This is a list of notable people connected to the University of Calcutta.
Fourteen heads of state and government, and four Nobel laureates have been associated with the university.
Fellows
- Joseph Baly, Archdeacon of Calcutta, 1872–1883
- Lal Behari Dey, Bengali Indian journalist who became a Christian missionary
- Ralph Thomas Hotchkin Griffith, British Indologist
- Thomas Holbein Hendley, British medical officer in the Indian Medical Service and Indian art connoisseur
- Nawab Abdul Latif, Bengali nineteenth-century educator
- James Wood-Mason, British zoologist, director of the Indian Museum in Calcutta
Faculty
{| class="wikitable"
!Name
!Affiliation
!Notability
!References
|-
|Abandindranath Tagore
|Vice-principal of the Government College of Art and Craft, 1905–1915
|Artist, and one of the pioneers of the Bengal School of Art
|
|-
|Abdur Rahim
|Tagore Professor of Law
|
|
|-
|Abdul Majed Khan
|Islamic history and culture
|Later taught at Victoria University of Wellington
|
|-
|Amitava Raychaudhuri
|Professor in Particle physics and Astroparticle physics, 1980
|Winner of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology
|
|-
|Basanti Dulal Nagchaudhuri
|Palit Professor of Physics, 1953–1959
|
|
|-
|B. N. Mukherjee
|Carmichael Professor of Ancient Indian History and Culture, 1975–1998
|Historian, numismatist, epigraphist and iconographist
|
|-
|Biswa Ranjan Nag
|
|Physicist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
|
|-
|Bhabatarak Bhattacharyya
|
|Structural biologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize laureate
|
|-
|C. V. Raman
|Palit Professor of Physics, 1917–1932
|Winner of the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics
|
|-
|Chinmoy Guha
|Professor of Department of English, 2008–2023
|Ordre des Arts et des Lettres winner, Ordre des Palmes académiques winner
|
|-
|D. R. Bhandarkar
|Carmichael Professor of Ancient Indian History and Culture, 1917–1936
|
|
|-
|Debendra Mohan Bose
|Palit Professor of Physics, 1932–1938
|
|
|-
|Dineshchandra Sircar
|Carmichael Professor of Ancient Indian History and Culture, 1962–1972
|Epigraphist, historian, numismatist and folklorist
|
|-
|Durga Mohan Bhattacharyya
|Professor of Sanskrit at the Scottish Church College
|Sanskrit scholar and Indologist
|
|-
|Nalinaksha Dutt
|Professor of Sanskrit and Pali and head of the Department of Pali
|Sanskrit, Pali, Buddhism
|
|-
|George Thibaut
|Carmichael Professor of Ancient Indian History and Culture, 1912–1917
|Indologist
|
|-
|Harinath De
|
|Linguist, first lecturer of the Department of Linguistics, 1907
|
|-
|Hari Vasudevan
|Professor of History of Europe, 1978–2017
|Historian
|
|-
|Hem Chandra Raychaudhuri
|Carmichael Professor of Ancient Indian History and Culture, 1936–1952
|
|
|-
|Jagadish Chandra Bose
|Professor of physics at Presidency College
|
|
|-
|Kalidas Nag
|Professor of history at the Scottish Church College
|Member of Parliament
|
|-
|Khudiram Das
|Ramtanu Lahiri Professor of Bengali and head of the Department of Modern Indian Languages, 1973–1981
|
|
|-
|Krishna Dhar
|Taught journalism
|Poet and journalist
|
|-
|Malcolm Adiseshiah
|Lecturer at St. Paul's Cathedral Mission College, 1930–1936
|
|
|-
|Mahasweta Devi
|Lecturer at Vijaygarh Jyotish Ray College, 1964–1977
|English literature
|
|-
|Meghnad Saha
|Palit Professor of Physics 1938–1953
|
|
|-
|Mukul Dey
|Principal of the Government College of Art and Craft, 1928–1943
|Artist
|
|-
|Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri
|Professor at Gurudas College of Department of Sanskrit 1975–2010
|Writer and Indologist
|
|-
|Rajendra Prasad
