The Greatest Indian

A list of 100 names was presented to and compiled by a 28-member jury composed of actors, writers, sportspersons, entrepreneurs, and men and women of distinction in their fields.[3] This jury included N. Ram (former Editor-In-Chief of The Hindu), Vinod Mehta (Editor-in-Chief of Outlook), Soli Sorabjee (Former Attorney General of India), Sharmila Tagore (Bollywood actress and former Chairperson of the Censor Board of India), Harsha Bhogle (sports), Chetan Bhagat (author),[4] Ramachandra Guha (historian),[3] Shashi Tharoor (politician and author), Nandan Nilekani, Rajkumar Hirani, Shabana Azmi and Arun Jaitley.[5] They finalized a list of the top 50 nominees, which was released to the public on 4 June 2012, by CNN-IBN Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai. A three-way process was then used to assess a top ten, in which equal weight was given to the votes of the jury, an online poll, and a market survey conducted by the Nielsen Company.[3] 7,129,050 people participated in this phase of the online poll.[6] Public voting was conducted from 4 June to 25 June,[1] with the final top ten were announced on 3 July.[7] A second round of voting followed, using the same method as the first, lasting from 1 July to 1 August.[1] Individuals were able to cast votes either by visiting www.thegreatestindian.in or by calling a unique number given to each of the nominees.[7] Nearly 20,000,000 people voted in this round of the survey.[8] The announcement of the winner was made on 11 August,[9] with a special finale, hosted by Amitabh Bachchan and featuring other Indian celebrities, airing on 14 and 15 August (Independence Day).[10]

The top 10 nominees have all received the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award of the Republic of India.

List of the top ten "greatest Indians".[11]

Rank	Image	Name	State	Notability
1		B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956)	Maharashtra	Ambedkar is recognised as the "founding father of the Republic of India".[12][13][14][15] Polymath scholar, Social reformer and leader of the Dalits,[16][17] Ambedkar was the architect of the Indian Constitution and also served as the first Law Minister of India.[18] He was given the honorific title "Babasaheb" ("respected father"). Ambedkar predominantly campaigned against the social discrimination with Dalits, the Hindu caste system.[19] He was associated with the Dalit Buddhist movement and accepted Buddhism as a religion along with his more than half a million followers on 14 October 1956.[20] Ambedkar revived Buddhism in India.[21][22]
2		A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (1931–2015)	Tamil Nadu	Aerospace and defence scientist, Kalam was involved in the development of India's first satellite launch vehicle SLV III and was the architect of Integrated Guided Missile Development Program. He worked for Indian National Committee for Space Research, Indian Space Research Organisation, Defence Research and Development Laboratory and was appointed as the Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister, Secretary to Department of Defence Research and Development and Director General of Defence Research and Development Organisation.[23] Later, he served as the eleventh President of India from 2002 until 2007.[24]
3		Vallabhbhai Patel (1875–1950)	Gujarat	Widely known as the "Iron Man of India",[25] Patel was an independence activist and first Deputy Prime Minister of India (1947–50). Post independence, "Sardar" ("Leader") Patel worked with V. P. Menon towards dissolving 555 princely states into the Indian union.[26][27]
4		Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964)	Uttar Pradesh	Independence activist and author, Nehru is the first and the longest-serving Prime Minister of India (1947–64). Nehru himself was Prime Minister of India at the time of receiving Bharat Ratna award.[28][29]
5		Mother Teresa (1910–1997)	West Bengal (Born in Skopje, now North Macedonia)	"Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta" was a catholic nun and the founder of the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation, Which manages homes for people who are dying of HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her humanitarian work in 1979 and was beatified on 19 October 2003 by Pope John Paul II and canonised on 4 September 2016 by Pope Francis.[30]
6		J. R. D. Tata (1904–1993)	Maharashtra	Industrialist, philanthropist, and aviation pioneer, Tata founded India's first airline Air India. He is the founder of various institutes including Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Tata Memorial Hospital, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Tata Motors, TCS, National Institute of Advanced Studies, and National Centre for the Performing Arts.[31][32]
7		Indira Gandhi (1917–1984)	Uttar Pradesh	Known as the "Iron Lady of India",[33] Gandhi was the Prime Minister of India during 1966–77 and 1980–84.[28] During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, her government supported Bangladesh Liberation War which led to the formation of a new country, Bangladesh.[34]
8		Sachin Tendulkar (b. 1973)	Maharashtra	Having debuted in 1989, Tendulkar played 664 international cricket matches in a career spanning over two decades. He holds various cricket records including the only player to have scored one hundred international centuries, the first batsman to score a double century in a One Day International and the only player to complete more than 30,000 runs in both ODI and Test cricket.[35][36]
9		Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1924–2018)	Madhya Pradesh	Parliamentarian for over four decades, Vajpayee was elected nine times to the Lok Sabha, twice to the Rajya Sabha and served as the Prime Minister of India for three terms; 1996, 1998, 1999–2004.[28] He was Minister of External Affairs during 1977–79 and was awarded the "Best Parliamentarian" in 1994.[37]
10		Lata Mangeshkar (b. 1929)	Maharashtra	Widely credited as the "nightingale of India",[38] playback singer Mangeshkar started her career in the 1940s and has sung songs in over 36 languages.[39] In 1989, Mangeshkar was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India's highest award in cinema.[40]

