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This is a list of notable people from West Bengal, India. This list does not include the significant number of prominent East Bengali refugees from East Bengal who settled in West Bengal after the partition of the Indian sub-continent in 1947.

Literature

Major figures

Children's story writers

Medieval Bengal literary scene

Other authors from early modern period

Prominent foreign-language authors from Bengal

Other authors from early/mid-twentieth century and some contemporary authors

Journalists

Language/linguistics, anthropology, history, and other social sciences

Scholars and polymaths

• Radhakanta Deb, linguist
• Asima Chatterjee, scholar of chemistry
• Anil Kumar Gain, scholar, mathematician
• Ramendra Sundar Tribedi, scientist
• Amlan Datta, economist, Vice Chancellor of Visva Bharati
• Prithwindra Mukherjee, scholar of Indian history, philosophy, religion and culture
• Suniti Kumar Chatterji, linguist

Education

Pioneers

• Girish Chandra Bose
• Anil Kumar Gain
• Ashutosh Mukherjee
• Satish Chandra Mukherjee
• Begum Rokeya
• Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar

Post-independence

• Sudhi Ranjan Das, Chief Justice of India, Vice-chancellor of Visva Bharati

Others

• Mahesh Chandra Nyayratna Bhattacharyya

Teachers

• Katyayanidas Bhattacharya, philosophy, Presidency College
• Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, philosophy, University of Calcutta
• Barun De, history, Presidency College
• K. C. Nag, mathematics, Mitra institution
• Susobhan Sarkar, history, Presidency College
• Babar Ali, the world's youngest headmaster, Headmaster & Founder of Ananda Siksha Niketan

Philosophy

Pre-modern period

• Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (Achintya Bhedabheda Vedanta) born in Nabadwip of Nadia district to parents who hailed from Sylhet in present day Bangladesh
• Madhusudana Saraswati (Advaita Vedanta), born in Kotalipara, Gopalganj District in present day Bangladesh & studied at Nabadwip in Nadia district
• Raghunatha Siromani (Navya Nyaya) from Nabadwip

Modern age

• Chandril Bhattacharya, born in Kolkata
• Krishna Chandra Bhattacharya born in Serampore in Howrah district
• Anukulchandra Chakravarty born in Pabna district in present day Bangladesh, worked & preached in Kolkata. After the Partition of India in 1947, he relocated to Deoghar
• Surendranath Dasgupta, born in Kusthia of present day Bangladesh which was then a part of Nadia before Partition of India, studied in Kolkata
• Bimal Krishna Matilal, born in Jaynagar Majilpur in South 24 Parganas district
• Amartya Sen, born in Shantiniketan in Birbhum District
• Keshab Chandra Sen born in Kolkata
• Rabindranath Tagore born in Kolkata
• Swami Vivekananda born in Kolkata
• Sri Aurobindo

Science

Religious scholars

Muslim

• Jalaluddin Tabrizi (13th-century)
• Gazi Pir (13th-century)
• Pir Gorachand (13th-century)
• Usman Serajuddin (1258–1357)
• Alaul Haq (1301–1384)
• Nur Qutb Alam (d. 1416)
• Fakhr ad-Din al-Burdwani (d. 1785)
• Ghulam Mustafa Burdwani (fl. 1780s)
• Shah Mehr Ali (1808–1868)
• Ubaidullah Al Ubaidi Suhrawardy (1832–1885)
• Azangachhi Shaheb (1828–1932)
• Mohammad Abu Bakr Siddique (1865–1943)
• Abdullah al-Baqi (1886–1952)
• Abbas Siddiqui (born 1987)

Pre-modern period

• Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
• Nityananda
• Six Goswamis of Vrindavana
• Krishnananda Agamavagisha
• Ramprasad Sen

The Brahmo Samaj

• Debendranath Tagore
• Raja Ram Mohan Roy
• Ram Chandra Vidyabagish
• Keshub Chunder Sen
• Anandamohan Bose

Hindu revival movement

• Ramakrishna
• Sarada Devi
• Swami Vivekananda
• Sri Aurobindo

Mid-twentieth-century religious figures

• A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
• Paramahansa Yogananda
• Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri
• Lahiri Mahasaya

Social reformation and social work

Major figures

• Ram Mohan Roy
• Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
• Keshab Chandra Sen
• Swami Vivekananda
• Protap Chunder Mozoomdar
• Anil Kumar Gain
• Nibaran Chandra Mukherjee
• Sri Sri Harichand Thakur
• Satish Chandra Mukherjee
• Dwarkanath Ganguly

Derozians

• Ramtanu Lahiri
• Radhanath Sikdar
• Rajnarayan Basu
• Peary Chand Mitra
• Rasik Krishna Mallick
• Krishna Mohan Banerjee
• Madhusudan Dutta
• Hara Chandra Ghosh
• Ramgopal Ghosh
• Kishori Chand Mitra

