A – D E – H I – L M – P Q – T U – Z
Maitreyi: was a vedic philosopher from ancient India. She was the second wife of famous sage and philosopher, Yajnavalkya, the first being Katyaayanee. Maitreyi was well-versed in Vedas and associated scriptures and was called brahmavadini or "one who speaks like God" by people of her time. About ten hymns in the Rig Veda are accredited to Maitreyi.
Malleswari, Karnam: (born June 1, 1975) is an Indian weightlifter. In 1992 she participated in the Asian weightlifting championship in Thailand where she won three silver medals. She also won three bronze medals in the world championship. She won a bronze medal in the 2000 Summer Olympics at Sydney, which made her the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal. She is a recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, India's highest sporting honour for the year 1995-1996. She is also a recipient of the civilian honour Padma Shri in 1999.Malleswari was awarded the Arjuna Award in 1994, India's highest award in sports.
Mangeshkar, Lata: (born September 28, 1929) is one of the best-known playback singers in the Hindi film industry. Mangeshkar's career started in 1942 and hshe has sung in over a thousand Bollywood movies in over twenty regional Indian languages, but primarily in Hindi. Lata is the second vocalist ever to have received the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. Mangeshkar was featured in the Guinness Book of World Records from 1974 to 1991 for having made the most recordings in the world. Among the other awards she has received are Padma Bhushan (1969), Padma Vibhushan (1999), Dada Saheb Phalke Award (1989), Maharashtra Bhushan Award (1997), NTR National Award (1999), three National Film Awards, and 12 Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards. She has also won four Filmfare Best Female Playback Awards. In 1969, she made the unusual gesture of giving up the Filmfare Best Female Playback Award, in order to promote fresh talent. She was later awarded the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993. In 1984, the State Government of Madhya Pradesh instituted the Lata Mangeshkar Award in honor of Lata Mangeshkar. The State Government of Maharashtra also instituted a Lata Mangeshkar Award in 1992.
Manohar, Sujata (born August 28, 1934) is an Indian judge and a member of the National Human Rights Commission of India. She studied at the Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford where she read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. After her retirement, she was appointed to the National Human Rights Commission, a post she continues to hold, and is a patron of the Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal.
Mansingh, Sonal: (born May 1, 1944) is an eminent Indian classical dancer and choreographer of Odissi dancing style; who is also proficient in other Indian classical dancing styles including Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi, and Chhau. Over the years, dance has taken her all over the world and brought her many awards, including the Padma Bhushan (1992), Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1987, and the Padma Vibhushan, India's the second highest civilian award, in 2003; making her the first woman dancer in India to receive such an honour. This was followed by Kalidas Samman of Madhya Pradesh Government, in 2006 and on April 21, 2007, she was conferred with Doctor of Science by the GB Pant University at Pantnagar. To mark the completion of her 40 years in dancing in 2002, noted Hindi film director, Prakash Jha made a documentary film on her, which also won the National Film Award for Best Non-Feature Film for the year.
Markandaya, Kamala: (1924 - 2004) was a pseudonym used by Kamala Purnaiya Taylor, an Indian novelist and journalist. Markandaya was a graduate of Madras University, and published several short stories in Indian newspapers. After India’s independence, she moved to Britain, but labeled herself an Indian expatriate long afterwards. Known for writing about the culture clash between Indian urban and rural societies, Markandaya's first published novel, Nectar in a Sieve, was a bestseller and named a notable book of 1955 by the American Library Association. She is listed in Who in Contemporary Women's Writing, Routledge, 2001.
Merykom, Mangte Chungneijang: also known as Mary Kom is a female Indian boxer from Manipur, India. Mary Kom, a mother of two, came back from a two-year sabbatical to clinch her fourth successive World Amateur Boxing gold in 2008, a feat that prompted the AIBA to describe her as 'Magnificent Mary' She was earlier an athlete and later switched to boxing after the success of fellow Manipur boxer Dingko Singh.
