A – D E – H I – L M – P Q – T U – Z
Abraham Wilson, Shiny: (born May 8, 1965) is a retired Indian athlete. She was a national champion in 800 meters for 14 years. She represented India more than 75 times in international competitions. She holds the added distinction of representing Asia in four World Cups; she is also perhaps the only athlete to have taken part in six Asian Track & Field Meets in a row beginning 1985 in Jakarta. During this period she won seven gold, five silver and two bronze medals. She collected a total or 18 gold and two silver medals from the seven South Asian Federation (SAF) Meets she has competed.
Agarwal, Bina: (born 1951) is a prize- winning feminist economist who studies gender, development, and agriculture. She is Professor of Economics at the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi University. Previously she has held positions at Harvard (the first Daniel Ingalls Visiting Professor), University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), and was the Winton Chair at the University of Minnesota. Outside of academia she was Vice President of the International Economic Association and was President of the International Association for Feminist Economics. Agarwal also is a founding member of the Indian Society for Ecological Economics and serves on the board for the Global Development Network. She has also acted as a consultant for the Planning Commission of India. As of January 2007, Agarwal is the Visiting Research Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University. In 2009, the UNCSD nominated her to take up a position on the board of the UNRISD.
Agnes, Flavia: is a women’s rights lawyer and writer and has been actively involved in the women’s movement for the last two decades. She has written extensively on issues of domestic violence, feminist jurisprudence and minority rights. Currently she co-ordinates the legal centre of MAJLIS and is also engaged in her doctoral research on Property Rights of Married Women with the National Law School of India.
Alexander, Meena: (born 1951) is an internationally acclaimed poet, scholar, and writer. Born in Allahabad, and raised in India and Sudan, Alexander lives and works in New York City, where she is Distinguished Professor of English at Hunter College in the MFA program in Creative Writing and at the CUNY Graduate Center in the PhD program in English. She is the author of numerous collections of poetry, literary memoirs, essays, and works of fiction and literary criticism.She is listed in Who's Who in Contemporary Women's Writing, Routledge, 2001.
Ali, Nafisa: (born 18th January 1957) is an actor and social activist from India. She was the national swimming champion from 1972-1974. She won the Miss India title in 1976 and was runner-up at the Miss International contest in 1977. Ali was also a jockey at the Calcutta Gymkhana in 1979. She has acted in several movies and was appointed the chairperson of the Children's Film Society of India in 2005.
Alva, Margaret: (born April 14, 1942) is the Governor of the state of Uttarakhand from July 2009. She is Uttarakhand's first woman governor. She is a senior leader of the Indian National Congress and was the General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee. A former five-term member of the Indian parliament from 1974 to 2004, she has also been appointed as advisor to the Bureau of Parliamentary Studies and Training, a body set up to improve the standards of legislative functions in the National Parliament and State Assemblies. A lawyer by profession, she was conferred an honorary doctorate in literature by the University of Mysore.
Ammal, Anjali: Born in a poor weaver's family, Ammal joined Gandhi’s call for Satyagraha and served prison sentence. Social worker and reformer, later she served Madras assembly.
Arora, Punita: Punita Arora is the first woman in India to don the second highest rank i.e. Lieutenant General of Indian Armed Forces. Punita was commissioned in January 1968. Before becoming Vice Admiral of Indian Navy she was Commandant of Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC). She took the charge of commandant of Armed Forces Medical College in 2004 thereafter becoming the first woman officer to command the medical college. Before that she was coordinating Medical Research of the armed forces at the Army headquarters as additional director-general of Armed Forces Medical Services (Medical Research). She moved from the Army to the Navy as the AFMS has a common pool which allows officers to migrate from one service to another depending on the requirement. She has been awarded with 15 medals in her 36 years of career in Indian Armed Forces.
Arundale, Rukmini Devi: (1904 – 1986) was an Indian theosophist, dancer and choreographer in Indian classical dancer form of Bharatnatyam, and also an activist for animal rights, animal welfare and vegetarianism. She is considered the most important revivalist in the Indian classical dance form of Bharatnatyam from its original 'sadhir' style, prevalent amongst the temple dancers or devadasis. Rukmini Devi features in India Today's list of '100 People Who Shaped India'. She was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1956 and Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 1967. Rukmini Devi was nominated as a member the Rajya Sabha in April 1952 and re-nominated in 1956. Keenly interested in animal welfare, she was associated with various humanitarian organisations, and as a member of the Rajya Sabha, was instrumental for the legislation for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act (1960), and later for setting up of the Animal Welfare Board of India.
