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Nobel laureates

Rabindranath Tagore, Nobel Prize in Literature, First Nobel Prize winner of Asia, 1913
Amartya Sen, Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, 1998
Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize, 2006
Abhijit Banerjee, Nobel Prize in Economic science, 2019

Pala Dynasty

Gopala I, the founder of the Pala dynasty, which was based in the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent.
Dharmapala, founder of ancient Vikramashila Buddhist Mahavihara, it was one of the three most important Buddhist Mahaviharas in ancient India, along with Nalanda and Taxila.
Devapala, expanded the frontiers of the empire by conquering the present-day Assam and Orissa.
Mahendrapala and etc.

Chandra Dynasty

Traillokyachandra (900–930)
Srichandra (930–975)
Kalyanachandra (975–1000)
Ladahachandra (1000–1020)
Govindachandra (1020–1050)

Deva Dynasty

Dasharathadeva (1281)
Pratapaditya, Maharaja of Jessore (1561–1611)
Kirtinarayan Basu, Raja of Chandradwip (from 1668), converted to Islam

Ilyas Shahi dynasty (1352–1414)

Main article: Ilyas Shahi dynasty and etc etc.

Name	Reign	Notes
Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah	1352–1358	Became the first sole ruler of whole Bengal comprising Sonargaon, Satgaon and Lakhnauti.
Sikandar Shah	1358–1390	Killed in battle with his son and successor, Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah
Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah	1390–1411	Patron of the first recorded Bengali poet Shah Muhammad Saghir

Rabindranath Tagore (1861‑1941)

Bishwakobi Gurudev^{(Divine Mentor)}

AuthorNobel Prize Winner

Bengali polymath. Referred by many as the Bengali Shakespeare. Most successful and influential writer in Bengali literature. First Nobel Prize winner from Asia. Composer of national anthems of India and Bangladesh.

Subhas Chandra Bose (1897‑1945)

Netaji^{(Honorable Leader)}

PoliticianNationalist Activist

One of the principal figures of Indian Independence Movement. Built own army to fight against British colonial rule. Visited around the globe to seek support and assistance for India’s independence.

Amartya Sen (1933‑)

EconomistNobel Prize Winner

Prominent economist. Won Nobel Prize in economics

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (1920‑1975)

Bangabandhu^{(Friend of Bengal)}

PoliticianLeader of IndependencePresidentPrime Minister

Founding Father of Bangladesh. Firebrand politician who shook the foundation of Pakistan by breaking away its eastern wing (East Bengal or East Pakistan) as the sovereign state of Bangladesh. Led Bengalis’ decade-long struggle for independence against the then autocratic regime, finally resulting in the Bangladesh Liberation War and the independence of Bangladesh in 1971.Served twice as President and once as Prime Minister of Bangladesh after independence. Assassinated along with almost his entire family in a military coup in 1975.

Reference: Greatest Bengali of All Time

Hussain Shahi dynasty (1494–1538)

Main article: Hussain Shahi dynasty

Name	Reign	Notes
Alauddin Hussain Shah	1494–1518	His witnessed a remarkable development of Bengali literature.
Nasiruddin Nasrat Shah	1518–1533
Alauddin Firuz Shah	1533
Ghiyasuddin Mahmud Shah	1533–1538

Academics

Momtazuddin Ahmed, philosopher and educationist
Abu Sayeed Ayyub, Indian philosopher, teacher, literary critic.
Dewan Mohammad Azraf, National Professor of Bangladesh
Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay, first women Director of Indian Statistical Institute, India
Chandramukhi Basu, computer scientist and first female graduate in India, and the British Empire
Sekhar Basu was an Indian nuclear scientist who served as the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary to the Government of India
Nurunnahar Fatema Begum, head of paediatric cardiology at the Combined Medical Hospital (Dhaka)
Anudvaipayan Bhattacharya, university lecturer martyred in the Bangladesh Liberation War
Jatindramohan Bhattacharya, academic and literary researcher…etc

Actors and entertainers

Khalil Ullah Khan earned Bangladesh National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in *Gunda* in 1976.

Siam Ahmed, Bangladeshi actor and model
Amala Akkineni, Bollywood actress
Alamgir, Bengali film actor and TV host
Niloy Alamgir, model and actor
Ruhul Amin, film director
Afshan Azad, actress best known for the role of Padma Patil in Harry Potter
Azim, actor best known for the role of Rahim Badshah in Rupban
Jaya Bachchan, Bollywood and Bengali film actress
Abhishek Bachchan, Bollywood actor; son of Jaya Bachchan etc etc

Artists and designers

Bharat Ratna Receivers

List of Bengalis who received Bharat Ratna:

By Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian National Congress
- 1961 Bidhan Chandra Roy (Patna, Bengal Presidency, now Bihar, India)
By P. V. Narasimha Rao, Indian National Congress
- 1992 Satyajit Ray (Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, now West Bengal, India)
- 1997 Aruna Asaf Ali (Kalka, Punjab, British India,(now in Haryana, India)
By Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Bharatiya Janata Party, NDA
- 1999 Amartya Sen (Shantiniketan, Bengal Presidency, now Bolpur, West Bengal, India)
- 1999 Ravi Shankar (Varanasi, Benares State, now Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India)
By Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party, NDA
- 2019 Pranab Mukherjee (Birbhum, Bengal, now West Bengal)

Bloggers / media artists

Hasan M. Elahi, interdisciplinary media artist
Pritish Nandy, poet, author, editor in chief of The Illustrated Weekly of India as well as Publishing Director and Managing Editor of The Times of India Group
Reihan Salam, journalist, blogger at The American Scene and associate editor of The Atlantic Monthly

