By T N Ashok
NEW DELHI: The Nobel Prize has a remarkable Indian story. It begins with a poet who carried Bengali literature to the world, passes through scientists who transformed our understanding of light, stars and the machinery of life, embraces economists who investigated poverty, and now reaches a distinguished jurist of Tamil ancestry whose career has been devoted to international justice and human rights.
The announcement of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize for Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, the South African jurist of Indian Tamil origin, adds another chapter to this history. Her award is not merely a recognition of individual achievement. It is a reminder that people whose roots lie in India have contributed to intellectual, scientific and humanitarian causes across continents. The Nobel Committee’s citation recognises her efforts to promote peace and international law, including the prosecution of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
The Indian Nobel story began in 1913, when Rabindranath Tagore became the first Asian to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Swedish Academy honoured him for his profoundly sensitive and beautiful verse, which brought his poetic thought, expressed in his own English translations, into Western literature.
Tagore was more than a poet. He was a novelist, playwright, composer, philosopher and educationist who founded Visva-Bharati at Santiniketan. His achievement challenged the assumption that literary excellence flowed predominantly from Europe. He demonstrated that a literary tradition rooted in India could speak to universal human experience.
Seventeen years later, in 1930, Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the effect of light scattering that bears his name. The Raman effect became a fundamental tool for investigating the molecular composition of substances. His award was a landmark for experimental science conducted in India, showing that world-class discoveries could emerge from Indian laboratories.
Science subsequently produced two other distinguished Indian-born laureates. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, awarded the 1983 Physics Prize, was honoured for his theoretical studies of the physical processes governing the structure and evolution of stars. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, born in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, shared the 2009 Chemistry Prize for research explaining the structure and function of ribosomes, the cellular machinery that produces proteins.
Hargobind Khorana, born in what is now Pakistan, shared the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for interpreting the genetic code and its role in protein synthesis. His achievement, alongside that of his fellow laureates, helped establish the molecular foundations of modern biology.
The Nobel story also encompasses economics and humanitarian service. Amartya Sen received the 1998 Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics. His work on poverty, famines, inequality and the distribution of resources changed the way economists and policymakers examine human deprivation. Rather than treating economic growth as the sole measure of progress, Sen drew attention to the freedoms, capabilities and opportunities available to individuals.
Abhijit Banerjee, born in Mumbai, shared the 2019 Economics Prize with Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty. Their research helped make carefully designed field experiments an influential method for evaluating interventions in education, healthcare and development.
The Nobel Peace Prize has also recognised humanitarian work associated with India. Mother Teresa, born in Skopje and later an Indian citizen, received the 1979 Peace Prize for her work bringing help to suffering humanity. Kailash Satyarthi shared the 2014 Peace Prize with Malala Yousafzai for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of every child to education.
Satyarthi’s campaigns against child labour and exploitation brought international attention to children trapped in conditions of forced labour.
V.S. Naipaul, born in Trinidad into a family of Indian ancestry, received the 2001 Nobel Prize in Literature for his perceptive narratives and his examination of histories that shape societies.
These cases illustrate why a precise count of “Indian Nobel laureates” requires care. Some were born in India and lived or worked abroad; others were born elsewhere, held different citizenships or belonged to the Indian diaspora. The Nobel Foundation does not maintain a single official category covering all people of Indian ancestry.
Navi Pillay’s recognition raises a particularly interesting question: how many Nobel laureates have Tamil roots? Using ancestry rather than citizenship or birthplace as the criterion, four prominent laureates can be identified: C. V. Raman, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Navi Pillay. Raman was born in Tiruchirappalli, Ramakrishnan in Chidambaram, and Chandrasekhar belonged to a Tamil family despite being born in Lahore. Pillay was born in Durban, South Africa, to parents of Indian Tamil origin.
Their achievements span physics, chemistry and international law. Pillay’s award is especially significant because it places a Tamil-origin woman, whose early legal career challenged apartheid, among the world’s most celebrated advocates of justice.
