Personalities

Saints, scholars, poets, scientists, reformers, freedom fighters, travellers and commanders who shaped the history of Bharat. Rulers are listed on each polity's page.

Reset 40 personalities
18th century CE40 personalities by century — click a bar to jump there20th century CE

18th century CE · 1

19th century CE · 22

U Tirot Sing
Freedom fighter · 1802 – 1835
Khasi chief who fought the British in the Anglo-Khasi War
Tantia Tope
Freedom fighter · 1814 – 1859
Guerrilla commander of the 1857 revolt
Begum Hazrat Mahal
Freedom fighter · 1820 – 1879
Led the 1857 revolt in Lucknow
Nana Sahib
Freedom fighter · born 1824
Adopted heir of Baji Rao II who led the 1857 revolt at Kanpur
Dadabhai Naoroji
Freedom fighter · 1825 – 1917
The 'Grand Old Man of India' who formulated the drain theory
Mangal Pandey
Freedom fighter · 1827 – 1857
Sepoy whose attack at Barrackpore heralded the 1857 revolt
Rani Lakshmibai
Freedom fighter · c. 1828 – c. 1858
Rani of Jhansi and heroine of the 1857 revolt
W. C. Bonnerjee
Freedom fighter · 1844 – 1906
First President of the Indian National Congress
Annie Besant
Freedom fighter · 1847 – 1933
Theosophist who launched a Home Rule League in 1916
Surendranath Banerjea
Freedom fighter · 1848 – 1925
Founder of the Indian Association in 1876
Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Freedom fighter · 1856 – 1920
Declared 'Swaraj is my birthright' and edited the Kesari
Bipin Chandra Pal
Freedom fighter · 1858 – 1932
Swadeshi leader, the 'Pal' of Lal-Bal-Pal
Madan Mohan Malaviya
Freedom fighter · 1861 – 1946
Founder of Banaras Hindu University
Motilal Nehru
Freedom fighter · 1861 – 1931
Author of the Nehru Report of 1928
Lala Lajpat Rai
Freedom fighter · 1865 – 1928
'Punjab Kesari' who died after a lathi-charge during the Simon Commission protest
Gopal Krishna Gokhale
Freedom fighter · 1866 – 1915
Moderate leader and Gandhi's political mentor
Kasturba Gandhi
Freedom fighter · 1869 – 1944
Satyagrahi and wife of Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Freedom fighter · 1869 – 1948
Leader of non-violent satyagraha against British rule
Matangini Hazra
Freedom fighter · c. 1869 – c. 1942
'Gandhi Buri', shot while leading a Quit India procession
Chittaranjan Das
Freedom fighter · 1870 – 1925
'Deshbandhu' who co-founded the Swaraj Party
Birsa Munda
Freedom fighter · 1875 – 1900
Tribal leader of the Ulgulan in Chota Nagpur
Sarojini Naidu
Freedom fighter · 1879 – 1949
The 'Nightingale of India' and first woman governor of an Indian state

20th century CE · 17

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
Freedom fighter · 1883 – 1966
Author of 'The Indian War of Independence, 1857'
Rash Behari Bose
Freedom fighter · 1886 – 1945
Revolutionary who founded the Indian Independence League in Japan
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
Freedom fighter · 1888 – 1958
Congress president and independent India's first Education Minister
Khudiram Bose
Freedom fighter · 1889 – 1908
Teenage revolutionary executed after the Muzaffarpur bombing
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
Freedom fighter · 1890 – 1988
'Frontier Gandhi' who led the Khudai Khidmatgars
Alluri Sitarama Raju
Freedom fighter · 1897 – 1924
Leader of the Rampa Rebellion of 1922-24
Ram Prasad Bismil
Freedom fighter · 1897 – 1927
Leader of the Kakori train action, hanged in 1927
Subhas Chandra Bose
Freedom fighter · 1897 – 1945
'Netaji' who led the Azad Hind Fauj (INA)
Udham Singh
Freedom fighter · 1899 – 1940
Shot Michael O'Dwyer in London to avenge Jallianwala Bagh
Ashfaqulla Khan
Freedom fighter · 1900 – 1927
Kakori conspirator hanged at Faizabad
Potti Sriramulu
Freedom fighter · 1901 – 1952
Died fasting for a separate Andhra State
Jayaprakash Narayan
Freedom fighter · 1902 – 1979
Leader of the 'Total Revolution' movement of 1974
Chandrashekhar Azad
Freedom fighter · 1906 – 1931
HSRA revolutionary who died fighting in Alfred Park, Allahabad
Bhagat Singh
Freedom fighter · 1907 – 1931
Revolutionary hanged in 1931 after the Central Assembly bombing
Aruna Asaf Ali
Freedom fighter · 1909 – 1996
Hoisted the Congress flag at Gowalia Tank on 9 August 1942
Rani Gaidinliu
Freedom fighter · 1915 – 1993
Naga spiritual and political leader who resisted British rule
Kanaklata Barua
Freedom fighter · 1924 – 1942
Teenage martyr of the Quit India Movement in Assam