Mata Amritanandamayi: (born Sudhamani Idamannel, September 27, 1953) is a Hindu spiritual leader revered as a saint by her followers, who also know her as "Amma", "Ammachi" or "Mother". She is widely respected for her humanitarian activities and is known as "the hugging saint". In 1993, she was one of the representatives of Hinduism at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago. Mata Amritanandamayi was the keynote speaker at the Global Peace Initiative of Women, at the UN in Geneva, Switzerland held in October 2002. This was an initiative of the UN' Millennium World Peace Summit, in which Mata Amritanandamayi spoke in August 2000. In 2002 Mata Amritanandamayi was presented with the Gandhi-King Award for Non-Violence by The World Movement for Nonviolence at the UN General Assembly Hall (Palais Des Nations) in Geneva in recognition of her lifelong work in furthering the principles of non-violence. In 2006, she was honoured with the 4th Annual James Parks Morton Interfaith Award at the Interfaith Centre, New York. In Oct 2007, Amma was awarded for her humanitarian activities at human rights film festival, Cinema Verite, in Paris.
Mathur, Prem: the first Indian women commercial pilot of the Deccan Airways.
Mayawati: (born January 15, 1956) is an Indian politician and the current Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. She has been the Chief Minister during three other short tenures but her party holds the absolute majority in the state as of date. She comes from an under-privileged dalit background, and also heads the Bahujan Samaj Party.
Mehta, Gita: (born in 1943) is an Indian writer and was born in Delhi. She is the daughter of Biju Patnaik, a former Chief Minister of Orissa. Her younger brother Naveen Patnaik is the current Chief Minister of Orissa. She completed her education in India and at the Cambridge University, United Kingdom. She is married to Sonny Mehta, head of the Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. publishing house. She has produced and/or directed 14 television documentaries for UK, European and U.S. networks. During the years 1970, 1971, she was a television war correspondent for the US television network NBC. Her film compilation of the Bangladesh revolution, Dateline Bangladesh, was shown in cinema theatres both in India and abroad. She is an eminent writer as well, and her books have been translated into 21 languages and been on the bestseller lists in Europe, the US and India.
Mehta, Hansa: (1897 – 1995) was an educationist and the first woman to be appointed Vice-Chancellor of a co-educational University in India. She was a member of the Constituent Assembly of India. On the occasion of the transfer of power, she had the privilege of presenting the National Flag to the nation on behalf of the women of India. She represented India on the Nuclear Sub-Commission on the Status of Women in the United Nations. She represented India on the UNHRC that drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She was a member of the Executive Board of UNESCO and led Indian delegations to several international conferences. In India, she was associated with many educational, social and cultural organizations. She was awarded the Padma Bhushanand and was also conferred the Honorary D.Litt by the Allahabad University and by the M.S. University of Baroda. The Leeds University in UK also conferred on her an Honorary Doctorate.
Mirza, Sania: (born November 15, 1986, is an Indian tennis player. She started her tennis career in 2003. In 2004 she was awarded the Arjuna Award by the Indian Government. Mirza is the highest ranked female tennis player ever from India, with a career high ranking of 27 in singles and 18 in doubles. She holds the distinction of being the first Indian woman to be seeded in a Grand Slam tennis tournament.
Mother Teresa: (26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), born Agnesë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, was an Albanian Catholic nun with Indian citizenship who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata (Calcutta), India in 1950. For over 45 years she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries. Following her death she was beatified by Pope John Paul II and given the title ‘Blessed Teresa of Calcutta’. Mother Teresa had first been recognised by the Indian government more than a third of a century earlier when she was awarded the Padma Shri in 1962. She continued to receive major Indian rewards in successive decades including, in 1972, the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding and, in 1980, India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna. In 1962, Mother Teresa received the Philippines-based Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding, given for work in South or East Asia. In 1971, Paul VI awarded her the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize, commending her for her work with the poor, display of Christian charity and efforts for peace. She later received the Pacem in Terris Award (1976). She was appointed an honorary Companion of the Order of Australia in 1982, "for service to the community of Australia and humanity at large". The United Kingdom and the United States each repeatedly granted awards, culminating in the Order of Merit in 1983, and honorary citizenship of the United States received on 16 November 1996. Mother Teresa's Albanian homeland granted her the Golden Honour of the Nation in 1994. Other civilian awards include the Balzan Prize for promoting humanity, peace and brotherhood among peoples (1978), and the Albert Schweitzer International Prize (1975). In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, "for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitutes a threat to peace." She refused the conventional ceremonial banquet given to laureates, and asked that the $192,000 funds be given to the poor in India, stating that earthly rewards were important only if they helped her help the world's needy. On her death, she was accorded a state funeral by the Government of India.
