my life
- Lata Mangeshkar - Singer
- Laxmikant Pyarelal - Composers (Laxmikant Shantaram Kudalkar and Pyarelal Ramprasad Sharma]]
- Lucky Ali, singer
- Mahendra Kapoor, singer
- Manna Dey, singer
- MS Subbulakshmi, Classical (Carnatic) Singer
- Mohammad Rafi, singer
- Mukesh, singer
- Nitin Sawhney, composer
- Naushad, composer
- Noor Jehan, singer
- O.P. Nayyar, composer
- Pankaj Udhas, Singer and Ghazael Maestro
- Rahul Dev Burman, composer
- Ravi, composer
- Ravi Shankar, Sitar maestro
- Sachin Dev Burman, composer
- Sadhana Sargam
- Salil Chowdhury, composer
- Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer - Carnatic singer
- Shamshad Begum
- Shamtaprasad - Noted Tabla Maestro
- SP Balasubramanyam - Singer
- Sultan Khan
- Suraiya, singer
- Talat Mahmood, singer
- Talvin Singh, composer
- Trilok Gurtu, Percussionist
- Shivkumar Sharma, Santoor exponent
- HariPrasad Chourasia, Flute Exponent
- Anindo Chatterjee, Notable Tabla Musician
- Parthosarathy, Notable sarod player
- Birju Maharaj, Katthak Exponant
- Ajay Chakarabarty, Notable Singer
- Rashid Khan, Notable Singer
- Upanishad Brahmam - Composer
- Usha Khanna - Composer
- M.S. Viswanathan - Composer
- Yesudas, singer, devotional and film songs, exponent of Carnatic music
- Ustad Vilayat Khan, sitar legend
- Zakir Hussain, Tabla maestro
- Zubin Mehta, conductor
- Pradeep Menon, Metal Guitarist
Organised Crime
Philosophers
Politics
- Presidents: President of India
- Dr.Rajendra Prasad,First president of India(1950-62)
- Prime Ministers: Prime Minister of India
- Chief Ministers (Tamil Nadu): List of Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu
P-R
- P Chidambaram
- P.K. Vasudevan Nair
- P. V. Narasimha Rao
- Pranab Mukherjee
- Pratapsinh Rane, Chief Minister of Goa
- R R Patil, Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra
- Rabri Devi (born 1959)
- Rahul Gandhi, MP from Amethi
- Raj Thackeray, (born 1968)
- Rajendra Prasad
- Rajiv Pratap Rudy
- Ram Vilas Paswan (born 1946)
- Ravi Shankar Prasad
S-Y
- S M Krishna
- Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (1875-1950)
- Sharad Pawar (born 1940)
- Sheila Dikshit (born 1938)
- Shibu Soren (born 1944)
- Shivraj Patil
- Somnath Chatterjee
- Sonia Gandhi (born 1946)
- Subhash Chandra Bose (1897-1945)
- Suresh Kalmadi (born 1944)
- Sushilkumar Shinde (born 1941)
- T. Nagi Reddy (communist revolutionary leader of Andhra Pradesh)
- Pt. Tarkeshwar Pandey
- Venkaiah Naidu, BJP
- Vilasrao Deshmukh
- Vinay Katiyar
- Yashwant Sinha (born 1937)
Religion
alphabetically:
- A.C._Bhaktivedanta_Swami_Prabhupada
- Acharya Mahapragya( Terapanth Guru)
- Acharya Tulsi(Terapanth Guru)
- Adi Sankara
- Amir Khusrau
- Sri Aurobindo
- Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
- Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura
- Bhakti Vaibhava Puri Maharaj
- Bhaktivinode Thakur
- Farid
- Gautama Buddha - the founder of Buddhism.
- Hazrat Makhdum Bukhari Jahanian Jahangasht
- Hazrat Mueen-ud-Din Chishti Ajmeri Khwajah
- Hazrat Sirhindi
- Hazrat Usmaan Pir Harooni
- J. Krishnamurti
- Jayendra Saraswathi, Shankaracharya of Kanchi
- Kabir
- Lord Mahavir
- Mata Amritanandamayi
- Meera
- Narayana Guru
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
- Nizaam-ud-Din Auliya
- Osho Shree Rajneesh
- Prem Rawat
- Ramakrishna Paramhansa
- Sai Baba of Shirdi
- Sathya Sai Baba
- Samartha Ramdas Swami
- Sant Dnyaneshwar
- Sant Gajanan Maharaj, Shegaon
- Sant Tukaram
- Sant Namdeo
- Six Gosvamis of Vrindavan
- Swami Vivekananda
- Tulsidas poet, author of the Ramayana in Hindi
Royalty
See also: List of Mughal emperors
- Akbar the Great
- Ashoka the Great
- Aurangzeb
- Babur
- Bindusara
- Chandragupta Maurya
- Chandragupta II (Chandragupta Vikramaditya)
- Jahanara Begum, daughter of Shah Jahan
- Jehangir
- Joel Vincent - God
- Lakshmibai, Rani of Jhansi
- Mumtaz Mahal
- Rajendra Chola
- Raja Ravi Varma
- Samudragupta
- Shah Jahan
- Sher Shah Suri
- Shivaji
- Tipu Sultan
Sciences
- A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
- A.Gioalakrishnan
- Acharya P.C. Roy
- Anil Kakodkar
- Dr. Anu T Singh
- Aryabhata
- Ashesh Prosade Mitra
- Ashoke Sen, theoretical physicist
- Autar Singh Paintal
- Bhaskaracharya
- Birbal Sahni
- Brahmagupta
- C.N.R. Rao
- Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao
- C.V. Raman
- Colathur Gopalan
- Devendra Lal
- Satish Dhawan
- Gopalasamudram Narayana Ramachandran
- Ganesh Prasad
- George Sudarshan
