List of Banaras Hindu University people

The list of Banaras University people includes notable graduates, professors and administrators affiliated with Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi. For a list of Vice-Chancellors, see List of Vice-Chancellors of Banaras Hindu University.

Nobel laureates

• C. V. Raman, the Nobel Prize winner in Physics in 1930 and Bharat Ratna laureate in 1954 (permanent visiting professor at BHU)[1]

Heads of state and government

• A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, 11th President of India, 2002-2007;Bharat Ratna laureate in 1997 (visiting professor, taught technology at BHU)[2]
• Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala (B.A. 1934), former Prime Minister of Nepal
• Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, first Vice President of India, 1952-1962; second President of India, 1962-1967; Bharat Ratna laureate in 1954 (the Vice Chancellor of BHU from 17 September 1939 to 16 January 1948)
• Krishan Kant (M.Sc.), former Vice President of India[3]

Notable alumni

Arts, humanities and social sciences

Name	Class Year	Degree	College	Notability	References
Amarnath Sehgal				Indian sculptor, painter and poet, Padma Bhushan (2008)	[4]
Bhupen Hazarika	1944; 1946	BA; MA		singer, poet, filmmaker; Recipient of the Bharat Ratna	[5]
Byomakesh Mohanty		MA		painter	[6]
Harivansh Rai Bachchan				Hindi poet	[7]
Osnat Elkabir				Israeli singer, dancer and theatre director
Patrick Moutal		B.Sc., M.Sc., M.A., Ph.D.	1976; 1978; 1979; 1983	French musician and Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres awardee
Sandeep Das		BA (English Literature)		tabla player; Recipient of the Grammy Award

• Bettina Baumer, Austrian scholar and academic
• Manu Bhandari (M.A. 1953), writer ashok Bhandari 1975 Magician and Harmonica player
• Radha Burnier (B.A., M.A), theosophist
• Kamalesh Chandra Chakrabarty (M.Sc., Ph.D.), Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India (2009-2014)
• Ram Charan, business consultant
• Shiba Prasad Chatterjee, geographer
• Koenraad Elst, Belgian scholar
• Amara Ranatunga, Sri Lankan songstress
• Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar (B.Sc. 1926, M.Sc. 1928), second Sarsanghchalak (Supreme Chief) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
• K. N. Govindacharya (M.Sc. 1962), environmentalist, social activist
• Shivamurthy Shivacharya Mahaswamiji (Ph.D.), social activist, educationist
• Vina Mazumdar, feminist, academic, pioneer of women's studies
• Ananda Shankar, Hindustani classical musician
• Raimon Panikkar, Spanish theologian
• Robert M. Pirsig, American philosopher[8]
• K. V. K. Raju, entrepreneur, founder of Nagarjuna Group
• Paul William Roberts (studied Sanskrit), writer
• Sameer (M.Com.), lyricist
• Ritwik Sanyal (M.A., Ph.D. 1980), Hindustani classical musician, Dhrupad vocalist
• Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena, poet
• Kamala Shankar (M.Sc., Ph.D.), Hindustani classical musician
• Vibhuti Narayan Singh (M.A.), last Maharaja of Benares; social activist; Chancellor of BHU
• Moti BA (B.A.), Bhojpuri Language Poet and Author

Humanities and Social Sciences

Name	Class Year	Degree	College	Notability	References
Ahmad Hasan Dani	M.A.	1944		Pakistani archaeologist and historian
Awadh Kishore Narain	M.A.	1947		archaeologist, historian, academic
Bellikoth Raghunath Shenoy	MA	1929		classical liberal economist
Colin Turnbull	MA			British-American anthropologist
Ram Raj Pant	LLB; MA	1941; 1943		founder of Nepal Law College; pioneering linguist of Nepali language

Literature

• Sitaram Chaturvedi (B.A., M.A., Ph.D.), playwright, academic
• Janki Ballabh Shastri, Indian Hindi poet, writer and critic, Padma Shri (2010)

Politicians

• Ved Prakash Goyal, politician
• Rajesh Kumar Mishra, politician
• Yadunandan Sharma (B.A. 1929), Indian independence activist, farmers' rights activist
• Shyama Charan Shukla, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh
• Veena Pandey, (B.A., M.A., B.Ed, LLB, Ph.D.), Former M.L.C., National Executive Member, B.J.P. Former Vice President Student Union B.H.U.