|Professor of economics at Calcutta City College
|1st president of India
|
|-
|-
|Rabindranath Tagore
|Ramtanu Lahiri Professor in 1932
|Winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature
||
|-
|Sadhan Basu
|Professor of Physical chemistry, 1965-1985
|Winner of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology
|
|-
|Subodh Sarkar
|Professor at City College, Kolkata, 1984-2023
|English literature
|
|-
|Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
|Professor of Philosophy occupying the King George V Chair of Mental and Moral Science, 1921–1932
|2nd president of India
|
|-
|Satyendra Nath Bose
|Lecturer of Physics, 1916–1921
|Physicist known for his work in the field of quantum mechanics
|
|-
|Suniti Kumar Chatterji
|Khaira Professor of Indian Linguistics and Phonetics
|Linguist, educationist, and Padma Bhushan recipient
|
|-
|Surendranath Banerjee
|Professor at Vidyasagar College 1875-1908
|English literature
|
|-
|Upendranath Brahmachari
|Lecturer of medicine
|Knighted by the British government
|
|-
|Vishnu Kant Shastri
|Lecturer of Hindi
|Governor of Uttar Pradesh
|
|}
Alumni
Arts
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Name
!Class
year
!Degree
!College
!class="unsortable"|Notability
!class="unsortable"|References
|-
|Abanindranath Tagore
|
|
|Government College of Art & Craft
|Artist
|
|-
|Abhishek Chatterjee
|
|
|Seth Anandram Jaipuria College
|Actor
|
|-
|-
|Anjan Chattopadhyay
|
|
|
|Sitarist
|
|-
|Anup Ghoshal
|
|
|Asutosh College
|Playback singer
|
|-
|Abir Chatterjee
|1998
|
|Seth Anandram Jaipuria College
|Actor
|
|-
|Ananya Chatterjee
|
|
|Jogamaya Devi College
|Actress
|
|-
|Arjun Chakrabarty
|2008
|
|St. Xavier's College, Kolkata
|Actor, anchor
|
|-
|Badal Sircar
|
|
|Scottish Church College, Bengal Engineering College
|Dramatist
|
|-
|Basdeo Bissoondoyal
|
|
|
|Pioneering educator, fighter for the right to vote in British Mauritius
|
|-
|Biman Bihari Das
|
|
|Government College of Art & Craft
|Sculptor
|
|-
|Birendra Krishna Bhadra
|
|
|Scottish Church College
|Playwright, actor, narrator and theatre director
|
|-
|Bhaswar Chatterjee
|1993
|
|Asutosh College
|Actor, writer, social activist
|
|-
|Bhupen Hazarika
|
|IA
|Cotton
|Playback singer, lyricist, musician, poet and film-maker
|
|-
|Bickram Ghosh
|
|
|St. Xavier's College, Kolkata
|Musician
|
|-
|Buddhadeb Dasgupta
|
|
|Scottish Church College
|Film director
|
|-
|Bulbul Chowdhury
|
|
|Scottish Church College
|Artist
|
|-
|Clarence Barlow
|
|
|
|Composer
|
|-
|Debaki Bose
|
|
|Vidyasagar College
|Film director
|
|-
|Debshankar Haldar
|
|
|Scottish Church College
|Theatre Actor
|
|-
|Diptendu Pramanick
|
|
|Scottish Church College
|First Secretary of the Eastern India Motion Pictures Association; former secretary of Film Federation of India (1953–54)
|
|-
|Goutam Ghose
|
|
|
|Banga Bibhushan Award winner, film director
|
|-
|Jeet Gannguli
|
|
|
|Score composer, music director, singer
|
|-
|Jeet
|
|
|Bhawanipur Education Society College
|Indian actor
|
|-
|Jisshu Sengupta
|
|
|Heramba Chandra College
|Indian actor
|
|-
|Kumar Sanu
|
|
|
|Singer
|
|-
|Koel Mallick
|2000
|
|Gokhale Memorial Girls' College
|Actress
|
|-
|Madhav Sharma
|
|
|Scottish Church College
|Comedian and actor based in the UK
|
|-
|Manna Dey
|
|
|Scottish Church College, Vidyasagar College
|Singer
|
|-
|Manoj Mitra
|
|
|Scottish Church College
|Actor, director and playwright
|
|-
|Mithun Chakraborty
|
|
|Scottish Church College
|Actor
|
|-
|Mrinal Sen
|1941
|
|Scottish Church College
|Padma Bhushan winner, film director
|
|-
|Nandalal Bose
|
|
|Government College of Art & Craft
|Artist
|
|-
|P. C. Sorcar, Jr.
