The Nobel Prize is a set of annual international awards bestowed on "those who conferred the greatest benefit on humankind" in the fields of Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace and Economic Sciences,[1] instituted by Alfred Nobel's last will, which specified that a part of his fortune be used to create the prizes. Each laureate (recipient) receives a gold medal, a diploma and a sum of money, which is decided annually by the Nobel Foundation.[2] The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awards the Nobel Prize in Physics, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel; the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute awards the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine; the Swedish Academy awards the Nobel Prize in Literature; and the Norwegian Nobel Committee awards the Nobel Peace Prize. They are widely recognised as one of the most prestigious honours awarded in the aforementioned fields.[3]
First instituted in 1901, the Nobel Prize has been awarded to a total of 989 individuals (930 men and 59 women) and 30 organisations .[4] Among the recipients, 12 are Indians of which 5 are Indian citizens and 7 are of Indian ancestry or residency. Rabindranath Tagore was the first Indian citizen to be awarded and also first Asian to be awarded in 1913. Mother Teresa is the only woman among the list of recipients.[5] Sri Aurobindo, the Indian poet, philosopher, nationalist and developer of Integral yoga, was nominated unsuccessfully for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1943 and for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950.[6] [7]
On 1 December 1999, the Norwegian Nobel Committee confirmed that Mahatma Gandhi was nominated unsuccessfully for the Peace Prize five times (from 1937 to 1939, in 1947 and a few days before he was assassinated in January 1948).[8] In 2006, Geir Lundestad, the Secretary of Norwegian Nobel Committee, cited it as "the greatest omission in our 106-year history".[9] [10] [11]
| Year | Image | Name | Family | Field (Nobel Prize/Nobel Memorial Prize) | Reason | Born | Died | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1913 | scope=row | or (Author and Composer of National Anthem of India, Jana Gana Mana, it was written in Sadhu/Pure/Classical Bengali language by him in 1911, he is the only Indian to win Nobel Prize in Literature) | Bengali Hindu Brahmin family, Khulna, Bengal, now Bangladesh (East Bengal) | Literature | Gitanjali (A collection of Poems written in Sadhu/Pure/Classical Bengali language by him in 1910) | 7 May 1861, Calcutta, Bengal, now West Bengal | 7 August 1941, Calcutta, Bengal, now West Bengal | ||
| 1930 | scope=row | (Only Indian to win Nobel Prize in Science/Physics) | Tamil Hindu Brahmin family, Thanjavur, Madras Presidency, now Tamil Nadu (South India) | Physics | Discovery of Raman Effect/Scattering by him in 1928 | 7 November 1888, Tiruchirapalli, Madras Presidency, now Tamil Nadu (South India) | 21 November 1970, Bangalore, Mysore State, now Karnataka (South India) | ||
| 1979 | scope=row | Mother Teresa | Macedonian Christian family, Kosovo Vilayet, Ottoman Empire, now North Macedonia (Europe) | Peace | Humanitarianism (Missionaries of Charity is a Catholic Christian centralised religious institute of consecrated life of Pontifical Right for Women, established by her in 1950, it is initially dedicated to serving the Poorest of the Poor in India) | 26 August 1910, Kosovo Vilayet, Ottoman Empire, now North Macedonia (Europe) | 5 September 1997, Calcutta, West Bengal | ||
| 1998 | scope=row | (Only Indian to win Nobel Prize/Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics) | Bengali Hindu family, Wari, Dhaka, Bengal, now Bangladesh (East Bengal) | Economics | Contribution to Welfare Economics | 3 November 1933, Birbhum, Bengal, now West Bengal | - | ||
| 2014 | scope=row | or Kailash Sharma | Hindu Brahmin family, Vidisha, Madhya Bharat State, now Madhya Pradesh | Peace | Humanitarianism (Struggle against the oppression of children and young people and the right of all children to education) | 11 January 1954, Vidisha, Madhya Bharat State, now Madhya Pradesh | - |
| Year | scope colspan="2" width=200px | Laureate | Country of residence | Field | Rationale | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1968 | scope=row | (born in Raipur,Punjab, British India, now Pakistan) | Physiology or Medicine | "For their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis." | [13] | ||
| 1983 | scope=row | (born in Lahore,Punjab, British India, now Pakistan) | Physics | "For his theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars." | [14] | ||
| 2009 | scope=row | / (born in Chidambaram, India) | Chemistry | "For studies of the structure and function of the ribosome." | [15] | ||
| 2019 | (born in Mumbai, India) | Economics | "For his experimental approach to alleviating Global Poverty" | [16] |
| Year | scope colspan="2" width=200px | Laureate | Country of residence | Field | Rationale | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1902 | scope=row | (born in Almora, British India) | Physiology or Medicine | "For his work on malaria, by which he has shown how it enters the organism and thereby has laid the foundation for successful research on this disease and methods of combating it." | [17] | |||
| 1907 | scope=row | (born in Bombay, British India) | Literature | "In consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author." | [18] | |||
| 1989 | scope=row |  India(born in Taktser, Republic of China) | Peace | "For his consistent resistance to the use of violence in his people’s struggle to regain their liberty." | [19] [20] | |||
| 2001 | scope=row | (born in Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago) | Literature | "For having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories." | [21] |