Asaf Ali, Aruna: (1909 —1996) (born Aruna Ganguli), was an Indian independence activist. She is widely remembered for hoisting the Congress flag at the Gowalia Tank maidan in Bombay during the Quit India Movement, 1942. She became an active member of Congress Party after marriage and participated in public processions during the Salt Satyagraha. She was arrested on the charge that she was a vagrant and hence not released in 1931 under the Gandhi-Irwin Pact which stipulated release of all political prisoners. Other women co-prisoners refused to leave the premises unless she was also released and gave in only after Mahatma Gandhi intervened. A public agitation secured her release. In 1932, she was held prisoner at the Tihar Jail where she protested the indifferent treatment of political prisoners by launching a hunger strike. Her efforts resulted in an improvement of conditions in the Tihar Jail but she was moved to Ambala and was subjected to solitary confinement. She was politically not very active after her release.
Azmi, Shabana: (born 18 September 1950 in New Delhi) is one of the leading actresses of parallel cinema. She is a film actress as well as a social activist, and her performances in films in a variety of genres have generally earned her praises and awards including five wins of National Film Award for Best Actress. She is married to Indian poet Javed Akhtar.
Bali, Vinita: Vinita Bali was appointed Managing Director of Britannia Industries Ltd on 31st May 2006. Vinita joined as Chief Executive Officer of the Company in January 2005. She received her Bachelor's Degree in Economics from LSR College at the University of Delhi and her MBA at the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies at Bombay University. She pursued postgraduate studies in Business and Economics at Michigan State University on a scholarship from The Rotary Foundation, and was selected to work as a Graduate Intern at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Bandopadhyay, Padma: an IAF officer who rose to be India’s first woman Air Vice Marshal in 2002, Bandopadhyay also served as the first woman Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Society of India and the first Indian woman to have conducted scientific research at the North Pole as also the first woman officer to have completed the Defence Service Staff College course - in 1978 - and to command the IAF's Central Medical Establishment (CME).
Banerjee, Durga: the first Indian woman pilot of the state airline, Indian Airlines.
Banerjee, Mamata: (born January 5, 1955) is a politician from the state of West Bengal and current Railway Minister of India. She is the founder and chief executive of the Trinamool Congress ("Grassroots Congress") political party. Mamata Banerjee is widely regarded as "Didi" (Bengali word meaning "Elder Sister") in West Bengal. She is noted for her opposition to Special Economic Zones and industrialization in West Bengal at the cost of agriculturalists and laborers.
Basu, Chandramukhi: (1860 – 1944) was one of the first two female graduates of the British Empire. Along with Kadambini Ganguly, she received her Bachelor's degree in Arts from the University of Calcutta in 1883. Miss Chandramukhi Basu passed the F.A. of the Calcutta University in 1880 as a student of the Free Church Institution (now Scottish Church College) followed by bachelor's degree from Bethune College, an affiliated women's college of the University of Calcutta, and an MA degree in 1884 at the University of Calcutta.
Bedi, Kiran: is India’s first and highest ranking (retired in 2007) woman officer who joined the Indian Police Service in 1972. Her experience and expertise include more than 35 years of tough, innovative and welfare policing. She is a recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award.
Bedi, Protima:(October 12, 1948 – August 18, 1998) was a model turned exponent of classical Indian dance, Odissi, who in 1990 established 'Nrityagram', a dance village near Bangalore. She died in a landslide in the Himalayas.
Begum Akhtar: or Akhtari Bai Faizabadi (1914 – 1974) was an Indian vocalist of Ghazal, Dadra and Thumri. Her first public performance was at the age of fifteen. She received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for vocal music, and was awarded Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan (posthumously). Today her name is almost synonymous with the concept of ghazal gayaki, and her imitable style of singing which immortalized her, and gave her the title of Mallika-e-Ghazal (Queen of Ghazals).