Women's rights

• Rani Rashmoni
• Kadambini Ganguly
• Chandramukhi Basu
• Kaberi Gain
• Sarala Devi
• Begum Rokeya
• Charulata Mukherjee
• Romola Sinha

Military

• Subhas Chandra Bose, founder, Indian National Army
• General Jayanto Nath Chaudhuri, Indian Army Chief during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965
• Admiral Adhar Kumar Chatterji, Indian Navy Chief between 1966 and 1970.
• Air Commodore Sudhindra Kumar Majumdar (1927–2011), India's first military helicopter pilot
• Air Marshal Subroto Mukherjee, former Head of Indian Air Force
• Chief of the Air Staff Designate Arup Raha, 24th chief of Indian Air Force.
• Indra Lal Roy, first Indian (pre Independence) flying ace
• General Shankar Roychowdhury, former Indian Army Chief
• Flight Lieutenant Suhas Biswas, recipient of Ashoka Chakra
• Captain Man Bahadur Rai, recipient of Ashoka Chakra
• Air Vice Marshal Madhavendra Banerji, recipient of Maha Vir Chakra

Art

Early modern period

• Abanindranath Tagore
• Gaganendranath Tagore
• Nandalal Bose
• Kalipada Ghoshal
• Mukul Dey
• Jamini Roy
• Ramkinkar Baij
• Binode Bihari Mukherjee
• Sailoz Mookherjea

From mid-twentieth century

• Anil Karanjai
• Bikash Bhattacharjee
• Chintamani Kar
• Ganesh Pyne
• Hemen Majumdar
• Jahar Dasgupta
• Jogen Chowdhury
• Paresh Maity
• Paritosh Sen
• Rabin Mondal
• Samir Mondal
• Somenath Hore

Film and photography

• Dulal Dutta
• Subrata Mitra, cinematographer
• Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri
• Ajoy Kar, cinematographer, filmmaker, screenwriter
• Hrishikesh Mukherjee,Indian film director, editor and writer.
• Satyajit Roy, filmmaker, screenwriter, author, illustrator and music composer
• Mrinal Sen, filmmaker, screenwriter, autho
• Rituparno Ghosh, filmmaker
• Tarun Majumdar, filmmaker, screenwriter, author, illustrator
• Goutam Ghose, filmmaker, cinematographer, and music composer
• Suman Ghosh (director), filmmaker, documentary filmmaker
• Atiul islam, filmmaker, screenwriter.

Music

Composers

Performers (instrumental)

• Allauddin Khan, sarod and multi-instrumentalist
• Ali Akbar Khan, sarod
• Annapurna Devi, surbahar
• Buddhadeb Dasgupta, sarod
• Manilal Nag, sitar
• Nikhil Banerjee, sitar
• Ravi Shankar, sitar
• Radhika Mohan Maitra, Sarod and Mohanveena
• Sankha Chatterjee, tabla
• Shankar Ghosh, tabla
• Pannalal Ghosh, flute
• Jnan Prakash Ghosh, Harmonium and tabla

Performers (vocal)

Classical

• Gopeshwar Banerjee
• Naina Devi
• Ajoy Chakrabarty, vocal
• Bishnupur Gharana
• Tarapada Chakraborty
• Kaushiki Chakraborty

Songs of Tagore and his contemporaries

Modern

Nazrul geeti

Movies

Directors

Actors

Actresses

Cinematographer

Editor

Dance

• Uday Shankar
• Amala Shankar
• Mamata Shankar
• Sharmila Biswas

Doctors

• B.C. Roy
• S. K. Burman
• Subhash Mukhopadhyay
• Nilratan Sircar
• Radha Gobinda Kar
• Rafiuddin Ahmed (dentist)
• Upendranath Brahmachari
• Sambhu Nath De
• Kadambini Ganguly
• Tabitha Solomon
• Madhusudan Gupta

Drama/theatre

Magicians

• Ganapati Chakraborty
• Amin Suhrawardy
• P. C. Sorcar
• P. C. Sorcar Jr.
• P. C. Sorcar, Young
• Maneka Sorcar

Politicians and revolutionaries

Pre-modern

• Shashanka
• Gopala
• Dharmapala
• Devapala
• Mahipala
• Ballal Sen
• Lakshman Sen

Colonial period

• Titumir
• Satyendranath Tagore
• Romesh Chunder Dutt
• Lord Satyendra Prasanna Sinha
• Nripendra Narayan, philanthropist and ruler of Cooch Behar

Indian freedom fighters

Early figures

• Durjan Singh, leader of Chuar Rebellion
• Rani Shiromani, queen of Karnagarh and leader of Chuar Rebellion
• Surendranath Banerjee
• Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee

