List of Nobel Prize Winners in India: Names, Fields, and Their Impact

The Nobel Prize is one of the highest honors awarded to a person for his contributions to humanity in various fields including physics, chemistry, literature, peace and medicine.

The Nobel Prize was established according to the will of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel to recognize groundbreaking achievements that have had a significant impact on society and the world.

The first Indian to win the Nobel Prize was Rabindranath Tagore in 1913 for his profound literary work Gitanjali. Since then, India has produced several distinguished Nobel laureates.

In this article, we will explore the list of Indian Nobel laureates, their respective fields and the lasting impact of their contributions.

From scientists and peace activists to authors and doctors, these Indian laureates have changed the world with their groundbreaking work. Let’s take a closer look at their accomplishments and the legacy they created.

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Complete list of Indian Nobel Prize winners

Here is the complete list of Indian Nobel laureates who have made significant contributions in various fields such as literature, peace, economy, etc. The list includes:

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Year

Name

site

reason

1913

Rabindranath Tagore

literature

gitanjali (Collection of poems written in sadhu/pure/classical Bengali)

1930

Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman

physics

Discovered the Raman effect/scattering in 1928

1979

mother teresa

Peace

Humanitarian (missionaries of charity, serving the poorest people in India)

1998

Amartya Sen

economics

Contributions to welfare economics

2014

Kailash Satyarthi

Peace

Humanitarian (fighting for children’s rights and education)

1968

Hargobind Korana

physiology or medicine

Interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis

1983

Subramanyan Chandrasekhar

physics

Theoretical study of physical processes important in stellar structure and evolution

2009

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Chemical

Study of the structure and function of ribosomes

2019

Abhijit Banerjee

economics

An experimental approach to alleviating global poverty

1902

Ronald Ross

physiology or medicine

Study malaria to lay the foundation for research into the disease and how to prevent and treat it

1907

rudyard kipling

literature

Originality, observation and talent in his work

1989

The 14th Dalai Lama

Peace

Continued resistance to violence in the struggle for freedom

2001

VS Naipaul

literature

Unified narrative and examination in the work reveal suppressed histories

Source: Embassy of India

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Since its establishment in 1901, as of 2024, the Nobel Prize has been awarded to 1,012 individuals and organizations.

These include 976 individuals and 28 organizations. Individual figures for the winners show that 930 are male and 59 are female, reflecting a slight increase in female winners over the years.

Of these beneficiaries, 12 are linked to India, five of whom are Indian citizens and seven of whom are of Indian origin or residence.

Source: Owlcation

Robindranath Tagore was the first Indian citizen and the first Asian laureate to win the Nobel Prize in 1913. Mother Teresa is the only woman on this list of Nobel Prize winners.

It is worth noting that Sri Aurobindo, the famous Indian poet, philosopher, nationalist and founder of holistic yoga, was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1943 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950, but was unsuccessful both times .

Furthermore, Mahatma Gandhi was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times (from 1937 to 1939, 1947, and days before his assassination in 1948), but he never won. In 2006, Geir Lundestad, secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, called Gandhi’s omission “the greatest omission in our 106-year history.”

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