Business and industry

Billionaires

Sanjit Biswas, Indian American entrepreneur and CEO/ Co-founder of Samsara (company), built and sold Meraki to Cisco for $1.2 billion.
Ankiti Bose, Founder of Zilingo
Purnendu Chatterjee, Founder & Chairman, TCG Group, that owns Haldia Petrochemicals
Tapan Chowdhury, CEO and MD of Square Pharmaceuticals, Square Group, Square Hospital and Maasranga Television
Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, Founder, Managing Director & CEO of Bandhan Bank
Pradeep Kar, Founder of Microland
Salman F Rahman, Founder & Vice Chairman of BEXIMCO
Sunil Kanti Roy, Founder of Peerless Group
Aveek Sarkar, Vice Chairman & Editor Emeritus, Ananda Bazaar Patrika
Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, Founder and Chairman of the Bashundhara Group

Business leaders

Iqbal Ahmed OBE, entrepreneur and CEO of Seamark Group. In 2006, he became the highest British Bangladeshi to feature on the Sunday Times Rich List (listed at number 511). He has a net worth of $250 million.^[1]
Syed Ahmed, British entrepreneur, businessman, television personality
Prith Banerjee, CTO of ANSYS, former director of HP Labs
Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairperson and CEO of Salesforce India and first woman director of State Bank of India
Kumar Bhattacharyya, Baron Bhattacharyya, Director, Warwick Manufacturing Group etc etc

Entrepreneurs

Muquim Ahmed, banking, travel, a chain of restaurants with the Cafe Naz group, publishing and property development.
Badruddin Ajmal, managing director of Ajmal Perfumes and Lok Sabha MP from Dhubri, Assam
Enam Ali, founder of the British Curry Awards, Spice Business Magazine and Ion TV
Ragib Ali, industrialist, pioneer tea-planter, educationalist, philanthropist and banker who has a net worth of $250 million.^[1]
Subroto Bagchi, founder and former chairman, Mindtree
Siddhartha Basu, founder and CMD of BIG Synergy
Amar Bose, founder of Bose Corporation etc etc

Sahitya Akademi Award

Main article: List of Sahitya Akademi Award winners for Bengali

Cartoonists / comics creators

Jayanto Banerjee, Indian cartoonist and illustrator
Neelabh Banerjee, Indian cartoonist and illustrator
Sarnath Banerjee, graphic story writer, co-founded the comics publishing house Phantomville
Samit Basu, comics writer at Virgin Comics
Suddhasattwa Basu, illustrator
Chittaprosad Bhattacharya, Indian cartoonist
Rimi B. Chatterjee, graphic story writer
Shamik Dasgupta, graphic story writer
Narayan Debnath, creator of Nonte Phonte, Batul the Great, Handa Bhonda
Chandi Lahiri, cartoonist and painter
Satyajit Ray, filmmaker, creator of comic characters like Feluda and Professor Shonku
Atanu Roy, illustrator
Gaganendranath Tagore, cartoonist and painter

Cinematographers

Dadasaheb Phalke Award winners

Raichand Boral
Nitin Bose
Kanan Devi
Manna Dey
Mithun Chakraborty
Soumitra Chatterjee
Dhirendra Nath Ganguly
Ashok Kumar
Hrishikesh Mukherjee
Pankaj Mullick
Devika Rani, was the first recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award and was awarded the Padma Shri. Widely acknowledged as the First Lady of Indian cinema.
Satyajit Ray
Mrinal Sen
Tapan Sinha
B. N. Sircar

Diplomats

Atul Chandra Chatterjee, former ambassador to the UK
Chandrashekhar Dasgupta, former ambassador to China
Munshi Mohammad Fazle Kader, Assistant High Commissioner to Pakistan
Bhupendra Nath Mitra, former ambassador to the UK
Siddhartha Shankar Ray, former ambassador to the US
Binay Ranjan Sen, former ambassador to the US
Ronen Sen, former ambassador to the US and UK
Samar Sen (diplomat), served as the 1st permanent representative to the United Nations, Geneva

Economists

Salahuddin Ahmed, 9th governor of Bangladesh Bank
Mir Masoom Ali, George and Frances Ball Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Statistics, Ball State University
Abhijit Banerjee, Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, co-founder of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, winner of Nobel Prize
Pranab Bardhan, professor of economics, University of California, Berkeley, has been on the editorial board of a number of economics journals
Kaushik Basu, Chief Economist, World Bank; C. Marks Professor of International Studies and Professor of Economics, Cornell University
Arundhati Bhattacharya, first woman director of SBI, largest bank in India
P.C. Bhattacharya, former governor of Reserve Bank of India
Amitava Bose, professor of economics at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta etc etc

Fellows of the Royal Society

Filmmakers

Grammy winners

Sandeep Das, award for Best World Music Album, at the 59th Grammy Awards, 2017
Norah Jones, 9-time winner
Ravi Shankar, 5-time winner

Journalists

Bangladesh

Shah Alamgir, journalist
Syed Mohammad Ali, founder of The Daily Star – the largest circulating daily English-language newspaper in Bangladesh.^[5]
Mahfuz Anam
Abul Asad
Nurjahan Begum etc etc

India

Swapan Dasgupta, journalist
Sunanda K. Datta-Ray, journalist
Sagarika Ghose, editor at CNN-IBN
Chandan Mitra, editor and managing director of The Pioneer newspaper
Ramananda Chatterjee, “father of Indian journalism”
Udayan Mukherjee, editor and anchor in CNBC India
Pritish Nandy, Publishing Director and Managing Editor, The Times of India Group; Editor in Chief, The Illustrated Weekly of India; chairman, Pritish Nandy Communications Ltd
Prannoy Roy, founder and President of NDTV, one of India’s largest television and media production houses
Samar Sen, journalist
Barun Sengupta, political critic, founder-editor of Bartaman newspaper
Vishnu Som, news anchor and journalist

America

Sanjiv Bhattacharya
Bobby Ghosh (Aparisim Ghosh), journalist, former TIME magazine World Editor; the first non-American to be named World Editor in TIME‘s more than 80 years
Reihan Salam

