40 Indian biographies

Ajay Desai was an Indian wildlife and animal conservation expert, specializing in behavior of wild elephants with a focus on wildlife conflicts with human settlement.

The Akbarnama, which translates to Book of Akbar, the official chronicle of the reign of Akbar, the third Mughal Emperor, commissioned by Akbar himself by his court historian and biographer, Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak, called one of the "nine jewels in Akbar's court" by Mughal writers. It was written in Persian, which is the literary language of the Mughals, and includes vivid and detailed descriptions of his life and times. It followed the Baburnama, the more personal memoir by his grandfather, Babur, founder of the dynasty. Like that, it was produced in the form of lavishly illustrated manuscripts.

Bapu: Conversations and Correspondence with Mahatma Gandhi is an autobiographical description of F. Mary Barr's relationship and interactions with Mahatma Gandhi, whom she refers to as Bapu (father). Several of Gandhi's letters to the author, originally an English missionary in India, are included in full. The book was originally published in India in 1949. A revised edition was published in India in 1956. The book has been reviewed in several magazines, and discussed in other books.

The Basava Purana is a 13th-century Telugu epic poem. It was written by Palkuriki Somanatha. It is a sacred text of Lingayat. The epic poem narrates the life story of philosopher and social reformer Basava, the founder of Lingayat. He is also known by several other names such as Basavanna, Basaweshwara, Basavesha, and Basavaraja. It is also an anthology of several Lingayat saints and their philosophies. In contrast to campu style, Somanatha adopted the desi (native) style and composed the purana in dwipada (couplets), a meter popular in oral tradition and closely related to folk songs.

Bhitti is the autobiography of kannada novelist S.L. Bhyrappa. First published in 1996, the book had 11 reprints as of May, 2018 and has been translated to Hindi, Marathi and English languages.

Subhas Chandra Bose (1897–???) was an Indian politician and Indian freedom fighter. This is a list of books written by or about him.

Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) was an Indian Hindu kayasth monk and a key figure in the introduction of Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the western world. He was one of the most influential philosophers and social reformers in his contemporary India and the most successful and influential missionaries of Vedanta to the Western world. Indian Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore's suggested to study the works of Vivekananda to understand India. He also told, in Vivekananda there was nothing negative, but everything positive.

A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J. B. S. Haldane is a biography of J. B. S. Haldane, British-Indian geneticist, communist and writer; written by Samanth Subramanian and published by Simon and Schuster in 2019.

The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas is a collection of Mohandas Gandhi's writings edited by Louis Fischer. The book outlines how Gandhi became the Mahatma and introduces Gandhi's opinions on various subjects. It is split into two parts, "The Man" and "The Mahatma".

Gandhi Before India is a 2013 book by the Indian historian Ramachandra Guha, the first part of a planned two-volume biography of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. The book deals with Gandhi's life up to his return to India following a 21-year period as a lawyer and civil-rights activist in South Africa. During this period in South Africa, Gandhi experienced discrimination that all coloured people there faced, including the Indian community he became a part of. In response to the government's policies developed Satyagraha, a form of protest that translates loosely to "truth force".

Gandhi the Man is a biography of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi written by Eknath Easwaran. The book was originally published in the United States in 1973. Several subsequent expanded editions have been published. Foreign (non-English) editions have also been published in several languages. The book has been reviewed in newspapers, professional journals, and websites. The subtitle of the 4th edition is How one man changed himself to change the world.

Indira: India's Most Powerful Prime Minister is a 2017 biography by Indian Journalist Sagarika Ghose of Indira Gandhi,a politician and former prime minister of India. The biography is slated to be made into a web series.

The Kalpa Sūtra is a Jain text containing the biographies of the Jain Tirthankaras, notably Parshvanatha and Mahavira. Traditionally ascribed to Bhadrabahu, which would place it in the 4th century BCE, it was probably put in writing 980 or 993 years after the Nirvana (Moksha) of Mahavira.

Krishnamacharya: His Life and Teachings is a book written by A. G. Mohan with Ganesh Mohan. This book is a tribute to "the father of modern yoga," Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (1888–1989). Krishnamacharya was a renowned Indian yoga master, ayurvedic healer, and scholar who created many of the practices of yoga as exercise, and whose students B. K. S. Iyengar, Indra Devi, K. Pattabhi Jois, and T. K. V. Desikachar dramatically popularized yoga in the West.