Besant, Annie: (1847 – 1933) was a prominent Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self rule. In 1890 Annie Besant met Helena Blavatsky and over the next few years her interest in Theosophy grew and her interest in left wing politics waned. She traveled to India and in 1898 helped establish the Central Hindu College in India. In 1902 she established the International Order of Co-Freemasonry in England and over the next few years established lodges in many parts of the British Empire. In 1908 Annie Besant became President of the Theosophical Society and began to steer the society away from Buddhism and towards Hinduism. She also became involved in politics in India, joining the Indian National Congress. When war broke out in Europe in 1914 she helped launch the Home Rule League to campaign for democracy in India and dominion status within the Empire which culminated in her election as president of the India National Congress in late 1917. After the war she continued to campaign for Indian independence until her death in 1933. After her death, her colleagues, J. Krishnamurti, Aldous Huxley, Dr. Guido Ferrando, and Rosalind Rajagopal, built Happy Valley School, now renamed Besant Hill School in her honour.
Bhandari, Mannu: (born 1931), is a prominent Indian author, most known for her two Hindi novels, 'Aapka Banti' and 'Mahabhoj', which was later adapted to an acclaimed play and performed all over the nation, including at the National Theatre Festival (Bharat Rang Mahotsav). She is a famous story writer, and is listed in Who's Who in Contemporary Women's Writing, Routledge, 2001.
Bhanot, Neerja: (September 7, 1963 – September 5, 1986), born in Chandigarh, was a flight attendant for Pan Am. Neerja was the senior flight purser on the ill-fated Pan Am Flight 73 (which was hijacked on September 5, 1986 by four armed men of the Abu Nidal Organization) She hid the passports of the passengers on the flight so that the hijackers could not differentiate between American and Non-American citizens. She laid down her life while shielding three children from the bullets fired by the terrorists. For her bravery the Government of India posthumously awarded her the Ashoka Chakra (India's highest decoration for gallantry away from the battlefield, or not in the face of the enemy), being its youngest recipient. In 2004 the Indian Postal Service released a stamp commemorating her. With the money from the insurance settlement, Neerja's parents set up a trust account honoring Indian women showing exemplary courage every year. In 2006, she (posthumously)and the other Pan Am Flight 73 flight attendants and Pan Am's flight director for Pakistan were awarded the Special Courage award by the US Department of Justice.
Bharati, Uma: (born May 3, 1959), is an Indian politician. She was born in Tikamgarh District, Madhya Pradesh. She played a prominent part in the Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi Movement. At a young age, she became involved with the Bharatiya Janata Party and contested her first Parliamentary elections in 1984, but lost. In 1989, she successfully contested the Khajurao seat, and retained it in elections conducted in 1991, 1996 and 1998. In 1999, she switched over and won the Bhopal seat. She has held various state-level portfolios of Human Resource Development, Tourism, Youth Affairs & Sports, and finally Coal & Mines. In the 2003 Assembly polls, she led the BJP to a three fourths majority in Madhya Pradesh. Uma Bharati resigned from the post of Chief Minister in August 2004, when an arrest warrant was issued against her regarding the 1994 Hubli riot case.
Bhatt, Ela: (born on 7 September 1933) is the founder of the Self-Employed Women's Association of India (SEWA). A lawyer by training, Bhatt is a respected leader of the international labour, cooperative, women, and micro-finance movements. She was one of the founders of Women's World Banking in 1979 with Esther Ocloo and Michaela Walsh, and served as its chair from 1980 to 1998. She currently serves as the Chair of the SEWA Cooperative Bank, of HomeNet, of the International Alliance of Street Vendors, and of WIEGO. She is also a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation. She was granted an honorary Doctorate degree in Humane Letters by Harvard University in June 2001. Ela Bhatt was also awarded the civilian honour of Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1985, and the Padma Bhushan in 1986. She was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 1977 and the Right Livelihood Award in 1984.
Bhosle, Asha: (born September 8, 1933) is an Indian singer. She is best known as a Bollywood playback singer, although she has a much wider repertoire. Her career started in 1943 and has spanned over six decades. She has done playback singing for over 1000 Bollywood movies and sold many records. She is the sister of playback singer Lata Mangeshkar.
Biswas, Seema: (born 14 January 1965) is an Indian film and theatre actress from Assam who shot into prominence with the role of Phoolan Devi in Shekhar Kapur's film Bandit Queen (1994). She has a reputation for performing strong character roles. Biswas won the 1996 National Film Award for Best Actress for her role in the film. She won the 2000 Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and the 2006 Best Actress Genie Award for her role as Shakuntala in Deepa Mehta's Water (2005).