United Kingdom

Fareena Alam
Lisa Aziz, British television news presenter
Mihir Bose, BBC’s head sports editor
Reeta Chakrabarti, political correspondent for the BBC Television’s Breakfast programme shown on BBC One and the BBC News Channel
Mo Dutta, former TV presenter for BBC Radio 2, BBC Asian Network, BBC Radio Kent
Pallab Ghosh, BBC News science reporter
Nina Hossain, British television news broadcaster
Faisal Islam, current Economics Editor of BBC News. Former Political Editor of Sky News
Tasmin Lucia Khan, English journalist and television presenter
Hasina Momtaz, former press officer for the Mayor of London
Sarah Mukherjee, former BBC Environment Correspondent, currently a regular contributor on Radio 4’s Today programme

Pakistan

Zaib-un-Nissa Hamidullah, Pakistan’s first female editor; first woman to be included in a press delegation; in 1955, became the first woman to speak at the ancient al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt
Altaf Husain, 1st editor-in-chief of Pakistan’s oldest, leading and most widely read English-language newspaper, Dawn and former Industry Minister of Pakistan

Qatar

Shiulie Ghosh, television journalist at Al Jazeera English

Uganda

Rajat Neogy, journalist, poet, columnist, founding editor of Transition Magazine

Law

Syed Ameer Ali, prominent Indian (British Indian) lawyer, key jurist of Muslim personal law, founding member of All India Muslim League
Bankim Chandra Ray, former chief justice of India
Kalyan Banerjee, Rotary International‘s 101st president
Gooroodas Banerjee, former High Court judge, Calcutta
Mahmudul Amin Choudhury, 11th chief justice of Bangladesh
Chittaranjan Das, barrister and Indian independence activist, represented the accused in the Alipore Bomb case
Sudhi Ranjan Das, former chief justice of India
Monomohun Ghose, first practising barrister of Indian origin
Kamal Hossain, the author of Bangladeshi Constitution and icon of secular democracy in South Asia; prominent international lawyer and arbitrator etc etc

Magicians

Musicians

Bangla rock

Shafin Ahmed
Ayub Bachchu, founding member and the leader of the Bengali rock band Love Runs Blind (LRB)
Balam
Partha Barua
Chandril Bhattacharya, lyricist and one of the founders of the Bangla band Chandrabindoo
Nachiketa Chakraborty etc etc

Bangladeshi film industry

Abdul Alim, National Award-winning playback singer
Asif Akbar, National Award-winning playback singer
Momtaz Begum, National Award-winning playback singer
Kumar Biswajit, National Award-winning playback singer and composer
Ahmed Imtiaz Bulbul, freedom fighter and National Award-winning music director
Kanak Chapa, National Award-winning playback singer etc etc

Bollywood

Mohammed Aziz, Bollywood playback singer
Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Bollywood playback singer
Amitabh Bhattacharya, lyricist and singer
Anil Biswas
Rahul Dev Burman, Bollywood music composer
Sachin Dev Burman, Bollywood music composer
Raichand Boral, Bollywood music composer
Soham Chakraborty, singer
Salil Chowdhury, Bollywood music composer
Kamal Dasgupta, composer
Geeta Dutt, Bollywood playback singer etc etc

Classical and folk musicians

Abbasuddin Ahmed (1901–1959)
Abd al-Alim
Kanika Banerjee (1924–2000), Rabindrasangeet performer
Nikhil Banerjee (1931–1986), sitar performer
Firoza Begum (1930–2014), eminent exponent of Nazrul Geeti
Momtaz Begum (born 1974), Bangladeshi folk singer, world record holder etc etc

Hindi rock

Asheem Chakravarty, co-founder of the popular Indian band Indian Ocean
Palash Sen, lead vocalist of Indian band Euphoria
Susmit Sen, co-founder of the popular Indian band Indian Ocean

Western

Sameer Bhattacharya, lead guitarist of the American alternative rock band Flyleaf
Futurecop!, electronic band, members include Manzur Iqbal from United Kingdom
Norah Jones, American singer-songwriter, musician, and actress, daughter of sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar; Indian Bengali
Sanjaya Malakar, American born Indian origin singer
Shikhee, singer; auteur of American industrial band Android Lust
Mumzy Stranger
Monica Yunus, operatic soprano

Military

Bangladesh

Shakil Ahmed, former head of Bangladesh Rifles
Mohammad Ruhul Amin, awarded Bir Sreshtho, the highest military award of Bangladesh; war hero of Bangladesh Liberation War
Saiful Azam, served under Bangladesh Air Force, Iraqi Air Force, Pakistan Air Force and Royal Jordanian Air Force
Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury, 11th Chief of Army Staff of the Bangladesh Army
Ismail Faruque Chowdhury, engineer-in-chief of the Bangladesh Army
Saiful Islam Duke, former Lieutenant Commander of Bangladesh Navy
Chitta Ranjan Dutta, Bangladeshi war hero and retired Major-General of the Bangladesh Army, key sector commander of the Mukti Bahini during the Bangladesh Liberation War etc etc

India

Flight Lieutenant Suhas Biswas (1924–1993), recipient of Ashoka Chakra
Subhas Chandra Bose (1897–1945), leader, Indian National Army
Air Marshal Padma Bandopadhyay, PVSM, AVSM, VSM, first woman to be promoted to three-star rank in the Indian Air Force
Air Vice Marshal Madhavendra Banerji (1934–2019), MVC, VM of Indian Air Force
Major General (Retd.) Dipankar Banerjee (general), Founding Director of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies^{[citation needed]}
Vice Admiral Pradeep Kumar Chatterjee, Indian Navy, later Commander-in-Chief, Andaman and Nicobar Command
Admiral Adhar Kumar Chatterji (1914–2001), Indian Navy Chief 1966–1970
General Joyanto Nath Chaudhuri (1908–1983), Indian Army Chief during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965
Commodore Ajitendu Chakraverti, Indian Navy, first Indian officer to be promoted to Commodore

etc etc

Other

Abu Hena Saiful Islam (born 1963), Muslim chaplain for the US Navy
Kalapahad (died 1575), military general for the Karrani dynasty
Masum Khan (born 1604), Zamindar of Sarail and soldier of the Mughal empire
Hayat Mahmud, military general and Zamindar of Buzurg-Umedpur