|
|
|
|Magician
|
|-
|Pankaj Mullick
|
|
|Scottish Church College
|Music director and composer
|
|-
|Prabhat Roy
|
|
|Maharaja Manindra Chandra College
|Film director
|
|-
|Pritam
|
|
|Presidency
|-
|Sanjiv Goenka
|
|
|
|Chairman, RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group
|
|-
|Vinay Maloo
|
|
|
|Chairman of Enso Group
|
|-
|Dilip Shanghvi
|
|
|Bhawanipur Education Society
|Billionaire businessman, founder of Sun Pharmaceuticals
|
|}
Humanities and social sciences
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Name
!Class
year
!Degree
!College
!class="unsortable"|Notability
!class="unsortable"|References
|-
|Abhijit Banerjee
|1981
|B.Sc. (Economics)
|Presidency
|-
|Atri Kar
|2011
|BA (English Literature)
|
|Second transgender person in India to take part in a civil services exam after a long legal battle, primary school teacher at Kuntighat.
|
|-
|Amartya Sen
|
|BA (Economics)
|Presidency
|-
|-
|Bashabi Fraser
|
|BA (English Literature)
|Lady Brabourne College
|Indian-born Scottish academic, editor, translator, and writer; professor emerita of English and Creative Writing at Edinburgh Napier University; honorary fellow at the Centre for South Asian Studies, University of Edinburgh; appointed CBE in 2021
|
|-
|Benoy Kumar Sarkar
|1905
|
|
|Economist
|
|-
|D. N. Jha
|
|BA (History)
|Presidency
|-
|Nabinchandra Sen
|
|
|Scottish Church
|Poet and writer
|
|-
|Parvati Prasad Baruwa
|
|
|Scottish Church
|Litterateur
|
|-
|Premendra Mitra
|1925
|
|Scottish Church
|Novelist
|
|-
|Purnendu Pattrea
|
|
|
|Writer
|
|-
|Rajshekhar Basu
|
|
|Presidency
|Writer
|
|-
|Ramananda Chatterjee
|
|
|City
|Journalist; founder, editor, and owner of the Modern Review
|
|-
|Samaresh Majumdar
|
|
|Scottish Church
|Writer
|
|-
|Sanjeev Chattopadhyay
|
|
|Scottish Church
|Journalist
|
|-
|Sanjib Chattopadhyay
|
|
|Scottish Church
|Novelist
|
|-
|Sasthi Brata
|
|
|Presidency
|Writer
|
|-
|Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay
|
|
|Vidyasagar College
|Writer
|
|-
|Satyendranath Dutta
|did not graduate
|
|Scottish Church
|Poet and writer
|
|-
|Shankha Ghosh
|
|
|Presidency
|Eminent poet
|
|-
|Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay
|1953
|
|
|Writer
|
|-
|Subhash Mukhopadhyay
|1941
|
|Scottish Church
|Writer
|
|-
|Sudhindranath Dutta
|
|
|Scottish Church
|Author and poet
|
|-
|Suchitra Bhattacharya
|1968
|
|Jogamaya Devi College
|Novelist and children's fiction writer
|
|-
|Sunil Gangopadhyay
|
|
|Surendranath;Motijheel;City
|Novelist, poet and children's fiction writer
|
|-
|Syed Mustafa Siraj
|1948
|
|
|Writer
|
|-
|Tarashankar Bandopadhyay
|
|
|Asutosh
|Novelist, Padma Bhushan recipient
|
|-
|Utpal K. Banerjee
|1955
|
|
|Writer
|
|-
|Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury
|
|
|Vidyasagar College
|Writer
|
|}
Military
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Name
!Class
year
!Degree
!College
!class="unsortable"|Notability
!class="unsortable"|References
|-
|Adhar Kumar Chatterji
|1933
|
|Presidency
|-
|Mohammad Mohammadullah
|1948
|LLB
|Ripon
|3rd president of Bangladesh
|
|-
|Muhammad Ali of Bogra
|
|
|Presidency
|13th president of India
|
|-
|Rajendra Prasad
|1905; 1907
|BA; MA
|Presidency
|-
|Ajoy Mukherjee
|
|
|
|Former Chief Minister, West Bengal