Biswas, Soma: (born 16 May 1978 in Ranaghat) is an athlete who lives in Kolkata who specializes in the heptathlon. She rose to fame when she won the silver medal in 2002 Asian Games in Busan, South Korea. She won another silver medal at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha. She was one of the recipients of the prestigious Arjuna Awards in 2003.
Bobby George, Anju: (born April 19, 1977) is an Indian athlete who made history when she won the bronze medal in long jump at the 2003 World Championships in Athletics in Paris, thereby becoming the first Indian athlete ever to win a medal in a World Championships in Athletics. She went on to win the silver medal at the IAAF World Athletics Final in 2005, a performance she considers her best.
Cama, Bhikaji: (1861 - 1936) also known as Madam Cama, was a freedom fighter. She unfurled the first national flag at the International Socialist Conference in Stuttgart in 1907. She also served as private secretary to Dadabhai Naoroji.
Caur, Arpana: a self-taught artist, was born in Delhi in 1954. Since the beginning of her career Arpana's main concern has been the girl child, condition of women and growing violence in India. She has been consistently figurative. She also does printmaking. She has received the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society Award in 1985, Commendation Certificate at the Algiers Biennale, and Gold Medal at the Sixth Triennale-India'(1 986), and was nominated by the Lalit Kala Akademi as the Eminent Artist (1990, '91, '92).
Chada, Gurinder: OBE, (born 10 January 1960) is a British film director of Indian origin. Most of her films explore the lives of Indians living in the UK. She is most famous for the hit films Bhaji on the Beach (1993), Bend It Like Beckham (2002), Bride and Prejudice (2004) and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008).
Chandabai: Pandita Brahmacharini Chandabai (1880-1977) was a Jain scholar and a pioneer of women's education in India. She was the founder of the oldest women's publication in India that is still published (Jain Mahiladarsh, started in 1921). She wrote several books including Updesh Ratna Mala, Saubhagya Ratna Mala, Nibandh Ratna Mala, Adarsh Kahaniyan, Adarsh Nibandh, Nibandh Darpan.
Chandy, Anna: became the first Indian woman judge of a High Court (Kerala High Court).
Chanu, Tingonleima: (born April 1, 1976) was a member of the India women's national field hockey team. She hails from Manipur and played with the team when it won the Gold at the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games. She also earned the Arjuna Award.
Chattopadhyay, Kamaladevi: (April 3, 1903 – October 29, 1988) was a Gandhian, a social reformer, a freedom fighter, and most remembered for her contribution to Indian independence movement, for being the driving force behind the renaissance of Indian handicrafts, handlooms, and theatre in post-Independence India, and for uplift of the socio-economic standard of Indian women by pioneering the co-operative movement in India. Numerous cultural institutions in India today are a gift of her vision, starting with National School of Drama, Sangeet Natak Akademi, Central Cottage Industries Emporium, and The Crafts Council of India, to name a few.
Chauhan, Subhadra Kumari: (1904 -1948) was an Indian poetess famous for her emotionally charged Hindi songs. She was born in Nihalpur village in Allahabad District of present-day Uttar Pradesh. She joined the Non-Cooperation Movement in 1921 and was the first woman Satyagrahi to court arrest in Nagpur. She was jailed twice for her involvement in protests against the British rule in 1923 and 1942. She has authored a number of popular works in Hindi poetry. Her most famous composition is Jhansi Ki Rani (poem), an emotionally charged poem describing the life of Rani Lakshmi Bai.
Chawla, Kalpana: (March 17, 1962 – February 1, 2003) was an Indian-American scientist and a NASA astronaut. She was one of seven crewmembers killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Chawla completed her earlier schooling at Tagore Public School, Karnal. She earned her Bachelor of engineering degree in aeronautical engineering at Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh in 1982. She moved to the USA in 1982 and obtained a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington (1984). Chawla went on to earn a second Master of Science degree in 1986 and a PhD in aerospace engineering in 1988 from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Later that year she began working for NASA Ames Research Center as vice president of Overset Methods, Inc. where she did CFD research on V/STOL. Chawla held a Certificated Flight Instructor rating for airplanes, gliders and Commercial Pilot licenses for single and multiengine airplanes, seaplanes and gliders. She held an FCC issued Technician Class Amateur Radio license with the call sign KD5ESI. She met and married Jean-Pierre Harrison, a flying instructor and aviation writer, in 1983 and became a naturalized United States citizen in 1990.