Padma Vibhushan

Political leaders outside of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan

Australia

Varun Ghosh

Canada

Doly Begum, MPP from Scarborough Southwest
Shuv Majumdar, Member of Parliament for Calgary Heritage

United Kingdom

Marina Masuma Ahmad, Member of the London Assembly for Lambeth and Southwark
Lisa Nandy Indian (Bengali)-British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities since 2021. A member of the Labour Party, she has been member of parliament (MP) for Wigan since 2010.

Nasim Ali OBE, Labour Party politician, councillor in Regent’s Park ward, Cabinet Member for Young People in Camden Council and former Mayor of Camden; in 2003, at age 34, became UK’s youngest mayor as well as the first Bangladeshi and first Muslim mayor^[6]
Farida Anwar, Labour Party politician, councillor for Headington Hill and Northway in Oxford City Council; in 2014, became Oxfordshire’s first city councillor from a Bangladeshi background^[7]
Anwar Choudhury, former governor of the Cayman Islands and High Commissioner of the UK to Bangladesh
Rabina Khan, Liberal Democrat councillor for Shadwell ward, former Cabinet Member for Housing in Tower Hamlets London Borough Council, community worker and author of Ayesha’s Rainbow^[8]
Syeda Khatun MBE, Labour Party politician, councillor for Tipton Green in the Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council and Cabinet Advisor for Education; in 1999, the first Bangladeshi woman to be elected in the Midlands^[9]
Murad Qureshi, Labour Party politician and former Greater London Assembly member^[10]
Lutfur Rahman, community activist and Independent politician; from 2010 to 2015 the first directly elected mayor of Tower Hamlets and the first Bangladeshi leader of the council^[11]
Luthfur Rahman OBE, current deputy leader of Manchester City Council
Nadia Shah, Labour Party politician, councillor in Regent’s Park ward and former Mayor of Camden; in May 2016, became the first female mayor in the United Kingdom of Bangladeshi origin^[12]
Baroness “Pola” Manzila Uddin, Labour Party life peer, community activist, and the first Muslim and second Asian woman to sit in the House of Lords^[13]
Apsana Begum MP, Labour Party Member of Parliament for Poplar and Limehouse, first Hijabi to be elected as an MP for the British parliament
Rupa Huq MP, Labour Party Member of Parliament for Ealing Central and Acton constituency,^[14] writer, columnist, senior lecturer in sociology at Kingston University and former Deputy Mayor of the London Borough of Ealing^[15]^[16]
Rushanara Ali MP, Labour Party Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Bow constituency; first person of Bangladeshi origin to be elected to the House of Commons^[17] and one of the first three Muslim women to be elected as a member of parliament^[18]
Tulip Siddiq MP, Labour Party Member of Parliament for Hampstead and Kilburn,^[19] former councillor for Regent’s Park ward and Cabinet Member for Culture and Communities in Camden London Borough Council; in 2010, became the first Bengali female councillor in Camden Council^[20]

United States of America

Amit Bose, Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration
Saikat Chakrabarti, chief of staff to Ocasio-Cortez
Indranil Chatterjee, Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Swadesh Chatterjee, chairman and co-founder of the U.S.-India Friendship Council
Jay Chaudhuri, Member of the North Carolina Senate
Raj Mukherji, Majority Whip and Democratic member of the New Jersey General Assembly from New Jersey’s 33rd Legislative District covering portions of Hudson County (second Indian American elected to NJ state legislature); former Deputy Mayor of Jersey City, NJ; former Commissioner and Chairman of the Jersey City Housing Authority (then the youngest to serve in that position); Reservist (2001–09) in United States Marine Corps
Hansen Clarke, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan’s 13th district, Democrat, Member of the Michigan Senate from the 1st district, Member of the Michigan House of Representatives from the 7th and 16th district

Politicians

Bangladesh

Tajuddin Ahmad, first prime minister of Bangladesh (1971–1972)
Abdus Samad Azad, former Minister of Foreign Affairs
Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, popularly known with the honorary title Mazlum Jananeta (Leader of the Oppressed)
Abdul Gaffar Biswas (born 1949), former MP for Khulna-3
Abdul Latif Biswas (born 1953), Bangladeshi minister
Abdur Rahman Biswas (1926–2017), former president of Bangladesh
Abdur Rasheed Biswas (died 1991), former MP of Jessore
Abu Raihan Biswas (1940–2019), high school teacher and socialist etc etc

British India

Jalaluddin Ahmad, Bengali landlord, jurist and health minister
Aftab Ali, founder of All-India Seamen’s Federation and vice-president of All-India Trade Union Congress
Aruna Asaf Ali, Indian independence activist
Mahmud Ali, Freedom Movement leader, statesman
Abul Kalam Azad, senior leader of the Indian National Congress during the Indian independence movement etc etc

India

West Bengal

Muzaffar Ahmad, one of the founders of the Communist Party of India
Maziruddin Ahmed (born 1898), inaugural MLA of Cooch Behar
Tamser Ali (born 1953), MLA for Natabari
Syed Badrudduja, former mayor of Kolkata
Abhishek Banerjee, member of Lok Sabha from Diamond Harbour, National General Secretary of All India Trinamool Congress
Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal (from 2011), ex-minister for Railways, Government of India, Chairman All India Trinamool Congress
Mrinal Banerjee, former minister etc etc