|
|-
|Amar Kumar Bera
|
|M.A. (Economics)
|
|Principal CGM, Reserve Bank of India
|
|-
|Amir H. Jamal
|
|B. Com.
|
|Former Tanzanian MP and Minister of Finance
|
|-
|Anugrah Narayan Sinha
|
|
|
|First Finance Minister of Bihar
|
|-
|Ashok Mitra
|
|
|
|Former Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India
|
|-
|Ashoke Kumar Sen
|
|
|
|Former minister of law and justice
|
|-
|Bagha Jatin
|
|
|Calcutta Central College, now Khudiram Bose Central College
|Freedom fighter and the principal leader of the Jugantar party
|
|-
|Banwari Lal Joshi
|
|
|Scottish Church
|Former governor of Meghalaya
|
|-
|Basudeb Acharia
|
|
|
|Member of Parliament
|
|-
|-
|Bhawani Sankar Biswas
|
|
|
|Provincial minister and member of the East Pakistan Provincial Assembly
|
|-
|Bidhan Chandra Roy
|
|
|Calcutta Medical College
|
|
|-
|Harendra Coomar Mookerjee
|
|
|
|Former governor of West Bengal
|
|-
|Humayun Kabir
|
|
|
|Former minister of education
|
|-
|Jagjivan Ram
|1931
|BSc
|
|Former deputy prime minister of India
|
|-
|Jharna Das
|
|
|
|Member of Parliament
|
|-
|Jyoti Basu
|
|
|
|Former chief minister of West Bengal
|
|-
|K. S. Hegde
|
|
|Presidency
|-
|Brajendranath De
|
|
|
|ICS, Commissioner of Burdwan
|
|-
|Chandeshwar Prasad Narayan Singh
|
|
|
|India's ambassador to Nepal, Japan, governor of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh
|
|-
|Gurusaday Dutt
|
|
|
|ICS, Local Self Government and Public Health Secretary of Bengal
|
|-
|Nitish Sengupta
|
|
|
|
|
|-
|P.C. Bhattacharya
|
|
|
|Controller General of Defence Accounts
|
|-
|Satyendranath Tagore
|
|
|
|Revenue Secretary of India
|
|-
|Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah
|
|
|
|Ambassador of Pakistan to Morocco
|
|-
|Sib Chandra Deb
|
|
|
|Deputy collector in Bengal
|
|-
|Sukumar Sen
|
|
|
|ICS, Chief Election Commissioner of India
|
|}
Royalty and nobility
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Name
!Class
year
!Degree
!College
!class="unsortable"|Notability
!class="unsortable"|References
|-
|Nripendra Narayan
|
|
|Presidency
|-
|Durga Mohan Das
|
|
|
|Leader of the Brahmo Samaj
|
|-
|Lal Behari Dey
|
|
|Scottish Church
|Theologian of the Free Church of Scotland
|
|-
|Mahendranath Gupta
|1874
|BA
|Presidency
|-
|Amitabha Bhattacharyya
|
|
|
|Production engineer, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
|
|-
|Amitabha Mukhopadhyay
|
|
|
|Cell biologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
|
|-
|Anil Kumar Gain
|
|
|Surendranath
|Mathematician and statistician; founder of Vidyasagar University
|
|-
|Anil Kumar Mandal
|1981
|MBBS
|Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital
|Ophthalmologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
|
|-
|Ashesh Prosad Mitra
|
|
|Bangabasi
|Former director of CSIR
|
|-
|Benoy Krishna Tikader
|
|Ph.D; D.Sc
|
|Arachnologist
|-
|Biman Bagchi
|1974; 1976
|
|Presidency
|
|-
|Birendra Nath Mallick
|1978; 1981
|B.Sc
|
|Neurobiologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
|
|-
|Biraja Sankar Guha
|
|
|Scottish Church
|First director of the Anthropological Survey of India
|
|-
|Biswarup Mukhopadhyaya
|
|Ph.D
|
|Theoretical high energy physicist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
|
|-
|C. R. Rao
|1943
|MA in Statistics