Name	Class Year	Degree	College	Notability	References
Amod Prasad Upadhyay				Minister of Education and Sports, Nepal
Anil Srivastava
Ashok Mitra		M.A.		politician, finance Minister of West Bengal
Bhola Paswan Shastri,				Former Chief Minister Of Bihar
Janaki Ballabh Patnaik	1949	M.A.		politician, former Chief Minister of Odisha
Jagjivan Ram				4th Deputy Prime Minister of India
Mahendra Nath Pandey		M. A., Ph. D. Hindi		politician, MP, Minister in union cabinet
Manoj Sinha				Member of parliament
Mohamed Ayub	1985	M. Surgery		MLA in Sixteenth Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh
Manoj Tiwari
Sarat Chandra Sinha				politician, Chief Minister of Assam
Shankar Dayal Singh		BA		Member of Lok Sabha

Science and technology

• Prem Saran Satsangi Sahab, Leader of Radhasoami Faith,[9] Dayalbagh. System Scientist and Physicist. (Ex Dean IIT Delhi,[10] EX-Vice chancellor, Dayalbagh Educational Institute[11])
• Ashok Agarwal (B.Sc. 1975, M.Sc. 1977, Ph.D. 1983), pioneer in reproductive biology
• Girish Saran Agarwal (M.Sc.), physicist specialising in quantum optics; Regents Professor in the Department of Physics of Oklahoma State University; winner of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (Physics) in 1982; elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2008[12]
• Pulickel Ajayan (B.Tech. 1985), pioneer in nanotechnology
• Nikesh Arora (B.Tech. 1989), senior vice president and chief business officer at Google
• Meenakshi Banerjee, scientist
• Bir Bhanu, (B.Tech. 1972), Electronics Engineering, Bourns Presidential Chair in Engineering and Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering[13] University of California, Riverside, California
• Alok Bhattacharya, Parasitologist and Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
• Achal Das Bohra (B.Sc. 1941), government administrator, engineer
• S. Ganesh (PhD 1996), molecular geneticist, N-Bios laureate [14]
• Vinod Kumar Gaur, seismologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
• Kota Harinarayana (B.Tech. 1965), scientist, academic
• Aldas Janaiah (Ph.D. 1995), agricultural scientist
• Arvind Mohan Kayastha (B.Sc. 1979, M.Sc. 1982, Ph.D. 1988), scientist, academic
• Akhlesh Lakhtakia (B.Tech. 1979, D.Sc. 2006), pioneered sculptured thin films
• Subhash Chandra Lakhotia, cytogeneticist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
• Devendra Lal, geophysicist; winner of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (Physics) in 1967; elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1979[12]
• Shrikant Lele, metallurgical engineer, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
• Anand Mohan (B.Sc. 1976, Ph.D. 1983), geologist
• Basanti Dulal Nagchaudhuri (B.Sc. 1936), physicist[15]
• Nishtala Appala Narasimham (M.Sc. 1945, Ph.D. 1952), physicist
• Jayant Vishnu Narlikar (B.Sc. 1957), theoretical physicist, Padma Vibhushan (1965)
• Paramasivam Natarajan, photochemist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
• Sri Niwas, geophysicist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
• Ganesh Prasad Pandey, organic chemist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
• Virendra Nath Pandey, Molecular virologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
• T. V. Ramakrishnan (B.Sc. 1959, M.Sc. 1961), theoretical physicist; winner of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (Physics) in 1982; elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2000[12]
• Shyam Sundar Rai, seismologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
• Madisetti Anant Ramlu, founder and first Head of the Department of Mining Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
• Ayyagari Sambasiva Rao, founder of ECIL
• C. N. R. Rao (M.Sc. 1953), chemist; scientific advisor to the Prime Minister of India; Bharat Ratna laureate in 2014[16]
• Ram Harsh Singh, Padmashri awardee 2016, ABMS 1961(BHU), MD(Hons), Ph.D 1969 (BHU), D.Litt. FNA IM, Life-time Distinguished Professor, Faculty of Ayurveda BHU, First Vice Chancellor, Rajasthan Ayurved University, Jodhpur (2003-2006).
• Narla Tata Rao, former chairman of the Andhra Pradesh State Electricity Board[17]
• Palle Rama Rao (Ph.D.), metallurgist and Padma Vibhushan awardee
• Patcha Ramachandra Rao (M.Sc. 1965, Ph.D. 1968), metallurgist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate, Vice Chancellor of BHU
• Udipi Ramachandra Rao (M.Sc. 1952), space scientist, Chairman of ISRO
• N. A. Ramaiah physical chemist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
• Gangadhar J. Sanjayan, bioorganic chemist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
• Mushi Santappa, polymer chemist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
• Debi Prasad Sarkar, Immunologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
• Jagdish Shukla (B.Sc. 1962, M.Sc. 1964, Ph.D. 1971), meteorologist[18]
• Lalji Singh, molecular biologist, Vice Chancellor of BHU[19]
• Nagendra Kumar Singh (B.Sc. 1978, M.Sc. 1980), agricultural scientist; pioneer in mapping plant genomes
• Rishi Narain Singh, geophysicist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
• Manick Sorcar (B.Tech.), artist, engineer, entrepreneur
• Brahm Shanker Srivastava, microbiologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
• Onkar Nath Srivastava (MSc 1961 and PhD 1966), material physicist and a recipient of Padma Shri and Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize
• M. J. Thirumalachar, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
• Satish K. Tripathi (B.Sc., M.Sc.), President of University at Buffalo, The State University of New York[20]
• Prahalad Chunnilal Vaidya, physicist and mathematician; proponent of Vaidya Metric for gravitational fields; Vice Chancellor of Gujarat University
• A. N. Rai ex vc NEHU
• Sandeep Verma, bioorganic chemist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
• Kameshwar C. Wali (M.Sc), research physicist and science writer
• Saket Kushwaha (B.Sc. 1983, M.Sc. 1986, Ph.D. 1992), agricultural economist, VC Rajiv Gandhi University[21][22]