Assam

Abdur Rahim Ahmed, MLA of Barpeta
Hafiz Bashir Ahmed, MLA of Bilasipara West
Jahan Uddin Ahmed, member of Lok Sabha for Dhubri
Jamal Uddin Ahmed, former MLA of Badarpur
Kobad Hussain Ahmed, inaugural MLA of Mankachar
Moinuddin Ahmed, former MLA of Jaleswar
Sahab Uddin Ahmed, former MLA of Jaleswar
Sherman Ali Ahmed, MLA of Baghbar etc etc

Bihar

Meghalaya

Akramozzaman, inaugural MLA of Phulbari
Shamsul Hoque, inaugural MLA of Mahendraganj
Mizanur Rahman Kazi, MLA of Rajabala
Khorsedur Rahman Khan, former MLA of Rajabala
S. G. Esmatur Mominin, current MLA of Phulbari
Abu Taher Mondal, former three-time MLA of Phulbari
Mozibur Rahman, inaugural MLA of Rajabala
Abdus Saleh, MLA of Rajabala and former two-time MLA of Mahendraganj
Manirul Islam Sarkar, former two-time MLA of Phulbari and Minister of Agriculture & Transport
Azad Zaman, former MLA of Rajabala

Uttar Pradesh

Sucheta Kripalani 4th Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh also 1st Female Chief Minister of India. Lok Sabha M.P. from Gonda Lok Sabha constituency (1967-1971) & MLA from Menhdawal Assembly constituency of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly (1962-1967)
S. M. Banerjee, 4-time M.P. of Kanpur as an Independent candidate with support of CPI from 1962 to 1977.
Shyamdev Roy Chaudhari, 7-time M.L.A of South Varanasi from Bharatiya Janata Party

Tripura

Manik Sarkar, former chief minister of Tripura, Politburo member
Biplab Kumar Deb, former chief minister of Tripura

Other

Nawab Abdul Jabbar (1837–1918), Prime Minister of Bhopal State
Abul Kasem (1872–1936), Secretary to the Prime Minister of Bhopal State
Sucheta Kripalani Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency from 1951-1961
Jogendra Nath Mandal
Rabi Ray, speaker of Lok Sabha
Ashab Uddin, member of the Manipur Legislative Assembly for Jiribam

Pakistan

Nurul Amin, Prime Minister of Pakistan
Abdullah al-Baqi (1886–1952), member of the 1st National Assembly of Pakistan
Abdul Latif Biswas, member of the Pakistan National Assembly
Mohammad Ali Bogra, Prime Minister of Pakistan 1953–1955
Abdul Matin Chaudhary, served as the first Agriculture Minister of Pakistan
Abdul Hamid, first Education Minister of East Bengal
Abu Ahmad Abdul Hafiz, Muslim League politician and lawyer
Abdul Wahab Khan, 3rd Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan
Abdullah al Mahmood (d. 1975), member of the 1st National Assembly of Pakistan
Jogendra Nath Mandal, served as the first Law & Labour Minister of Pakistan
Iskander Mirza, first President of Pakistan
Khawaja Nazimuddin, 2nd prime minister of Bengal (Undivided), 2nd prime minister of Pakistan, 2nd Governor-General of Pakistan, president of Muslim League
Khurram Khan Panni, former chief whip of East Pakistan Provincial Assembly
Md. Hafizur Rahman, Minister of Food and Agriculture of Pakistan (1958–1960); Minister of Commerce of Pakistan (1960–1962); Provincial Minister of Finance and Planning of East Pakistan (1962–1965)
Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, second Chief Minister of Bengal, Prime Minister of Pakistan (1956–1957)

Other

I’tisam-ud-Din was the first educated Bengali and South Asian to have travelled to Europe.

I’tisam-ud-Din, Mughal diplomat and munshi

Ramon Magsaysay Award

Tahrunessa Abdullah
Fazle Hasan Abed KCMG, founder of the world’s largest non-governmental organisation, BRAC
Amitabha Chowdhury
Zafrullah Chowdhury
Mahasweta Devi
Gour Kishore Ghosh
Angela Gomes
Syeda Rizwana Hasan, attorney, Hero of the Environment and winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize
A.H.M. Noman Khan
Sombhu Mitra
Matiur Rahman
Satyajit Ray
Abdullah Abu Sayeed
Ravi Shankar
Muhammad Yunus

Religion and spirituality

Brahmoism

Charulata Mukherjee, women’s rights activist and social worker from Calcutta, associated with Brahmo Samaj and All India Women’s Conference
Ram Mohan Roy, founder of the Brahmo Samaj
Keshub Chandra Sen
Debendranath Tagore, social thinker and reformer, founder of the Brahmo Religion or Brahmoism

Buddhism

Anagarika Munindra (1915–2003), vipassana meditation teacher, taught many notable meditation teachers including Dipa Ma, Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, and Surya Das
Bishuddhananda Mahathera, a Buddhist scholar and monk
Jyotipal Mahathero, a Buddhist monk and the 10th Sangharaja of Bangladeshi Buddhists

Hinduism

Swami Abhedananda (Kaliprasad Chandra), monk, author, philosopher, occultist, reformer, founder of the Ramakrishna Vedanta Math
Advaita Acharya, Vaishnava guru
Sri Aurobindo, yogi, nationalist, philosopher, author, poet, visionary
Gaura Kisora dasa Babaji, Vaishnava ascetic, mystic and recluse
Mahavatar Babaji, yogi and tantrik master
Bamakhepa (Bamacharan Chattopadhyay), tantrik guru and mystic of Tarapith
Kamalakanta Bhattacharya, Tantrik/Shakta saint and master, composer of Shakta devotional songs
Sri Chinmoy, Indian spiritual master etc etc