|
|Statistician
|
|-
|Chinmoy Sankar Dey
|
|
|
|Molecular biologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
|
|-
|Deb Shankar Ray
|
|
|
|Physical chemist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
|
|-
|Dipak K. Das
|
|
|
|Professor of surgery, now under investigation for fraudulent publications
|
|-
|Ganesh Prasad
|
|
|
|Mathematician
|
|-
|Jagadish Chandra Bose
|
|
|
|Physicist, botanist
|
|-
|Jamal Nazrul Islam
|
|B.Sc.
|St. Xavier's College, Kolkata
|Physicist, mathematician, cosmologist, astronomer
|
|-
|Joyoti Basu
|
|
|
|Cell biologist, N-Bios laureate
|
|-
|Jyoti Bhusan Chatterjea
|
|
|
|Hematologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
|
|-
|Kshitindramohan Naha, geologist and Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
|
|
|Presidency College
|
|-
|Mihir Kumar Bose
|1965
|B.Sc.; M.Sc.; Ph.D.
|
|Geologist and Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
|
|-
|Nirmal Kumar Dutta
|
|MBBS
|Calcutta Medical College
|
|-
|Nirmal Kumar Ganguly
|
|
|R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital
|
|-
|Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis
|
|
|
|Founder of the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta
|
|-
|Radhanath Sikdar
|
|BA in mathematics
|Presidency College
|Mathematician best known for calculating the height of Mount Everest
|
|-
|S. C. Dutta Roy
|
|Ph.D
|Rajabazar Science College
|Electrical engineer, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
|
|-
|Sadhan Basu
|1942;<br> 1944; <br>1948
|B.Sc; <br>M.Sc; <br>Ph.D
|Rajabazar Science College
|Physical chemist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
|
|-
|Sagar Sengupta
|
|
|
|Cancer biologist, N-Bios laureate
|
|-
|-
|Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay
|1985-1991
|PhD
|Presidency College, Calcutta University
|Computer scientist, first female director of Indian Statistical Institute, Padma Shri, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate in Engineering Science, 2010, TWAS Prize for Engineering Sciences, 2018, Infosys Prize 2017 in Engineering and Computer Science
|
|-
|Sanjeev Das
|
|
|
|Cancer biologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
|
|-
|Santasabuj Das
|
|
|
|Immunologist, N-Bios laureate
|
|-
|Satyendra Nath Bose
|1913; 1915
|BSc; MSc
|
|Physicist, co-discoverer of Bose–Einstein statistics
|
|-
|Saumitra Das
|1992
|PhD
|
|Virologist, N-Bios laureate
|
|-
|Snehasikta Swarnakar
|
|
|
|Cancer biologist, N-Bios laureate
|
|-
|Soorjo Coomar Goodeve Chuckerbutty
|
|
|Calcutta Medical College
|
|-
|Soumitro Banerjee
|1981
|
|
|Electrical engineer, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
|
|-
|Srinivasan Ramachandran
|
|
|
|Bioinformatician, N-Bios laureate
|
|-
|Subhash Chandra Lakhotia
|1964–1966
|
|
|Cytogeneticist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
|
|-
|Subhash Mukhopadhyay
|1955; 1958
|
|Calcutta National Medical
|First physician in India (and second in the world) to perform in vitro fertilization
|
|-
|Subir Kumar Ghosh
|
|BSc; MSc; PhD
|Presidency
|
|-
|Sumit Bhaduri
|
|
|
|Organic chemist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
|
|-
|Sumit Ranjan Das
|
|
|
|High energy physicist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