Mudgal, Shubha: (born 1959) is a well-known Indian singer of Hindustani classical music, Khayal, Thumri, Dadra, and popular Indian Pop music. She has been awarded the 1996 National Film Award for Best Non-Feature Film Music Direction for 'Amrit Beej', the 1998 Gold Plaque Award for Special Achievement in Music at the 34th Chicago International Film Festival for her music in the film Dance of the Wind (1997), and the Padma Shri in 2000.
Muthamma, CB: (1924- 2009) was the first woman to sit the Indian Civil Services examinations in 1948 and to join the Indian Foreign Service in 1949. She is also the first Indian woman diplomat. Later she became the first Indian woman Ambassador/High Commissioner as well. After retirement, she was nominated as the Indian member of the Independent Commission on Disarmament and Security Issues set up by the then Swedish Prime Minister, Olaf Palme.
Naidu, Leela: (1940 - 28 July 2009) was an Indian actress who starred in a small number of Hindi and English films. She is remembered for her classical beauty and subtle acting style. She was crowned Femina Miss India in 1954, and the same year was featured in Vogue magazine's list of the world's ten most beautiful women.
Naidu, Padmaja: (1900-1975) was the daughter of Sarojini Naidu. She was jailed for taking part in the Quit India movement in 1942.After Independence, Naidu was elected to the Parliament but she resigned her membership on account of her ill health and later became the Governor of West Bengal. She was chairperson of the Indian Red Cross Society during the Bangladesh refugee operations. Naidu was also associated with the Bharat Sevak Samaj, All India Handcrafts Board and Nehru Memorial Fund. In 1975, the Zoological Park at Darjeeling was dedicated on to Naidu by Indira Gandhi and since then it is called Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park.
Naidu, Sarojini: (Sarojini Chattopadhyay; February 13, 1879 – March 2, 1949), also known by the sobriquet the nightingale of India, was a child prodigy, freedom fighter, and poet. Naidu was the first Indian woman to become the President of the Indian National Congress and the first woman to become the Governor of Uttar Pradesh. She was active in the Indian Independence Movement, joining Mahatma Gandhi in the Salt March to Dandi, and then leading the Dharasana Satyagraha after the arrests of Gandhi, Abbas Tyabji, and Kasturba Gandhi. She passed her Matriculation examination from Madras University at the age of twelve, also being first in the entire Presidency. From 1891 to 1894 she took break from her studies and was involved in extensive reading on various subjects. In 1895, at the age of sixteen, she traveled to England to study first at King's College London and subsequently at Girton College, Cambridge. Sarojini Naidu is also well acclaimed for her contribution to poetry. Her poetry had beautiful words that could also be sung. In 1905, the first volume of her collection of poems was published as The Golden Threshold. Two more volumes were published: The Bird of Time (1912) and The Broken Wing in (1917). Later, her The Wizard Mask and A Treasury of Poems were published. In 1961 her daughter, Padmaja published a collection of her previously unpublished poems under the title, The Feather of the Dawn.
Nair, Mira: (born 15 October 1957) is an Indian film director and producer based in New York. Her production company is Mirabai Films. She was educated at Delhi University and Harvard University. Her debut feature film, Salaam Bombay! (1988) won the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival and also earned the nomination for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. She used the proceeds of the film, to establish an organization for street children, called the Salaam Baalak Trust in India. She has also won a number of other awards, including a National Film Award and various international film festival awards. She was also awarded the India Abroad Person of the Year-2007, and India Abroad Person of the Year-2006. She is an adjunct professor in the Film Division of the School of Arts, Columbia University.
