Proud? Excited? On cloud nine? Isn’t that how we feel when we win a Prize. At times, we start to jump up and down just like the proud peacock. This week as the Nobel Memorial Prizes were being announced, I could for the first time feel how prestigious it was to win the same not only for oneself but also for the family, community and the country of the winner. The curious cat in me started thinking and I wanted to find out how many Indians have won the Nobel Memorial Prize.
Literature: The first Indian to win a Nobel Memorial Prize was Rabindranath Tagore. He was awarded the Prize in 1913 for his poetry that was considered “sensitive, fresh and beautiful verses”. Till date, he remains the only Indian to win a Nobel Memorial Prize in this category.
Physics: In the year 1930, Sir C V Raman was awarded the prize for his “work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect”. This effect is now named as Raman Effect. The other Indian to have won in this category is the astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar as he had “developed a theoretical model explaining the structure of white dwarf stars” which led to better mathematical models for understanding the evolution of stars. He was awarded the prize in 1983
Medicine: The only person of Indian origin to have won a Nobel Memorial Prize in the year 1968 in the field of medicine is Har Gobind Khorana for interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis which furthered the understanding of how cells control the synthesis of proteins.
Chemistry: In the year 2009, Sir Venki Ramakrishnan was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Chemistry for his studies of the structure and function of the ribosome (Ribosomes are macromolecular machines, found within all living cells, that perform biological protein synthesis).
Economics: In this category, the prize has been awarded to two Indians. Prof. Amartya Sen received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in the year 1998 for his research and contributions to welfare economics. Prof. Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee was awarded the 2019 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.
Peace: This is the most popular class of the Nobel Memorial Prize and two Indians have been awarded the same until date. Mother Teresa was awarded the prize under this list in 1979 in recognition of her efforts in providing help and humanity to the suffering. The other Indian to be awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize under this class is Kailash Satyarthi. His struggle against the suppression of children (child labour) and for the right of all children to education won him this award.
Please Note: Three other Nobel Memorial Prize winners have had an Indian connection -
Ronald Ross (awarded in 1902 under Medicine) and Rudyard Kipling (awarded in 1907 under Literature) were born in India and Dalai Lama (awarded in 1989 under Peace) is a resident of India.
I enjoyed reading about these great personalities and would strongly recommend the same. If you would like to share further interesting facts about the Nobel Memorial Prize winners from India, please feel free to leave your comments below.
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