Twentieth century

Politicians

Others

• Abul Barkat

Donation and social welfare

Old Calcutta / Bengal legends

• Raja Nabakrishna Deb
• Raja Radhakanta Deb, published two Sanskrit dictionaries used by Westerners
• Gobindram Mitter
• Anil Kumar Gain
• Mutty Lal Seal
• Bijoy Chand Mahtab
• Uday Chand Mahtab
• Mother Teresa
• Manindra Chandra Nandy, Maharaja of Cossimbazar

Sports

Chess

• Dibyendu Barua, Grandmaster
• Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Grandmaster
• Nisha Mohota, first woman Grandmaster of West Bengal

Cricket

• Arun Lal
• Benu Dasgupta
• Deep Dasgupta
• Gopal Bose
• Jhulan Goswami
• Pankaj Roy
• Priyanka Roy
• Probir Sen
• Rumeli Dhar
• Ambar Roy
• Saba Karim
• Sourav Ganguly
• Subrata Guha
• Saradindu Mukherjee
• Ashok Dinda
• Montu Banerjee
• Manoj Tiwary
• Nirode Chowdhury
• Wriddhiman Saha
• Shreevats Goswami
• Shute Banerjee
• Subroto Banerjee
• Utpal Chatterjee

Football

• P. K. Banerjee
• Samar Banerjee
• Shibdas Bhaduri
• Subrata Bhattacharya
• Gostho Pal
• Krishanu Dey
• Sailen Manna
• Chuni Goswami
• Gautam Sarkar
• Arnab Mondal
• Abhijit Mondal

Lawn tennis

• Leander Paes, noted lawn tennis player of India
• Jaidip Mukerjea

Squash

• Saurav Ghosal, currently highest ranked Indian player
• Ritwik Bhattacharya, currently second highest ranked Indian player

Bodybuilding

• Manohar Aich, Mr. Universe, 1952
• Monotosh Roy, Mr. Universe, 1951
• Bishnu Charan Ghosh, Noted bodybuilder and hathayogi

Swimming

• Arati Saha, first Asian woman to swim English Channel in 1959
• Bula Choudhury, first Indian woman to swim the English Channel twice
• Mihir Sen, first Indian to swim across the English Channel in 1958
• Prasanta Karmakar, para swimmer, 2010 Commonwealth Games, bronze medal
• Masudur Rahman Baidya, world's first physically handicapped swimmer to swim across the Strait of Gibraltar

Table tennis

• Subhajit Saha, Commonwealth games gold medalist
• Mouma Das, table tennis player
• Poulomi Ghatak, table tennis player
• Ankita Das, table tennis player, 2012 Summer Olympics; participant in women's singles event, 2014 Commonwealth Games; participant in women's doubles even
• Soumyajit Ghosh, table tennis player; as of January 2013, his rank is 1st in India and 68th in Asia; 2014 Commonwealth Games, Participant in men's doubles event

Others

• Anil Mondal, Indian weightlifter.
• Arjun Atwal, golfer
• Anirban Lahiri, Indian golfer
• Balaram Bose, philanthropist
• Chhanda Gain, mountaineering, first Bengali woman to climb Mount Everest
• Dipa Karmakar, Indian artistic gymnast; 2014 Commonwealth Games, bronze medal; 2010 Commonwealth Games participant
• Jyotirmoyee Sikdar, athletics, double gold medallist at Bangkok Asiad, 1996
• Joydeep Karmakar, Indian shooter, 2012 Summer Olympics; qualified to represent India in men's 50m rifle prone event; 2014 Commonwealth Games participant
• Mohammad Ali Qamar, boxing, Commonwealth games gold medalist
• Mohammed Ali Qamar, Indian boxer, 2002 Commonwealth Games, gold medal
• Sukhen Dey, Indian weightlifter; 2014 Commonwealth Games, gold medal; 2010 Commonwealth Games, gold medal

Industry/business

• Jagat Seth
• Dwarakanath Tagore
• Diptendu Pramanick
• Rajen Mookerjee
• S. K. Burman
• Ghanshyam Das Birla
• Jugal Kishore Birla
• Ram Nath Goenka
• Madhav Prasad Birla
• Rajat Kumar Gupta
• Purnendu Chatterjee
• Sadhan Dutt
• Subir Raha
• Sumantra Ghoshal
• Pritish Chakraborty
• Alamohan Das
• Dilip Shanghvi

Other areas

• Ashis Nandy, author, political psychologist
• Subroto Mukerjee
• Shankar Roychowdhury
• William Tolly
• P. C. Sorcar, Jr., magician from Kolkata
• Arup Raha
• Narayan Debnath