Islam

Mearajuddin Ahmad (c. 1890), author of Tufat al-Muslimin
Muhsinuddin Ahmad (1819–1862), second leader of the Faraizi movement
Nesaruddin Ahmad (1873–1952), inaugural Pir of Sarsina and founder of Darussunnat Kamil Madrasa
Nur Qutb Alam (d. 1416), Islamic scholar involved in the Bengal-Jaunpur confrontation and pioneer of the Dobhashi tradition
Abu Saeed Muhammad Omar Ali (1945–2010), author, teacher and translator
Muhammad Ayyub Ali (1919–1995), former principal of Madrasah-e-Alia Dhaka and Sylhet Alia Madrasa
Ruhul Amin (born 1962), khatib of Baitul Mukarram National Mosque etc etc

Christianity

Kali Charan Banerjee, lawyer and theologian, founder of the Calcutta Christo Samaj, member of the Indian National Congress
Krishna Mohan Banerjee, Bengali philosopher and litterateur, President of the Bengal Christian Association
Puroshottam Choudhary, preacher, evangelist, writer of Christian literature
Lal Behari Dey, Indian journalist, writer, and Christian missionary
Patrick D’Rozario, first Bangladeshi Cardinal, Archbishop of Dhaka
Aurobindo Nath Mukherjee, first Indian Bishop of Calcutta and Metropolitan of India
Krishna Pal, Bengali evangelist and missionary, first Bengali convert to Christianity under William Carey

Other

Ipsita Roy Chakraverti

Freedom Fighters and Revolutionaries

Science and technology

Physicists

Ahsan Ali, doctor, physician and researcher
Kedareswar Banerjee, first crystallographer of India, known for X-ray Crystallography and was director of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata. The K. Banerjee Centre of Atmospheric and Ocean Studies was established in his honour
Srikumar Banerjee, director of BARC and AECI
Mani Lal Bhaumik, physicist, helped develop the first excimer laser at the University of California
Debendra Mohan Bose, physicist, made contributions in the field of cosmic rays, artificial radioactivity and neutron physics
Jagadish Chandra Bose, physicist, radio and wireless transmission pioneer, also did substantial work on botany
Satyendra Nath Bose, physicist, founded Bose–Einstein statistics, which helped to produce Bose–Einstein condensate (2001 Nobel Prize in Physics was given for this discovery); the Boson, an elementary particle named after him
Swapan Chattopadhyay, particle accelerator physicist, contributed to the development of many accelerators around the world, e.g. the Super Proton-Antiproton Synchrotron, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and the Advanced Light Source at Berkeley
Swapan Kumar Gain, Bengali-American physicist, professor of Physics at the City University of New York
Amitabha Ghosh, only Asian on NASA’s Mars Pathfinder mission
Dipan Ghosh, theoretical physicist, known for Majumdar–Ghosh model
Hiranmay Sen Gupta, physicist, has published around 200 research papers in various international journals
M. Zahid Hasan, physicist, Eugene Higgins endowed chair professor of quantum physics at Princeton University and scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, known for discoveries in quantum matter and topology
Mohammad Ataul Karim, known for contributions to the fields of electro-optical devices and systems, optical computing and processing, and pattern recognition
Ashesh Prasad Mitra, performed major work in the field of the Earth’s near-space environment, through group based and space techniques
Sisir Kumar Mitra, physicist, pioneer in the investigations of ionosphere, the Mitra crater on the Moon is named after him
Bedabrata Pain, co-inventor of CMOS image sensor, also an award-winning filmmaker
Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri, physicist, known for his contributions to relativity and cosmology including Raychaudhuri’s equation
Somak Raychaudhury, astrophysicist and observational cosmologist, Director, Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics
Subrata Roy, known for his contributions in the modelling of plasma physics and the invention of the Wingless Electromagnetic Air Vehicle and serpentine geometry plasma actuator
Meghnad Saha, physicist, produced the Thermo-Ionization Equation or Saha Equation
Ashoke Sen, physicist, known for his contributions to string theory, co-discovered S-duality
Bikash Sinha, former director of SINP and Padmabhusan awardee

Biologists

Maqsudul Alam, scientist and professor, achieved four milestones in genomics – sequencing the genomes of papaya, rubber plants, jute and fungus
Gopal Chandra Bhattacharya, known for his pioneering work on social insects and the role of bacteria in metamorphosis
Sharmila Bhattacharya, head of the Biomodel Performance and Behavior laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center
Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty, most notable for his work in directed evolution and his role in developing a genetically engineered organism using plasmid transfer while working at GE
Maharani Chakravorty, organized the first laboratory course on recombinant DNA techniques in Asia and Far East in 1981
Biraja Sankar Guha, first director of Anthropological Survey of India
Jahangir Alam Khan, agricultural economist and researcher
Dilip Mahalanabis, biologist, under his leadership the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (Bangladesh medical centre), discovered oral rehydration therapy, which has saved more than 40 million lives from diarrhea
Swadhin Kumar Mandal, Alexander von Humboldt Fellow and Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Award winner
Panchanan Mitra, first professor of anthropology in India, among the first Indians to study at Yale University
Mohammad Hossain Mondol, director-general of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute
Sarat Chandra Roy, widely regarded as the father of Indian ethnography, the first Indian ethnographer, and as the first Indian anthropologist
Ram Brahma Sanyal, pioneer in captive breeding; one of the first zookeepers trained as a biologist; a corresponding member of the Zoological Society of London
Dwijen Sharma, naturalist and science writer
Sourindra Mohan Sircar, One of the greatest Indian botanist, was also the General President of Indian Science Congress Association

Geologists

Pramatha Nath Bose, one of the early Indians to join Geological Survey of India
Nibir Mandal, known for studies on the evolution of geological structures, Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Award winner
Sharat Kumar Roy, Indian geologist and adventurer, first Indian to set foot in North Pole
Sudipta Sengupta, Indian geologist and one of the first Indian Women to set foot on Antarctica
M. A. Zaher, director-general of the Geological Survey of Bangladesh