Life and Philosophy of Swami Vivekananda (1989) is an English book written by G. S Banhatti. This is a biography of Swami Vivekananda. The books was published by Atlantic Publishers & Dist, New Delhi.

Lilavati's Daughters is a collection of nearly a hundred biographical essays on women scientists of India. Published by Indian Academy of Sciences (Bangalore) in 2008, the book was edited by Rohini Godbole and Ram Ramaswamy. Reviews have appeared in The Hindu, Nature and C&E News among other places. The book contains brief biographical and autobiographical sketches of women scientists working in India. Covering a range of disciplines, in these essays the scientists talk of what brought them to science, what kept their interest alive, and what has helped them achieve some measure of distinction in their careers. This collection represent the cultural diversity of the country as well as a diverse range of disciplines, so that any student could gain from the insights and experiences of professional women to whom they may be able to relate at many levels.

The Master as I Saw Him: Being pages of the life of the Swami Vivekananda is a 1910 book written by Sister Nivedita. The book covers Nivedita's experiences with Swami Vivekananda, whom she met in London during November 1895. The book was simultaneously published from England and India, and The Master as I Saw Him is now considered to be a classic text.

Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found is a narrative nonfiction book by Suketu Mehta, published in 2004, about the Indian city of Mumbai. It was published in hardcover by Random House's Alfred A. Knopf imprint. When released in paperback, it was published by Vintage, a subdivision of Random House.

The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice is an essay by the British-American journalist and polemicist Christopher Hitchens published in 1995.

The Monk Who Became Chief Minister : The Definitive Biography Of Yogi Adityanath is a biography of Yogi Adityanath, the 22nd Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. It is written by Shantanu Gupta, an Indian Author and Political Analyst. The book has been published by Bloomsbury Publishing, India and came out on 25 August 2017. The cover of the biography was released on 23 July 2017 at an event of CREDAI at Lucknow.

Nehru: A Contemporary's Estimate is a 1966 book written by Walter Crocker and published by Oxford University Press. It is a biography of Jawaharlal Nehru. The book was originally published with a foreword by Arnold Toynbee. It has been reprinted in 2009 by Random House India with a new foreword by Ramachandra Guha.

The Patient Assassin, A True Tale of Massacre, Revenge and the Raj is a 2019 book based on the life of Indian revolutionary Udham Singh. Authored by Anita Anand, it was published by Simon and Schuster UK in April 2019 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre in Amritsar, India.

Playing It My Way is the autobiography of former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. It was launched on 5 November 2014 in Mumbai. The book summarises Tendulkar's early days, his 24 years of international career and aspects of his life that have not been shared publicly. It entered the Limca Book of Records for being the best selling adult hardback across both fiction and non-fiction categories. In India, it broke the record set by Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs for being the most pre-ordered biographical book.

The Polyester Prince The Rise of Dhirubhai Ambani is an unauthorized biography of Indian business tycoon and Reliance Industries founder Dhirubhai Ambani. The book was written by Australian journalist Hamish McDonald and first published by Allen & Unwin, an Australian publisher, in 1998. The book was never published in India and was banned there.

The Prithviraj Raso is a Brajbhasha epic poem about the life of the 12th century Indian king Prithviraj Chauhan, whom it describes as a Rajput hero. It is attributed to Chand Bardai, who according to the text, was a court poet of the king.

Queen of the Elephants is a book written by the conservationist and travel writer Mark Shand and the corresponding BBC documentary Queen of the Elephants, based on the life of the first female mahout in recent times—Parbati Barua of Kaziranga. The book went on to win the Prix Litteraire d'Amis award, providing free publicity simultaneously to the profession of mahouts, and to Kaziranga.

Rajinikanth: The Definitive Biography is a 2012 biography of the Indian actor Rajinikanth, written by Naman Ramachandran. It is the second biography of the actor, following The Name is Rajinikanth (2008) by Gayathri Sreekanth.