Chennamma, Kitturu Rani: (1778 - 1829) was the queen of the princely state of Kittur in Karnataka. In 1824, 33 years before the 1857 war of independence, she led an armed rebellion against the British in response to the Doctrine of Lapse. The resistance ended in her martyrdom and she is remembered today as one of the earliest Indian rulers to have fought for independence. Along with Abbakka Rani, Keladi Chennamma and Onake Obavva she is much venerated in Karnataka as an icon of bravery and women's pride.
Chinappa, Joshna: (born 1986) is a squash player based in Chennai, India. Chinappa was the first Indian girl to win the British Squash Championship title in 2003, at Sheffield, UK and was also the youngest Indian women's national champion. Joshna Chinappa is the first beneficiary of the 40 core Mittal Champions Trust.
Chughtai, Ismat: (1911 – 1991) was an eminent Indian Urdu writer, known for her indomitable spirit and a fierce feminist ideology. She was considered the grand dame of Urdu fiction, as one of the four pillars of modern Urdu short story, the other three being Saadat Hasan Manto, Krishan Chander, and Rajinder Singh Bedi. Her outspoken and controversial style of writing made her the passionate voice for the unheard, and she has become an inspiration for the younger generation of writers, readers and intellectuals. She is listed in Who's Who in Contemporary Women's Writing, Routledge, 2001.
Das, Kamala: (1934 – 2009) was an Indian writer who wrote in English and Malayalam, her native language. Her popularity in Kerala is based chiefly on her short stories and autobiography. She openly and honestly discussed and wrote about the sexual desires of Indian women, which made her an iconoclast of her generation. She traveled extensively to read poetry to Germany's University of Duisburg-Essen, University of Bonn and University of Duisburg, Adelaide Writer's Festival, Frankfurt Book Fair, University of Kingston, Jamaica, Singapore, and South Bank Festival (London), Concordia University (Montreal, Canada), etc. Her works are available in French, Spanish, Russian, German and Japanese. She has also held positions as vice chairperson in Kerala Sahitya Academy, chairperson in Kerala forestry Board, president of the Kerala Children's Film Society, editor of Poet magazine and poetry editor of Illustrated Weekly of India. She had embraced Islam in 1999 at the age of 65 and assumed the name Kamala Suraiyya.
De, Shobhaa: Shobha Rajadhyaksha known as Shobhaa Dé (born 7 January 1948) is an Indian columnist and novelist. After making her name as a model, she began a career in journalism in 1970, during the course of which she founded and edited three magazines – Stardust, Society, and Celebrity. In the 1980s, she contributed to the Sunday magazine section of the Times of India. In her columns, she used to explore the socialite life in Bombay lifestyles of the celebrities. At present, she is a freelance writer and columnist for several newspapers and magazines.
Desai, Anita: (born June 24, 1937) is an Indian novelist and Emeritus John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has been short-listed for the Booker Prize three times, was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1978 for her novel, Fire on the Mountain, by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters. Desai published her first novel, Cry The Peacock, in 1963. She considers Clear Light of Day (1980) her most autobiographical work as it is set during her coming of age and also in the same neighborhood in which she grew up. In 1984 she published In Custody - about an Urdu poet in his declining days - which was short-listed for the Booker Prize. In 1993 she became a creative writing teacher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her latest novel, The Zigzag Way (2004), is set in 20th-century Mexico. Desai has taught at Mount Holyoke College, Baruch College and Smith College. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and of Girton College, Cambridge University. In addition, she writes for the New York Review of Books.
Desai, Kiran: (born 3 September 1971) is an Indian author who is a citizen of India and a permanent resident of the United States. Her novel The Inheritance of Loss won the 2006 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award. She is the daughter of the noted author Anita Desai. Her first novel, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, was published in 1998 and received accolades from such notable figures as Salman Rushdie. It went on to win the Betty Trask Award, a prize given by the Society of Authors for the best new novels by citizens of the Commonwealth of Nations under the age of 35. In September 2007 she was a guest on Private Passions, the biographical music discussion programme hosted by Michael Berkeley on BBC Radio 3. In May 2007 she was the featured author at the inaugural Asia House Festival of Asian Literature.