Chemists

Sadhan Basu, Palit professor at Calcutta University and Bhatnagar Award, CV Raman recipient
Asima Chatterjee, known for her work in the fields of organic chemistry and phytomedicine; her most notable work includes those on vinca alkaloids, and the development of anti-epileptic and anti-malarial drugs
Jnan Chandra Ghosh, chemist, known for anomaly of strong electrolytes
Abul Hussam, chemist, inventor of Sono arsenic filter and the gold winner of the 2007 Grainger Challenge Prize for Sustainability
Abdus Suttar Khan, chemist, inventor of alloys for use in commercial jets, U.S. fighter planes, gas turbines, train engines, and space shuttles
Nurul Haque Miah, chemist, former professor at Dhaka College, textbook author
Jnanendra Nath Mukherjee, chemist, specialised in the fields of electrochemistry, colloids and soil science
Prafulla Chandra Roy, pioneer in the field of pharmaceutical and chemical works (discovered mercurous nitrite), The Royal Society of Chemistry honoured him with the first ever Chemical Landmark Plaque outside Europe, founder of Bengal Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals, India’s first pharmaceutical company

Doctors and physicians

Shamsuddin Ahmed, medical doctor martyred in the Bangladesh Liberation War
Rafiuddin Ahmed, dentist, founder of the first dental college of India and Bengal Dental Association, which later became Indian Dental Association
Syed Modasser Ali, ophthalmic surgeon and a health advisor to Sheikh Hasina, founder of Mojibunnessa Eye Hospital and editor-in-chief of the Bangladesh Ophthalmic Journal.
Upendranath Brahmachari, synthesized Urea Stibamine (carbostibamide) and used it in the treatment of Kala-azar (leishmaniasis), was a nominee for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Surjo Kumar Chakraborty, India’s first graduate in medicine
Kadambini Ganguly, one of the first two Indian women who trained in Western medicine
Jogesh Chandra Ghosh, pioneer of modern Ayurvedic medicine
Siddhartha Mukherjee, physician, scientist and writer, author of The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 2011
Subhash Mukhopadhyay, physician, first physician in India and second in the world to perform in vitro fertilization
Shuvo Roy, scientist and inventor of implantable artificial kidney
Syeda Mamtaz Sanghamita (born 1946), gynaecologist
Mahendralal Sarkar, homeopath and founder of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science
Hassan Suhrawardy, second Muslim from the sub-continent to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England

Mathematicians

Debabrata Basu, founded Basu’s theorem
Anil Kumar Bhattacharya, known for Bhattacharya coefficient, and the Bhattacharya distance
Raj Chandra Bose, known for Association scheme, Bose–Mesner algebra and Euler’s conjecture
Sourav Chatterjee, specialised in mathematical statistics and probability, professor at Stanford University
Anil Kumar Gain, mathematician and statistician, professor at University of Cambridge as well as a Fellow of the Royal Society
Jayanta Kumar Ghosh, known for Bahadur-Ghosh-Kiefer representation and Ghosh-Pratt identity
Anadi Sankar Gupta, specialised in fluid dynamics and magnetohydrodynamics notably on heat transfer in free convection flow in the presence of magnetic field
Qazi Azizul Haque, pioneered the mathematical formula for Henry Classification System of fingerprinting
Khandkar Manwar Hossain, Bangladeshi statistician, founder of The Department of Statistics of Rajshahi University
Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, best remembered for the Mahalanobis distance (a statistical measure), founder of Indian Statistical Institute (ISI)
Samarendra Kumar Mitra, designed, developed and constructed India’s first indigenous computer (an electronic analog computer) in ISI
Syamadas Mukhopadhyaya, introduced the four-vertex theorem and Mukhopadhyaya’s theorem in eucliden geometry
ANM Muniruzzaman, Bangladeshi statistician died in Bangladesh Liberation War
Ritabrata Munshi, specialised in number theory, graduate student of Andrew Wiles
Dijen K. Ray-Chaudhuri, known for BCH code, professor emeritus at Ohio State University
Samarendra Nath Roy, known for multivariate analysis
Sucharit Sarkar, Indian topologist and IMO gold medallist
Radhanath Sikdar, calculated the height of Mount Everest

Technologists

Shubham Banerjee, inventor of Braigo; at 12 years old (2014) became the youngest entrepreneur to receive venture capital funding
Shuman Ghosemajumder, co-founder of TeachAids, former click fraud czar at Google
Jawed Karim, software engineer, co-founder of YouTube, early employee of PayPal
Samarendra Kumar Mitra, designed, developed, and constructed India’s first indigenous computer in 1953 (an electronic analog computer)

Architects, archaeologists and engineers

Jalal Ahmad (born 1959), president of the Institute of Architects Bangladesh, vice-president of the Commonwealth Association of Architects
Sultanuddin Ahmed, engineer martyred during the Bangladesh Liberation War
Vidyadhar Bhattacharya (1693–1751), the chief architect and city planner of Jaipur, Rajasthan;^[22] with Sir Samuel Swinton Jacob, he is credited as the architect of City Palace, Jaipur
Fazlur Rahman Khan (1929–1982), structural engineer and architect, father of tubular designs for high-rises such as Willis Tower (aka Sears Tower) and the John Hancock Center
Saiman Miah (born 1986), architectural and graphic designer, designed one of the two £5 commemorative coins for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
M Harunur Rashid, archaeologist, educationist and museum curator
Abul Kalam Mohammed Zakaria, archaeologist

Social reformers and position holders

Fazle Hasan Abed KCMG, founder of the world’s largest non-governmental organisation, BRAC
Syed Ameer Ali, law reformer
Rawshan Ara Bachchu, woman rights activist and part of the Bengali language movement
Kalyan Banerjee, former president of Rotary International
Syeda Shahar Banu, woman rights activist and part of the Bengali language movement
The Honourable Doctor Muhammad Abdul Bari MBE DL FRSA Esq., former secretary of Muslim Aid, former secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, former president of the Islamic Forum of Europe and former chairman of the East London Mosque
Khuda Buksh, pioneer of life insurance in Bangladesh etc etc

