India's Contribution to Nobel Prize Honors

The Nobel prize was established in Alfred Nobel's will and it was first awarded in 1901. It is given in different fields to the people for an outstanding contribution in their respective fields. Initially, it was given in the fields of Peace, Literature, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Physics. Since, 1969 it is also being awarded in the field of Economics. Nobel prizes in different fields are widely regarded as the most prestigious award one can get in those fields.

Till date, eight Indian citizens or people of Indian origin have been honored with the Nobel prize. But legally two of them are Indian citizens and three are of Indian origin. He was the first person of non-Western origin to be awarded a Nobel Prize.

# Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore was a poet, philosopher, educationist, artist and social activist. He was awarded the Nobel prize in Literature in the year 1913. Though he had been writing for many years before he was awarded Nobel, it was only since the year 1912 that his writings were translated in English and were recognized by the western countries, mainly by the Swedish people. He was knighted in the year 1915.

# Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman

Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, more popularly known as Sir C.V.Raman was awarded the Nobel Prize in the year 1930. Sir Raman won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the Raman effect. He was the first Asian and first non-White to get a Nobel Prize in Science. He was knighted in the year 1929. He headed an institute that is now named after him the Raman Research Institute, Bangalore.

# Amartya Sen

Amartya Sen was the first Indian citizen to receive the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. He was awarded this prize in the year 1999 for his work on welfare economics. He made several contributions to research in the field of Economics, such as the axiomatic theory, the definitions of welfare and poverty indexes, and the empirical studies of famine.

# Hargobind Khorana

Hargobind Khorana is a person of Indian origin. He left India in 1945 and became an American citizen in the 1970's. He was awarded Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on genes in the year 1968. He has a laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States and he is heading it.

# Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar is the nephew of Sir C.V.Raman. In the year 1930, he was awarded a scholarship

to do graduation at the University of Cambridge. He settled in the United States and became a naturalized American citizen. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in the year 1983 for his studies on the physical processes regarding the structure and evolution of stars.

# V.S. Naipaul

Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul was born in a family of Indian descent settled in the United Kingdom. He is a citizen of the United Kingdom. He was awarded Nobel prize in Literature in the year 2001. While awarding him the Nobel Prize, the Swedish Academy praised his work "for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories." He was knighted in the year 1990.

# Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa was born in Skopje, a city in Yugoslavia and she is an Albanian citizen. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in the year 1979. She came to India and became an Indian citizen. She toiled in the slums of Kolkata for many years caring for the poor and suffering.

# Tenzin Gyatso (14th Dalai Lama)

Although he is a legal citizen of Tibet, he escaped to India when the People's Republic of China took over Tibet. He is head of Tibetan Government in Exile stationed in India. He was awarded th Nobel prize in the year 1989 for his efforts for Tibetan Freedom through Non Violence and Spreading Global Peace through Buddhism. These days, he is moving allover the world working for Global Peace.

# Ronald Ross

Ronald Ross was born in the year 1857 in Almora, India, then under British government. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in the year 1902 for his work on malaria. At the age of ten years, he was sent to London for his education. After completing his former and higher education there, he returned to India and joined the Indian Medical Service in 1881.

# Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling was born in the year 1865 in Mumbai, India, then British India. He was awarded the Nobel prize in Literature in the year 1907 . He is the youngest recipient and the first English writer to receive the Nobel Prize.