Deshmukh, Durgabai: (July 15, 1909 - May 9, 1981) was born in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh. Durgabai was married to CD Deshmukh, the first Indian Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and Finance Minister in India's Central Cabinet during 1950 - 1956. She was the President of the Blind Relief Association in Delhi, and in that capacity, she set up a school-hostel and a light engineering workshop for the blind. Durgabai was a member of India's Lok Sabha. She was instrumental in the enactment of many social welfare laws. She was a member of in the Planning Commission, and in that role, she mustered support for a national policy on social welfare. The policy resulted in the establishment of a Central Social Welfare Board in 1953. As the Board's first chairperson, she mobilized a large number of voluntary organizations to carry out the Board programs, which were aimed at education, training, and rehabilitation of needy women, children, and the handicapped. She was a recipient of the Paul G Hoffman Award, the Nehru Literacy Award, the UNESCO Award for outstanding work in the field of Literacy, and the Padma Vibhushan.
Deshpande, Gauri: (1942 - 2003) was a writer of short stories and poems from Maharashtra. She wrote in Marathi and English. She is listed in Who’s Who in Contemporary Women's Writing, Routledge, 2001.
Deshpande, Shashi: (born in 1938 in Dharwad, Karnataka), is an award-winning Indian novelist. She is the second daughter of famous Kannada dramatist and writer Shriranga. Deshpande has degrees in Economics and Law. When she was living in Mumbai she did a course on journalism at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and worked for a couple of months as a journalist for the magazine 'Onlooker'. She published her first collection of short stories in 1978, and her first novel, The Dark Holds No Terror, in 1980. She won the Sahitya Akademi Award for the novel 'That Long Silence' in 1990 and the Padma Shri award in 2009. Shashi Deshpande has written four children’s books, a number of short stories, and nine novels, besides several perceptive essays, now available in a volume entitled Writing from the Margin and Other Essays.
Devi, Amrita: The first recorded instance of a woman trying to safeguard the environment relates to about 300 years ago when, in Rajasthan, India, a woman Amrita Devi protested to the felling of trees by for building a palace for the Maharaja of Jodhpur. She died in the attempt, which was followed by large-scale protests by the local villagers. As the story goes, the king promised never again to ask the local villagers to supply timber. Amrita Devi belonged to the Bishnoi community, which is known for its love of nature.
Devi, Ashapurna: (1909 – 1995) was a prominent Bengali novelist and poet. She has been widely honoured with a number of prizes and awards. She was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1976; D.Litt by the Universities of Jabalpur, Rabindra Bharati, Burdwan and Jadavpur. Vishwa Bharati University honoured her with Deshikottama in 1989. For her contribution as a novelist and short story writer, the Sahitya Akademi conferred its highest honour, the Fellowship, in 1994.
Devi, Gaura: During the activist phase of the Chipko movement (literally, ‘to hug’- a movement in which people would hug trees to prevent them from being cut down) in Uttarakhand hills in the 1970s, the courage and vigilance of Gaura Devi stands tall. She led the first all-women action to save community forests in March 1974. As a widow with no formal education, Gaura Devi assumed leadership of the village Mahila Mangal Dal and work tireless on behalf of her community to save the forests from being felled. Her example would be repeated by countless women who would come to form the backbone of the Chipko movement.
Devi, Gayatri: Maharani Gayatri Devi (23 May 1919 – 29 July 2009), often styled as Rajmata of Jaipur, was born as Princess Gayatri Devi of Koch Bihar. She was the third Maharani of Jaipur from 1939 to 1970 through her marriage to HH Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II. Following India's independence and the subsequent abolition of the princely states, she became an extremely successful politician. Gayatri Devi was also celebrated for her classical beauty and became something of a fashion icon in her adulthood. She was the focus of the film Memoirs of a Hindu Princess, directed by Francois Levie. Gayatri Devi started schools for girls' education in Jaipur, most prominent of which is the Maharani Gayatri Devi Girls’ Public School. She also revived and promoted the dying art of blue pottery and was an avid equestrienne.