A Ramachandran: A Retrospective (2004), is a two-volume book by Indian art historian R. Siva Kumar. It is a study of the life and works of artist A. Ramachandran. It has more than 500 reproductions and a selection of rare, historical photographs. Selected writings by the artist, biographical notes and chronology of works are also included in the book.

The Sai Satcharita is a biography based on the true life stories of Sai Baba of Shirdi. Authored by Shri. Govind Raghunath Dabholkar alias Hemadpant, the original edition of the Sai Satcharitra was published in Marathi on 26 November, 1930. A subsequent english edition was soon published in 1944, by Shri. Nagash Devastate (N.V.) Gunaji, translated from the original Marathi composition.

Scholar Extraordinary is a biography of Max Müller published by Chatto & Windus in 1974. The book was written by Nirad C. Chaudhuri. In addition to detailing the life of Müller, Chaudhuri also places in context the social and psychological aspects of the era and handles Müller's actions with that backdrop.

Something Beautiful for God is a 1971 book by Malcolm Muggeridge on Mother Teresa. The book was based on a 1969 documentary on Mother Teresa that Muggeridge had undertaken.

Sri Ramakrishna the Great Master, translated by Swami Jagadananda, is an English translation of the Bengali biography Sri Ramakrishna Leela Prasanga, of Sri Ramakrishna, the 19th-century Indian saint and mystic. Its Bengali original was written by Swami Saradananda, which is based on interviews of persons who knew or interacted with him. It is therefore a first-hand source. The original Bengali version published was composed in five volumes and was the first full-scale biography of the saint. This is an eye witness account and therefore carries more credibility than later books on Sri Ramakrishna. The English translation was first published in 1952. The original Bengali book was written from 1909 to 1919, over a period of ten years in order to repay the debt incurred for constructing Udbodhan House for Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi.

Sri Sai Gurucharitra is a biography on the life of Sai Baba of Shirdi, written by his devotee Ganpatrao Dattatreya Sahasra-buddhe, better known as Das Ganu Maharaj.

Swami Vivekananda in the West: New Discoveries is a series of biographical books on Swami Vivekananda written by Marie Louise Burke, who is popularly known as Sister Gargi. There are six volumes in the series. This series of books was first published in two volumes in 1957. In 1983-87 these series was republished in six volumes. The book is high acclaimed not just in India but also in the Vedanta circles around the world.

Swami Vivekananda: Messiah of Resurgent India (2003) is a book written by Pranaba Ranjan Bhuyan. This book is a comprehensive biography of Swami Vivekananda. The book was published by Atlantic Publishers & Dist, New Delhi.

Tapasa vai Ganga is the biography of Radha Krishna Choudhary, an eminent historian and littérateur of Mithila, written by dr. Binod Bihari Verma, published in 1995.

V.P. Menon: The Unsung Architect of Modern India is a non-fiction book by Indian historian Narayani Basu, published by Simon & Schuster India in 2020. The book is a biography of V. P. Menon, an Indian civil servant who assisted Sardar Patel in the political integration of India, and was one of the founders of Swatantra Party which advocated free market policies.

Veerapandiya Kattabomman is a book written on the biography of Veerapandiya Kattabomman by M. P. Sivagnanam. The first edition of the book was published in the 1940s.

Wise & Otherwise: A Salute to life is a non-fiction book written by Sudha Murthy, chairperson of the Infosys Foundation and the wife of Narayan Murthy. It was published by East West Books Pvt. Ltd (Madras) in the year 2002 and a revised edition is first published by Penguin Books with an addition of an extra chapter in the year 2006. The book shows encounters Sudha Murthy has had with ordinary people and extraordinary minds during her travels and personal experiences.

Yogi Adityanath: The Rise Of A Saffron Socialist is a biography on Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath authored by The Times of India Resident Editor in Lucknow, Pravin Kumar. It traces Adityanath’s journey from Pauri in Uttarakhand to the Goraksha Peeth in Gorakhpur, to the Parliament of India in New Delhi, and finally to the chief minister’s post in Lucknow. The book is published by Times Group Books. The first copy of the book was presented to Yogi Adityanath on 24 November 2017. The book was released at the Times Literature Festival in New Delhi on 26 November 2017.