- Goverdhan Mehta
- Hargobind Khorana
- Harish Chandra
- Homi Jehangir Bhabha
- Jagdish Chandra Bose
- J.J. Rawal, astrophysicist
- Jayant Narlikar
- Kalpana Chawla, first woman astronaut of Indian origin, Columbia astronaut
- Ashoka Jahnavi-Prasad
- Kollagunta Gopalaiyer Ramanathan
- Gurdev Singh Khush
- Lagadha
- Sir Lewis Leigh Fermor
- Krishnaswami Kasturirangan
- M.G.K.Menon
- Madhava
- Madhu Sudan
- Sisir Kumar Mitra
- G.Balakrish Nair
- Meghnad Saha
- Govind Swaroop
- Nirmal Kumar Ganguly
- Vandana Shiva
- Nilakantha Somayaji
- Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan
- Panini
- [[Pingala]
- Prakash Narain Tandon
- Raghunath Anant Mashelkar
- Raja Ramanna
- Rakesh Sharma, first Indian astronaut
- Roddam Narasimha
- Sudhir Divecha
- V.Radhakrishnan
- Vilayanur S. Ramachandran
- Vulimiri Ramalingaswami
- Srinivasa Ramanujan
- Satyendra Nath Bose
- S. Bhagvantam
- Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar
- C.S. Seshadri
- Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
- Vikram Sarabhai
- Obaid Siddiqui
- Yellapragada Subbarao
- Mriganka Sur
- U.R.Rao
- Prakash Narain Tandon
- Jamshed Rustom Tata
- Sir Mokshgundam Visvesvarayya
- Yajnavalkya
- Dr. Rajender Singh Sangwan
Social work
- Anna Hazare
- Arundhati Roy, Narmada Bachao Andolan
- Baba Amte
- Jayaprakash Narayan
- Medha Patkar, Narmada Bachao Andolan
- Mother Teresa, Missionaries of Charity
- General O.P. Malhotra, Ex-Army Chief, Governor of Punjab, Social Worker
- Sudha Murty, Infosys Foundation
- Sunderlal Bahuguna, Chipko movement
- Swami Keshwanand, Gramotthan movement
- Vinoba Bhave, Sarvodaya and Bhoodan movements
Sports
- Anil Kumble, Cricket
- Anju George, athlete
- Ashok Kumar, hockey
- Baichung Bhutia, Football
- Chandu Borde, Cricket
- Dhanraj Pillay, Hockey
- Dhyan Chand, Hockey
- Geet Sethi, snooker
- Gopichand, badminton
- Harbhajan Singh, Cricket
- Javagal Srinath, Cricket
- Jeev Milkha Singh, golf
- Jyoti Randhawa, golf
- Kapil Dev, Cricket
- Karan Rastogi, Tennis
- Karnam Malleswari, Weightlifting
- Lakshmipathy Balaji, Cricket
- Leander Paes, Tennis
- Mahesh Bhupathi, Tennis
- Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, cricket
- Milkha Singh, Athlete
- Mohammed Azharuddin, Cricket
- Mohinder Amarnath, Cricket
- Narain Karthikeyan, car racing
- P Harikrishna, chess
- Pargat Singh, Hockey
- Prakash Padukone, Badminton
- Pravin Thipsay, chess grandmaster
- P. T. Usha, Athlete, Asian Games medallist
- Ramesh Krishnan, tennis
- Rahul Dravid, Cricket
- Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Shooting
- Ranjitsinghji, cricket
- Sachin Tendulkar, Cricket
- Sania Mirza, Tennis
- Sourav Ganguly, Cricket
- Sunil Gavaskar, Cricket
- Syed Mohammed Hadi, Cricket and Tennis
- Vijay Amritraj, lawn tennis
- Virender Sehwag, Cricket
- Viswanathan Anand, Chess
Others
- Abbé Faria, priest, revolutionary, mystic
- B.K.S. Iyengar, proponent of yoga
- Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Pashtun leader of "Red Shirt" movement; "Frontier Gandhi".
- Balbir Singh Sodhi, victim of September 11-related revenge violence
- Sayed Ahmad, Shiite religious scholar, grandfather of Khomeini.
- Basava Premanand, Skeptic and debunker of gurus
- Irfan Habib, historian
- Jaishree Odin, teacher
- Madhur Jaffrey, actress, chef, food writer
- Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Indian nationalist, later founder of Pakistan
- Sir Cliff Richard, British singer and entertainer
- Pete Best, ex-Beatles drummer.
- Dadabhai Naoroji, First Indian MP in the British government and the first Indian elected to the British House of Commons
- Shapurji Saklatvala, British Communist MP
- Nain Singh
- Dharmesh Patel, Well known Computer Scientist.
- George Orwell, Bengal-born English author
- Rudyard Kipling, British author born in India
- Noor Inyat Khan, World War II spy, born of an Indian father and descendant of Tipu Sultan
- Ben Kingsley, British actor ( half-Indian, born Krishna Bhanji; his father is a Kenyan-born Gujarati]]
- Romila Thapar, (born 1931), historian
- William Makepeace Thackeray, British novelist born in Calcutta
- Rumaisa Rahman, smallest born baby in history, and her sister Hima, Indian-Americans
- Ramesh Chandra Lahoti, (born 1940), Chief Justice of India
- Sidhartha Basu, quiz master
- Dr V Mohan Reddy, cardiac surgeon
- Rajkumar Kishor Shah, American graphic designer
- Biswajit Sarangi, Audiologist & Speech Therapist