Rabindranath Tagore
1861–1941
Gitanjali
The first Asian Nobel laureate — poet, novelist, playwright, composer, and the defining cultural figure of modern Bengal. He wrote the national anthems of two nations.
Read full entry →
Sarojini Naidu
1879–1949
Indian Weavers
Poet and freedom fighter, the first Indian woman to lead the Indian National Congress. Gandhi called her the Nightingale of India.
Read full entry →
Kamala Das
1934–2009
My Grandmother's House
The most confessional voice in Indian English poetry — who made female desire a legitimate literary subject and shocked a generation with her frank memoir My Story.
Read full entry →
A.K. Ramanujan
1929–1993
Obituary
Poet, folklorist, linguist, and translator — the most intellectually complete figure in Indian English literature, equally significant in three literary traditions.
Read full entry →
Nissim Ezekiel
1924–2004
Night of the Scorpion
The father of Indian poetry in English — who made Bombay his subject and mentored an entire generation through his magazine Quest.
Read full entry →