Sports

Name	Class Year	Degree	College	Notability	References
Divya Singh		BA		Captain of Indian Women's Basketball team

Notable faculty

Arts, humanities and social sciences

• Adya Prasad Pandey, Professor in Economics and Former Head Department of Economics, Vice Chancellor Manipur University
• Anant Sadashiv Altekar, Manindra Chandra Nandi Chair of Ancient History & Culture; led archaeological excavation of Mauryan era structures
• C. V. Chandrasekhar, Professor of Performing Arts; Bharata Natyam dancer; Sangeet Natak Akademi Award winner; Kalidas Samman and Padma Bhushan awardee
• Sitaram Chaturvedi, Professor of Literature, playwright
• Amiya Kumar Dasgupta, Professor of Economics (1947–1958); pioneer of economics in Independent India
• Girija Devi, Professor of Performing Arts; Hindustani classical vocalist
• Julius Getman, Visiting Professor of Law
• Chandradhar Sharma Guleri, former Manindra Chandra Nandi Chair in Ancient History and Religion
• Latika Katt, Professor of Visual Arts; sculptor
• Sucheta Kripalani, Professor of Constitutional History[23][24]
• Dalsukh Dahyabhai Malvania, Jain scholar, writer and Padma Bhushan awardee
• Lalmani Misra, Professor of Music; Hindustani classical musician
• Awadh Kishore Narain, Professor of History (1947–1960); Manindra Chandra Nandi Chair of Ancient History & Culture (1960–1971)
• B.C. Nirmal, Professor of Law
• N. Rajam, Professor of Performing Arts
• S. R. Ranganathan, Professor of Library Science (1945–1947); inventor of colon classification and five laws of library science
• Ritwik Sanyal, Professor of Performing Arts; Hindustani classical musician
• Ram Chandra Shukla, Professor of Visual Arts; painter
• Ramchandra Shukla, Professor of Literature
• Gurbachan Singh Talib, Professor of Sikh Studies
• Omkarnath Thakur, Professor of Performing Arts; Hindustani classical musician
• Bindeshwar Pathak (Founder Sulabh International)