Namjoshi, Suniti: (born 1941) is an Indian-Canadian writer and poet, many of whose works explore issues of gender and sexual orientation. She has written several collections of fables, poetry and fantasy fiction. She received a master's degree in business administration from the University of Missouri, and a Ph.D. from McGill University. After lecturing at the University of Toronto, she settled in England, where she serves as a research fellow at Exeter University. She is listed in Who’s Who in Contemporary Women's Writing, Routledge, 2001.
Narain, Sunita is an Indian environmentalist and political activist as well as a major proponent of the Green concept of sustainable development. Narain has been with the India-based Centre for Science and Environment since 1982. She is currently the director of the Centre and the director of the Society for Environmental Communications and publisher of the fortnightly magazine, Down To Earth.
Nasrin, Taslima: (born 25 August, 1962) is a Bangladeshi ex-doctor turned author who has been living in exile since 1994. From a modest literary profile in the late 1980s, she rose to global fame by the end of the twentieth century owing to her radical feminist views and her criticism of Islam in particular and of religion in general. Since fleeing Bangladesh in 1994 she has lived in many countries, and currently (2009) lives in New York after expulsion from India (she had made Kolkata her home) in 2008 where she was denounced by the Muslim clergy and received death threats from Islamic fundamentalists. Her breakthrough novel Lajja (Shame) was published in 1993, and attracted wide attention because of its controversial subject matter (rape of a Hindu woman by a Muslim man). In six months' time, it sold 50,000 copies in Bangladesh before being banned.
Natarajan, Jayanthi: (born June 7, 1954) is an Indian lawyer and politician. She is a member of the Indian National Congress and has been thrice elected Member of Parliament representing the state of Tamil Nadu in the Rajya Sabha. She has also been a minister in the Union Cabinet.
Nehwal, Saina: born march 19 is an Indian badminton player. Currently ranked number 6 in the world by Badminton World Federation, Saina is the first Indian woman to reach the singles quarterfinals at the Olympics and the first Indian to win the World Junior Badminton Championships. On June 21 2009, she became the first Indian to win a Super Series tournament after clinching the Indonesia Open with a stunning victory over higher-ranked Chinese Lin Wang in Jakarta.
Niranjana, Anupama: was a writer of modern Kannada fiction. She advocated the woman's point of view and was one among such writers in Kannada, which includes others like Triveni and M. K. Indira. Her novel Runamuktalu has been made into a successful film. She is listed in Who’s Who in Contemporary Women's Writing, Routledge, 2001.
Nooyi, Indra Krishnamurthy: (born October 28, 1955) is the Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PepsiCo, one of the world's leading food and beverage companies. On August 14, 2006, Nooyi was named the successor to Steven Reinemund as chief executive officer of the company effective October 1, 2006. On February 5, 2007, she was named Chairperson, effective May 2, 2007.
Padmanabhan, Manjula: (born 1953) is a playwright, journalist, comic strip artist, and children's book author responsible for the play Harvest. She has also written such plays as Lights Out! (1984), Hidden Fires (solo by Rashi Bunny) The Artist's Model (1995) and Sextet (1996). She has authored a collection of short stories, called Kleptomania. Her most recent book, published in 2008, is titled "Escape". She created Suki, an Indian female comic character, which was serialized as a strip in Sunday Observer. She is listed in Who’s Who in Contemporary Women's Writing, Routledge, 2001.
Pal, Bachendri: (born 1954, in a village named Nakuri in Garhwal) joined the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering. In 1982, while at NIM, she climbed Gangotri I (21,900 ft) and Rudugaria (19,091 ft). Around that time, she got employment as an instructor at the National Adventure Foundation, which had set up an adventure school to train women to learn mountaineering. She is the only Indian woman to have climbed Mount Everest (1984). She is now working with the Tata Steel Adventure Foundation.