Devi, Kunjarani: born 1 March 1968 in Imphal) is the most decorated Indian sportswoman in weightlifting. Kunjarani claimed the gold medal at the 2006 Asian Games at Doha. She is a recipient of Arjuna Award in 1990 and shared the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award with Leander Paes for the year 1996-1997. In the same year she also won the K.K. Birla Sports award. She has more than fifty international medals to her credit. She also won a gold medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games held in Melbourne for 48 kg women’s weightlifting with a Games record with an overall lift of 166 kg which included 72 kg in snatch and 94 kg in the clean and jerk. She was involved in a controversy in 2001, when she had to serve a six-month suspension after testing positive to anabolic steroids during 2001.
Devi, Mahasweta: (born 1926 in Dhaka in what is now Bangladesh) is an Indian social activist and writer. She has recently been spearheading the movement against the industrial policy of the government of West Bengal, the state of her domicile. Specifically, she has stridently criticized confiscation of large tracts of fertile agricultural land from farmers by the government and ceding the land to industrial houses at throwaway prices.
Devi, Phoolan: Phoolan Devi (August 10, 1963 – July 25, 2001), popularly known as "The Bandit Queen", was an Indian dacoit and later a politician. She was notorious across India during her time as a bandit.
Devi, Shakuntala: is a calculating prodigy who was born on November 4, 1939 in Bangalore, India. Her calculating gifts first demonstrated themselves while she was doing card tricks with her father when she was three. By age six she demonstrated her calculation and memorization abilities at the University of Mysore. At the age of eight she had success at Annamalai University by doing the same.
Devi, Suraj Lata: (born January 3, 1981) is the former captain of the India women's national field hockey team and hails from Manipur. She led the team to the Gold for three consecutive years: during the 2002 Commonwealth Games, the 2003 Afro-Asian Games, and the 2004 Hockey Asia Cup. She is an Arjuna Award winner.
Dharmshaktu Kaushal, Reena: Reena became the first Indian women to reach the South Pole in December, 2009, as part of the Kaspersky Lab Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition. Reena did her mountaineering training from the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling and has been on IMF expeditions to Gangotri 1, the first ascent of Argan Kangri, Fluted Peak, Stock Kangri, Phawararang, Mt Nun and others. She is currently a freelance instructor with the US-headquartered National Outdoor Leadership Schools (NOLS) that teaches outdoor skills to people.
Dikshit, Sheila: (born March 31, 1938) has been the Chief Minister of Delhi since 1998. She is from the Indian National Congress. Dr. Dikshit was sworn in as the Chief Minister for a third consecutive term of the Government of Delhi state in January 2009 after pulling a surprise victory in November 2008 state elections. She is the second woman Chief Minister of Delhi and represents the New Delhi Constituency in the Legislative Assembly of Delhi. She has also served as a Union Minister during 1986-1989, first as the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and later as a Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office. She was short-listed for the 2008 World Mayor award. She represented India on the U.N. Commission on Status of Women for five years (1984 - 89).
D’Souza, Stephie: (1936 - 1998) was a sportsperson who represented India in athletics and women's hockey. D'Souza was part of the Indian team that won the gold in the 4x100 m relay in the 1954 Asian Games and a bronze in 1958. She won a silver medal in the 200 m, creating an Asian record in the semifinal, and finished fourth in the 100 m in the latter competition. At one point, she held the national records in 100 m, 200 m, 400 m and 800 m. D'Souza represented India in the first international women's hockey tournament in London in 1953 and captained the side in 1961. Stephie D'Souza was the first woman to win the Arjuna Award presented by the Government of India.
Dutt, Barkha: (born December 18, 1971) is a TV journalist and columnist. She is currently Group Editor, English News at NDTV. Dutt gained prominence for her reportage of the Kargil War. She has won many national and international awards, including the Padma Shri. She writes a popular column for The Hindustan Times, called "Third Eye." However, she has also come in for criticism that her reporting is sensationalist and melodramatic. She received a Master's in Mass Communications from Jamia Millia Islamia and a Master's in Journalism from Columbia University, New York.
Dutt, Nargis: (1929 – 1981), born Fatima Rashid but known by her screen name, Nargis, was an Indian film actress. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest actresses in the history of Hindi cinema. Nargis died in 1981 of pancreatic cancer. In 1982, the Nargis Dutt Memorial Cancer Foundation was established in her memory. The award for best feature film on national integration in the annual National Film Awards ceremony is called the Nargis Dutt Award in her honour.