Science and technology

• Prem Saran Satsangi Sahab, Leader of Radhasoami Faith,[9] Dayalbagh. System Scientist and Physicist. (Ex Dean IIT Delhi,[10] EX-Vice chancellor, Dayalbagh Educational Institute[11])
• Sir Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar, Professor of Chemistry (1921–1924); co-inventor of Bhatnagar-Mathur Magnetic Interference Balance; founding chairman of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
• Patcha Ramachandra Rao, former Vice Chancellor and Professor of Metallurgy and Material Science
• Prafulla Kumar Jena, former Professor of Metallurgical Engineering[25]
• Madhu Sudan Kanungo, Professor of Biology (1962–2011); pioneer of gerontology; Padma Shri awardee
• Arvind Mohan Kayastha, Professor of Biotechnology
• Shrikant Lele, metallurgical engineer, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
• Veer Bhadra Mishra, former Professor of Civil Engineering; environmentalist; founder of Swatcha Ganga Campaign[26]
• Ganesh Prasad, Professor of Mathematics (1917–1923); mathematician
• Palle Rama Rao, Professor of Metallurgy (1962–1982); scientist; Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan awardee
• Birbal Sahni, Professor of Botany (1920); authority on plant fossils of Gondwana and Jurassic age
• Ram Harsh Singh Padmashri awardee 2016, ABMS 1961(BHU), MD(Hons), Ph.D 1969 (BHU), D.Litt. FNA IM, Life-time Distinguished Professor, Faculty of Ayurveda BHU, First Vice Chancellor, Rajasthan Ayurved University, Jodhpur (2003-2006).
• Onkar Nath Srivastava Professor of the department of physics, material physicist and a recipient of Padma Shri and Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize
• Birendra Bijoy Biswas, lecturer (1952–54); department of botany, recipient of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize
• Jamuna Sharan Singh, ecologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize recipient
• Kamanio Chattopadhyay, materials engineer, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize recipient

References

1. Prakash, Satya (20 May 2014). Vision for Science Education. Allied Publishers. p. 45. ISBN 978-8184249088.
2. Kalam, A. P. J. Abdul (5 September 2012). Turning Points. HarperCollins Publishers. p. 139. ISBN 978-9350295434.
3. "Shri Krishan Kant". Rajya Sabha. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
4. "Renowned sculptor Amarnath Sehgal passes away". Zee News. 28 December 2007. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
5. "Dr. Bhupen Hazarika". bhupenhazarika.com. Retrieved 7 August 2011.
6. "Painter Byomakesh dead". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
7. "Harivansh Rai Bachchan: The bright star of Hindi poetry - Times Of India". indiatimes.com. 19 January 2003. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
8. "Robert Pirsig Bio". amsaw.org. Retrieved 11 August 2011.
9. http://www.dayalbagh.org.in/radhasoami-faith/sant-satguru.htm
10. http://www.iitd.ac.in/
11. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 26 June 2017. Retrieved 21 June 2017.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
12. "Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize: an inspiration for international recognitions" (PDF). Current Science. 107 (2): 164. 25 July 2014. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
13. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 1 October 2016. Retrieved 3 October 2016.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
14. "About the PI". home.iitk.ac.in. 16 January 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
15. "Dr B D Nagchaudhuri passes away". ITC Sangeet Research Academy. Archived from the original on 22 October 2014. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
16. "Bharat Ratna C N R Rao: I expect great things to happen under Modi". Rediff News. 9 November 2014. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
17. "Narla Tata Rao passes away". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 8 April 2007. Retrieved 5 June 2011.
18. "Interview with Prof. Shukla". wmo.int. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
19. "Vice Chancellor Padmashri Dr. Lalji Singh". Banaras Hindu University. Archived from the original on 28 March 2014. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
20. "About Satish K. Tripathi - UB Office of the President". Buffalo.edu. 18 April 2011. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
21. "Prof. Saket Kushwaha at Banaras Hindu University". new.bhu.ac.in. Banaras Hindu University. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
22. "Prof Saket Kushwaha appointed new VC of RGU". Business Standard India. 2 October 2018. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
23. "Kripalani, Shrimati Sucheta". Lok Sabha. Archived from the original on 10 June 2012. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
24. "Indian Coast Guard History". Indian Coast Guard. Archived from the original on 2 May 2012. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
25. "Institute of Advanced Technology and Environmental Studies profile" (PDF). Institute of Advanced Technology and Environmental Studies. 2015. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
26. "Distinguished Alumnus Awards, "BHU Alumni Meet 9th March 2008"". Banaras Hindu University. Retrieved 10 June 2012.