The number four should be understood as an ancestry-based count of these identifiable figures, not an official Nobel classification. Different definitions of Tamil identity and Indian origin can affect such tallies.
No account of the Nobel Peace Prize can avoid its most famous omission: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the apostle of non-violence.
Gandhi was nominated for the Peace Prize in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and 1948. In the final year, he was assassinated on January 30, just two days before the nomination deadline. He was seriously considered, but the committee ultimately awarded no Peace Prize for 1948, declaring that there was no suitable living candidate.
The explanation is more complicated than the frequently repeated assertion that Nobel prizes cannot be awarded posthumously. That restriction was formalised in 1974. In 1948, a posthumous award was legally conceivable, and the committee considered the possibility. Why, then, was Gandhi denied the honour?
The Nobel Foundation’s historical account points to several factors. Gandhi was a distinctive candidate who did not fit neatly into the established categories of earlier Peace Prize recipients. The violence surrounding Partition and the deteriorating relationship between India and Pakistan complicated the political context. Some committee members also questioned aspects of his political position and his statements about how Hindus and Muslims should respond to communal violence.
There is no conclusive evidence that fear of offending Britain was the decisive reason. The Nobel Foundation’s own historical review cautions against treating that theory as established fact.
The omission remains striking. Gandhi’s philosophy influenced civil-rights movements and leaders around the world. Martin Luther King Jr. acknowledged the profound influence of Gandhian non-violence on the American civil-rights struggle. When the Dalai Lama received the 1989 Peace Prize, the committee’s chairman described the award as, in part, a tribute to Gandhi’s memory.
The irony is difficult to escape: the man most widely associated with non-violent resistance never received the prize intended to honour contributions to peace.
Gandhi’s absence stands out even more when set against the long line of Peace Prize laureates recognised for civil rights and human rights.
Martin Luther King Jr. received the 1964 Peace Prize for his non-violent struggle for civil rights in the United States. Nelson Mandela and F. W. de Klerk shared the 1993 award for their work towards the peaceful termination of apartheid and the foundations of a democratic South Africa.
Aung San Suu Kyi won in 1991 for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights in Myanmar. Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi received the prize in 2003 for her efforts to promote democracy and human rights, particularly the rights of women and children. Liu Xiaobo was honoured in 2010 for his long, non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.
Other recipients include Kailash Satyarthi, Malala Yousafzai, Narges Mohammadi and numerous campaigners for democratic freedoms, women’s rights and the protection of vulnerable communities. Their work demonstrates that peace is not simply the absence of war; it also requires justice, dignity and protection from oppression.
Pillay’s recognition belongs to this tradition. Her career has connected the fight against apartheid with the prosecution of international crimes and the strengthening of legal institutions that can hold powerful individuals and states accountable.
There is no single authoritative number for all Nobel laureates who can be classified as civil-rights or human-rights activists. The categories overlap with peacebuilding, democracy, humanitarian work and disarmament. Any numerical total would depend on how narrowly the terms were defined.
The Indian Nobel story is not finished. Its achievements reveal a country and a diaspora contributing to scientific discovery, literature, economic thought and the struggle for human dignity. From Tagore’s poetry to Raman’s experiments, Sen’s economics, Satyarthi’s campaign for children and Pillay’s international legal work, the common thread is an ability to address problems that transcend national boundaries.
But the Nobel record also reminds us that awards are human decisions made within particular historical circumstances. They recognise extraordinary achievement, yet cannot provide a complete inventory of human greatness.
Gandhi’s missing medal remains the clearest illustration. His stature does not depend on a Nobel citation. Nevertheless, the absence of his name among the laureates leaves a question that continues to resonate nearly eight decades after his death: can any award intended to celebrate peace fully represent its ideals when the twentieth century’s most influential apostle of non-violence was never chosen?
The Nobel Prize has honoured many who carried forward the struggle for freedom and justice. Gandhi’s place in history, however, was secured without it. (IPA Service)