|
|-
|Sunil Kumar Manna
|
|
|
|Immunologist, N-Bios laureate
|
|-
|Ujjwal Maulik
|1983–1989
|PhD
|Calcutta University
|Computer scientist, worked at Stanford University, Univ. of Maryland. Los Alamos National Lab, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg University, IEEE fellow, Stanford List of Scientists
|
|-
|Upendranath Brahmachari
|1893; 1894; 1900; 1902; 1904
|MD; PhD
|Presidency;
|
|
|-
|Usha Ranjan Ghatak
|1953
|BSc; MSc
|Asutosh
|Synthetic organic chemist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
|
|-
|Vikram Marwah
|1948
|
|Calcutta Medical College
- Katyayanidas Bhattacharya, philosophy professor, Presidency College, Calcutta
- Santanu Bhattacharya, chemical biologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate, N-Bios laureate
- Birendra Bijoy Biswas, molecular biologist
- Nirmal Kumar Bose, Census Commissioner of India
- Debasis Chattopadhyay, plant biologist, N-Bios laureate
- Barun De, chairman, West Bengal Heritage Commission, Calcutta
- Amlan Dutta, former vice chancellor of Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan
- Asim Duttaroy, medical scientist
- Mircea Eliade, religious scholar and philosopher
- Prafulla Chandra Ghosh, English literature scholar
- Sankar Ghosh, chairman of Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Columbia University; co-founder of Theralogics Inc.
- K. S. Krishnan, philosopher
- Dhan Gopal Mukerji, socio-cultural critic; first successful man of letters in the early 20th-century United States
- Kamini Roy, first female honours graduate in the British Empire; first feminist author in India
- Prafulla Chandra Roy, chemist
- Sir Jadunath Sarkar, vice chancellor of the University of Calcutta
- Debi Prasad Sarkar, immunologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
- Brajendra Nath Seal, vice chancellor of Visva-Bharati University and the University of Mysore
- Ashoke Sen, string theorist
- Dinesh Chandra Sen, scholar of early Bengali literature
- Ranjan Sen, biophysicist, N-Bios laureate
- Sanjib Senapati, biotechnologist, N-Bios laureate
Sports
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+
!Name
!Class
year
!Degree
!College
!class="unsortable"|Notability
!class="unsortable"|References
|-
|Chhanda Gayen
|
|
|
|Mountaineer, first Bengali woman to climb Mount Everest
|
|-
|Chuni Goswami
|
|
|
|Former captain of Indian football team
|
|-
|Gourgopal Ghosh
|
|
|Scottish Church
|Football player for the Mohun Bagan Club
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|Leander Paes
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|St. Xavier's
|Former Olympic bronze medallist; Wimbledon and French Open doubles champion
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|Norman Pritchard
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|St. Xavier's
|Former Olympic silver medalist
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|Pradip Kumar Banerjee
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|Suri Vidyasagar
|Former captain of the Indian football team in the 1948 Olympic Games
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|Vece Paes
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|Former Olympic hockey player
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