Of 50 nominees, 15 have received the Bharat Ratna and 6 are women. The oldest living nominees at the time of the poll were Ravi Shankar (92), M. S. Swaminathan (87) and Atal Bihari Vajpayee (88), while Sachin Tendulkar (39) was the youngest.[41]

1. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956)
2. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (1931–2015)
3. Vallabhbhai Patel (1875–1950)
4. Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964)
5. Mother Teresa (1910–1997)
6. J. R. D. Tata (1904–1993)
7. Indira Gandhi (1917–1984)
8. Sachin Tendulkar (b. 1973)
9. Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1924–2018)
10. Lata Mangeshkar (b. 1929)
11. Jayaprakash Narayan (1902–1979) social reformer
12. Kanshi Ram (1934–2006) politician and Founder of the BSP
13. Ram Manohar Lohia (1910–1967) Socialist leader
14. C. Rajagopalachari (1878–1972) First Indian Governor-General of India
15. Sam Manekshaw (1914–2008) Chief of the Army Staff of the Indian Army
16. Ajith Kumar (b. 1971) actor,Racing Driver, Pilot
17. Baba Amte (1914–2008) social worker
18. Ela Bhatt (b. 1933) founder Self-Employed Women's Association of India
19. Vinoba Bhave (1895–1982) advocate of nonviolence
20. Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay (1903–1988) freedom fighter
21. Ravi Shankar (1920–2012) musician
22. M. S. Subbulakshmi (1916–2004) Carnatic vocalist
23. Dr. Syama Prasad Mukherjee (1901–1953) Politician and Founder of Jansangh
24. Bismillah Khan (1916–2006) musician
25. R. K. Narayan (1906–2001) writer
26. R. K. Laxman (1921–2015) cartoonist, illustrator, and humorist
27. B. K. S. Iyengar (1918–2014) founder of Iyengar Yoga
28. Amitabh Bachchan (b. 1942) film actor
29. Raj Kapoor (1924–1988) director of Hindi cinema
30. Kamal Hasan (b. 1954) actor, director
31. Satyajit Ray (1921–1992) filmmaker
32. A. R. Rahman (b. 1967) composer and philanthropist
33. Kishore Kumar (1929–1987) film playback singer
34. Dilip Kumar (b. 1922) actor, producer and activist
35. Dev Anand (1923–2011) producer and actor
36. Mohammad Rafi (1924–1980) singer
37. Homi Bhabha (1909–1966) nuclear physicist
38. Dhirubhai Ambani (1932–2002) business tycoon, founder of Reliance Industries
39. Verghese Kurien (1921–2012) social entrepreneur
40. Ghanshyam Das Birla (1894–1983) businessman
41. N. R. Narayana Murthy (b. 1946) IT industrialist
42. Vikram Sarabhai (1919–1971) scientist
43. M. S. Swaminathan (b. 1925) geneticist
44. Ramnath Goenka (1904–1991) newspaper publisher
45. Amartya Sen (b. 1933) philosopher and economist
46. E. Sreedharan (b. 1932) civil engineer
47. Kapil Dev (b. 1959) cricketer
48. Sunil Gavaskar (b. 1949) cricketer
49. Dhyan Chand (1905–1979) hockey player
50. Viswanathan Anand (b. 1969) chess Grandmaster
51. Milkha Singh (b. 1935) field sprinter

Babasaheb Ambedkar was generally approved of as the greatest Indian, with several prominent scholars writing articles congratulating him, including Ramachandra Guha[3] and S. Anand.[42]

• Greatest Bengali of all time
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• Gulzar; Nihalani, Govind; Chatterjee, Saibal, eds. (2003). Encyclopaedia of Hindi Cinema. Popular Prakashan. ISBN 978-81-7991-066-5.

• A Measure Of The Man