Pande, Mrinal: (born 1946) is an Indian television personality, journalist and author, and till recently chief editor of Hindi Daily, Hindustan. She was appointed chairperson of Prasar Bharati, the apex body of the official Indian Broadcast Media, in early 2010. She also hosts a weekly Interview show, titled 'Baaton Baaton Mein' on Lok Sabha TV. She is listed in Who’s Who in Contemporary Women's Writing, Routledge, 2001.
Pandit, Vijaya Lakshmi: (1900 - 1990) was an Indian diplomat and politician, sister of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. She was the first Indian woman to hold a cabinet post. In 1937 she was elected to the provincial legislature of the United Provinces and was designated minister of local self-government and public health. She held the latter post until 1939 and again from 1946 to 1947. In 1946 she was elected to the Constituent Assembly from the United Provinces. Following India's independence from the British in 1947 she entered the diplomatic service and became India's ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1947 to 1949, the United States and Mexico from 1949 to 1951, Ireland from 1955 to 1961 (during which time she was also the Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom), and Spain from 1958 to 1961. Between 1946 and 1968 she also headed the Indian delegation to the United Nations. In 1953, she became the first woman President of the United Nations General Assembly. In India, she served as governor of Maharashtra from 1962 to 1964, after which she was elected to the Indian Lok Sabha from Phulpur, her brother's former constituency. She held office from 1964 to 1968. Pandit was a harsh critic of her niece, Indira Gandhi, after Gandhi became Prime Minister in 1966, and she retired from active politics after relations between them soured. In 1979 she was appointed the Indian representative to the UN Human Rights Commission, after which she retired from public life. Her writings include The Evolution of India (1958) and The Scope of Happiness: A Personal Memoir (1979).
Panigrahi, Sanjukta: (1944 – 1997) was a foremost exponent of Indian classical dance Odissi. Sanjukta was the first Oriya girl to embrace this ancient classical dance at an early age and ensure its grand revival. She was honoured with the Padma Shri in 1975. She is also a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1976. Apart from presenting Odissi performances in different parts of India, Sanjukta Panigrahi has been a part of Government’s cultural delegation to different countries worldwide.
Patil, Pratibha: (born December 19, 1934) is the current President of the Republic of India, the 12th person and first woman to hold the office. Mrs. Pratibha Devisingh Patil, a member of the Indian National Congress (INC), was nominated by the ruling United Progressive Alliance and Indian Left. She won the presidential election held on July 19, 2007 defeating her nearest rival Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. Patil represented Edlabad constituency in Jalgaon District, Maharashtra as a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly (1962-1985), and was deputy chairwoman of the Rajya Sabha (1986-1988), Member of Parliament from Amravati in the Lok Sabha (1991-1996), and the 24th, and the first woman Governor of Rajasthan (2004-2007).
Patkar, Medha: (born December 1, 1954) is a social activist, known mainly for her role in Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada River Campaign). She was a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award in 1991. Among other awards, she received the 1999 MA Thomas National Human Rights Award, the DN Mangeshkar Award, Mahatma Phule Award, Goldman Environment Prize, the Green Ribbon Award for Best International Political Campaigner (BBC), and the Human Rights Defender's Award from Amnesty International. She was also a Commissioner to the World Commission on Dams.
Phule, Savitribai Jotiba: (1831 - 1897) was a social reformer who along with her husband, Mahatma Jotiba Phule played an important role in improving women's rights in India during the British Raj. Savitribai was the first female teacher of the first women's school in India and also considered as the pioneer of modern Marathi poetry. In 1852 she opened a school for "untouchable" girls.
Pritam, Amrita: (1919 – 2005) was an Indian writer and poet, and is considered the first prominent woman Punjabi poet, novelist, and essayist. She produced over 100 books, of poetry, fiction, biographies, essays, a collection of Punjabi folk songs and an autobiography that were translated into several Indian and foreign languages.
Puri, Sunita: is a former member of the Indian women's hockey team. She received the Arjuna Award in 1966.
