List of Bengalis

This article provides lists of famous and notable Bengali people in the South Asia, people with Bengali ancestry, and people who speak Bengali as their primary or basic language.

Monarchs

Pala Dynasty (750-1161)

Chandra Dynasty (370-1050)

Sena Dynasty (1070-1230)

Deva Dynasty

Ilyas Shahi dynasty (1352–1414)

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
Saifuddin Hamza Shah 1411–1412
Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah 1435–1459
Rukunuddin Barbak Shah 1459–1474
Shamsuddin Yusuf Shah 1474–1481 Patron of Bengali poet Zainuddin
Nuruddin Sikandar Shah 1481
Jalaluddin Fateh Shah 1481–1487

House of Ganesha

Hussain Shahi dynasty (1494–1538)

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

Other

Nobel laureates

Academics

Chandramukhi Basu,one of the first two female graduates in British India.
Abdul Malik was Pakistan's first cardiologist.
Kaushik Basu served as the Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India.


Actors and entertainers

Soumitra Chatterjee, an iconic Bengali actor from India.
Khalil Ullah Khan earned Bangladesh National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Gunda in 1976.
Jaya Ahsan at the National Film Awards-2022' at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center in Dhaka.
Mimi Chakraborty at the opening function of the '29th Kolkata International Film Festival' or KIFF 29, in Kolkata.
Sushmita Sen at the opening of Miss Universe India in 2026.
Dev (Bengali actor)


Artists and designers

Painters

Bharat Ratna Receivers

List of Bengalis who received Bharat Ratna:

Bloggers / media artists

Business and industry

Billionaires

Business leaders

Entrepreneurs

Sahitya Akademi Award

Cartoonists / comics creators

Cinematographers

Criminals

Dadasaheb Phalke Award winners

Diplomats

Economists

Arundhati Bhattacharya,retired Indian banker and former Chairperson of the State Bank of India,ranked 25th most influential woman in the world by Forbes
In 1994, Saifur Rahman was elected governor of the golden jubilee conference of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Madrid, Spain.

Espionage

Fellows of the Royal Society

Fictional characters

Filmmakers

Satyajit Ray,iconic Indian film director, screenwriter, author, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and composer

Grammy winners

Journalists

Bangladesh

India

America

United Kingdom

Pakistan

Qatar

Uganda

Law

Magicians

Models and Internet Personalities

Musicians

Bangla rock

Bangladeshi film industry

Bollywood

Classical and folk musicians

Hindi rock

Western

Military

Bangladesh

India

Jayanto Nath Chaudhuri,Chief of army staff of Indian Army,who led India during 1965 Indo-Pakistani War

Other

Padma Vibhushan

Political leaders outside of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan

Australia

Canada

United Kingdom

Lisa Nandy,serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities since 2021
Anwar Choudhury was the first non-white British person to be appointed in a senior diplomatic post.

United States of America

Politicians

A. K. Fazlul Huq
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
Khaleda Zia
Sheikh Hasina Wazed

Bangladesh

British India

Nawab Syed Shamsul Huda was a patron, and donated immensely towards education for the Muslim students of Bengal during a difficult period.
Abul Kalam Azad was India's first Minister of Education, and his birthday is now recognised as National Education Day across the country.

India

West Bengal

Subhas Chandra Bose is called the National Hero of India,Head of State of India's first free Provisional Government of Azad Hind and co-founder Indian National Army.
Bidhan Chandra Roy,2nd CM of West Bengal.
Surendranath Banerjee,one of the founding member of Indian National Congress in 1885
Jyoti Basu
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
Mamata Banerjee

Assam

Bihar

Meghalaya

Uttar Pradesh

Uttarakhand

Tripura

Other

Pakistan

Other

Ramon Magsaysay Award

Religion and spirituality

Image of Swami Vivekananda relaxing in a chair
Swami Vivekananda in Bushnell Studio in San Francisco, 1900

Brahmoism

Buddhism

Hinduism

Islam

Shah Ahmad Shafi in 2019
Ajmal Masroor was nominated for the Religious Advocate of the Year award at the 2013 & 2015 British Muslim Awards.

Christianity

Wicca

Freedom Fighters and Revolutionaries

Science and technology

Seated (L to R): Meghnad Saha, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Jnan Chandra Ghosh. Standing (L to R): Snehamoy Dutt, Satyendranath Bose, Debendra Mohan Bose, N R Sen, Jnanendra Nath Mukherjee, N C Nag.

Physicists

Biologists

Geologists

Chemists

Abdus Suttar Khan invented more than forty different alloys for commercial application in space shuttles, jet engines, train engines and industrial gas turbines.

Doctors and physicians

Mathematicians

Technologists

Architects, archaeologists and engineers

Social reformers and position holders

Raja Ram Mohun Roy,called the first modern man of India,abolished inhuman Sati system in India
Roquia Sakhawat Hussain,feminist thinker,writer who opposed purdah system in Muslim society in Bengal
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar,a pioneer of Bengal Renaissance, who introduced major reforms in the educational system and helped pass the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856.He also opposed caste system in Hinduism.

Sports

Brojen Das was the first Bengali to swim across the English Channel.

Administrators

Athletics

Archery

Badminton

Bodybuilding, boxing, rugby and wrestling

Chess

Dibyendu Barua,Indian GM in 1991

Cricket

Sourav Ganguly,captained India
Richa Ghosh
Jhulan Goswami,captained Indian Women's Cricket team
Shakib Al Hasan

Football

Chuni Goswami,legendary Indian footballer,a member of gold winning 1962 Asian Games Indian football team.
P. K. Banerjee,captained Indian football team in 1950s and 1960s
Hamza Choudhury playing for Leicester City F.C. in 2021.

Golf and snooker

Gymnastics

Cycling and mountaineering

Shooting

Squash

Swimming

Table tennis

Tennis

Writers

Rabindranath Tagore is the first Indian as well as Asian Nobel laureate.
Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay,best known works are the autobiographical novel Pather Panchali (Song of the Road)
Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay,a Bengali novelist and short story writer who generally wrote about the lives of Bengali family and society in cities and villages.
Al Mahmud is considered one of the greatest Bengali poets to have emerged in the 20th century.
Hason Raja, mystical poet and songwriter

Chefs

See also

References

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