Sports

Administrators

Sourav Ganguly, President of Board of Control for Cricket in India and former Indian cricket team captain, Padma Shri awardee

Athletics

Mohamed Mahbub Alam, South Asian Games gold medalist sprinter
Swapna Barman, heptathlon athlete
Soma Biswas, heptathlon athlete
Shanta Ghosh, retired German sprinter who specialized in the 400 meters
Mohan Khan, Olympic sprinter
Rahamatulla Molla, track athlete
Beauty Nazmun Nahar, Olympic sprinter from Bangladesh
Hari Shankar Roy, Indian track and field athlete
Saraswati Saha, Indian former track and field sprinter
Jyotirmoyee Sikdar, athletics, double gold-medallist in track at Asian games, recipient of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award and Padma Shri award

Archery

Dola Banerjee, Indian female archer
Rahul Banerjee, Indian archer
Krishna Das, former Indian archer
Ruman Shana, Bangladeshi archer, won gold in SA games 2019
Jayanta Talukdar, archer

Badminton

Dipu Ghosh, former badminton player
Raman Ghosh, former badminton player
Manoj Sarkar, para badminton player and bronze medalist at the 2020 Paralympic Games, Tokyo

Bodybuilding, boxing, rugby and wrestling

Manohar Aich, bodybuilder
Tameer Anwar, bodybuilder, Mister Bangladesh
Laxman Das, wrestler and weight lifter
Sukhen Dey, weightlifter
Ambika Charan Guha, Indian wrestler who pioneered the growth of Akhada culture in Bengal
Gobar Guha, Indian wrestler and practitioner of Pehlwani etc etc

Chess

Dibyendu Barua, Indian chess grandmaster
Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Indian grandmaster
Rani Hamid, awarded the FIDE Woman International Master (WIM) title in 1985
Enamul Hossain, Bangladeshi grandmaster
Niaz Morshed, chess player from Bangladesh, first chess grandmaster to emerge from the Indian Subcontinent
Ziaur Rahman, Bangladeshi grandmaster
Mollah Abdullah Al Rakib, Bangladeshi grandmaster

Cricket

Aftab Ahmed, former Bangladeshi cricketer
Nasum Ahmed, bowler for Bangladesh
Taskin Ahmed, Bangladeshi bowler
Amit Ali, cricketer for Tripura etc etc

Football

Alfaz Ahmed, former footballer for Bangladesh
Tarif Akhand, defender for Punjab FC
Faisal Ali, former winger for Mohammedan SC (Kolkata)
Rahim Ali, forward for India
Pradip Kumar Banerjee, footballer, named Indian Footballer of the 20th Century by FIFA
Prasun Banerjee, former Indian national football player, Arjuna award winner etc etc

Golf and snooker

Anirban Lahiri
Hammad Miah, professional snooker player
Siddikur Rahman, Olympic and Asian Tour golfer of Bangladesh

Gymnastics

Mabia Akhter, Commonwealth gold medalist, South Asian Games gold medalist
Dipa Karmakar, first Indian woman gymnast to qualify for the Olympics
Margarita Mamun, Russian gymnast of half-Bangladeshi origin
Pranati Nayak, second Indian women gymnast to qualify for the Olympics

Cycling and mountaineering

Ramnath Biswas, soldier and writer best known for circumnavigating the globe by bicycle.
Chhanda Gain
Musa Ibrahim, first Bangladeshi to scale Mount Everest
Nishat Majumdar, first Bangladeshi woman to scale Mount Everest
Asim Mukhopadhyay
Wasfia Nazreen, second Bangladeshi woman to scale Mount Everest
Akke Rahman, first British Muslim/Bengali to scale Mount Everest

Shooting

Joydeep Karmakar, Olympian and Arjuna Awardee
Mehuli Ghosh, Olympian

Squash

Ritwik Bhattacharya
Saurav Ghosal, highest-ranked Indian player

Swimming

Masudur Rahman Baidya, world’s first physically handicapped swimmer to swim across the English Channel in 1997 and the Strait of Gibraltar in 2001
Bula Choudhury, first woman to cross the seven seas
Brojen Das, first Bengali to swim across the English Channel and the first person to cross it four times
Prasanta Karmakar, para-swimmer
Sachin Nag, former swimming champion
Arati Saha, first Indian woman to swim across English Channel; first Indian female sportsperson to be awarded the Padma Shri
Mihir Sen, first Indian to swim across the English Channel, from Dover to Calais in 1958, and for swimming across five channels in one calendar year (1956)

Table tennis

Ankita Das, Olympian
Mouma Das, Olympian
Poulomi Ghatak
Soumyajit Ghosh, Olympian
Zobera Rahman Linu, Guinness World Record holder
Subhajit Saha

Tennis

Zeeshan Ali, olympian
Samir Banerjee, Winner of the 2021 Wimbledon Championships – Boys’ singles title
Syed Fazaluddin, player and coach
Shibu Lal, Bangladeshi ATP player
Jaidip Mukerjea, Arjuna award winner
Leander Paes, Olympic Medalist
Afrana Islam Prity, Bangladeshi ITF player

Writers

Further information: List of Bengali language authors

Ekramuddin Ahmad (1872–1940), Bengali litterateur and government officer
Muhammad Reazuddin Ahmad (1861–1933), journalist and philosopher
Humayun Ahmed (born 1948), novelist
Ismail Alam (1868–1937), Urdu poet and activist
Alaol (1607–1680), poet of medieval era
Muhammad Asadullah Al-Ghalib (born 1948), Islamic scholar, writer, academic, essayist
Afzal Ali, 16th-century poet
Arjumand Ali (1870–1914), first Bengali Muslim novelist etc etc