Political and public figures of Gujarati origin, past and present.
Open the interactive directory →Born in Porbandar, Gujarat, he led India's nonviolent struggle for independence from British rule and is honoured as the Father of the Nation.
Born in Nadiad, Gujarat, he was the Iron Man of India who unified over 500 princely states into the Indian Union.
Born in Vadnagar, Gujarat, he served as Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 before becoming Prime Minister of India.
Born in Bhadeli, Gujarat, he became the first non-Congress Prime Minister of India in 1977 and is the only Indian to receive Pakistan's Nishan-e-Pakistan.
A Gujarat-based politician and former President of the BJP, he serves as India's Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Cooperation.
He became the Chief Minister of Gujarat in September 2021 and represents the Ghatlodia constituency in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly.
He served as the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2016 to 2021 and was a member of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly from Rajkot West.
She served as Gujarat's first female Chief Minister from 2014 to 2016 and later became Governor of Uttar Pradesh.
A veteran BJP leader, he twice served as Chief Minister of Gujarat and later founded the Gujarat Parivartan Party.
He served as Chief Minister of Gujarat from 1996 to 1997 and later held Union cabinet positions as a Congress leader.
He served two terms as Chief Minister of Gujarat, his first in the early 1970s and second in the 1990s, and founded the Kisan Mazdoor Lok Paksh.
He served multiple terms as Chief Minister of Gujarat and briefly as India's Minister of External Affairs, known for the KHAM caste coalition strategy.
He became the first Chief Minister of Gujarat when the state was formed in 1960 and later served as India's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.
He served as Chief Minister of Gujarat from 1963 until his death in 1965 when his aircraft was shot down during the Indo-Pakistani War.
He served as the third Chief Minister of Gujarat from 1965 to 1971 as a Congress leader.
He served twice as Chief Minister of Gujarat in the 1970s, leading Janata-aligned governments in the state.
He served as Chief Minister of Gujarat from 1985 to 1989 and was the first tribal leader to hold the post.
He served as Chief Minister of Gujarat in 1995-1996 as a BJP leader from Kutch.
An industrialist-turned-politician, he served briefly as Chief Minister of Gujarat in 1997-1998 for the Rashtriya Janata Party.
He served as Chief Minister of Gujarat in the early 1970s as a Congress leader.
A senior BJP leader, he served as Deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat under Keshubhai Patel in the 1990s.
A senior BJP leader from Mehsana, he served as Deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat and held key finance and health portfolios.
He rose to prominence leading the Patidar reservation agitation and later became a BJP MLA from Viramgam.
An OBC community leader from Gujarat, he serves as a BJP MLA and previously led anti-liquor and social campaigns.
A Dalit rights activist, he serves as an independent MLA from Vadgam supported by the Congress in the Gujarat Assembly.
A Gujarat-based BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member, he served in the Union Council of Ministers.
A Gujarat-based BJP leader from Bhavnagar, he has served as Union Health Minister and Minister of Labour and Employment.
He is the Member of Parliament from Navsari, Gujarat BJP state president, and a Union Cabinet Minister.
A veteran Congress leader from Bharuch, Gujarat, he served as political secretary to Sonia Gandhi and party treasurer.
Also known as Bhailalbhai Patel, he was a Gujarati civil engineer and educationist who founded Vallabh Vidyanagar and served in public life.
A freedom fighter and socialist, he led the Mahagujarat Movement that resulted in the creation of Gujarat state in 1960.
A Gujarati independence activist, politician and writer, he served as a Union minister and founded the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.
A Congress leader from Kheda, Gujarat, he served multiple terms as a Member of Parliament and as a Union Minister of State.
A Congress leader from Anand, Gujarat, he served as a Union Minister of State and as president of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee.
A veteran Congress leader who served as chief minister in the early 1990s.
Elder brother of Sardar Patel, a Swaraj Party co-founder and the first Indian President of the Central Legislative Assembly.
A revered Gujarati Gandhian and social worker known as the 'saint of the poor'.
Mahatma Gandhi's personal secretary and chronicler for 25 years, a key figure of the freedom movement.
A freedom fighter who ran the underground Congress Radio during the 1942 Quit India Movement.
A prominent lawyer and Congress leader who defended the INA soldiers in the historic Red Fort trials.
A civil servant turned politician, he served as India's Finance Minister and later Home Minister in the Morarji Desai government from 1977 to 1979.
He was a Union Cabinet Minister under Nehru, Shastri and Indira Gandhi holding industry, commerce and foreign trade portfolios, and pioneered India's Small Industries development network.
The Maharaja of Wankaner, he served as Union Deputy Minister for Ecology and Environment from 1982 to 1984 and was an MP from Surendranagar.
An MP from Kheda, he served as Union Minister of State for Communications in the Government of India from 2021.
A BJP MP from Rajkot, he served as Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmer Welfare from 2014 to 2016.
A tribal leader who represented Chhota Udaipur five times in the Lok Sabha, he was Union Minister of State for Railways in the UPA government in 2004.
An MP from Bhavnagar and former mayor, she became Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in 2024.
A BJP MLA from Dholka, he served as Gujarat's Cabinet Minister for Education, Law and Justice in the Vijay Rupani government.
A five-time MLA, he served as Gujarat's Cabinet Minister for Energy and Petrochemicals for around fourteen years.
A scholar and administrator, he served as Gujarat's Cabinet Minister for Health and Family Welfare from 2007 to 2012.
A former VHP leader, he served as Gujarat's Minister of State for Home in Narendra Modi's cabinet during 2001-2002.
A tribal leader from Mangrol, he was the first tribal Speaker of the Gujarat Assembly and later Cabinet Minister for Tribal Welfare and Forests.
A long-serving finance and revenue minister and Assembly Speaker in Gujarat, he later served as Governor of Karnataka from 2014 to 2021.
An MLA from Tharad and chairman of Banas Dairy, he has served as Speaker of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly since December 2022.
An advocate and BJP politician from Vadodara, he was Speaker of the Gujarat Assembly from 2018 to 2022 and later a Cabinet Minister.
An MLA from Visnagar, he became Gujarat's Cabinet Minister for Health and Family Welfare in the Bhupendra Patel government in 2021.
An MLA from Bhavnagar West and former Gujarat BJP president, he became the state's Education Minister in 2021.
A four-time MP from Amreli, he served as Gujarat's Cabinet Minister for Agriculture and Cooperation and later chaired IFFCO.
A BJP MLA from Bhavnagar Rural since 1998, he served as Gujarat's Minister of Fisheries.
A Koli community leader and former Lok Sabha MP, he serves as Gujarat's Cabinet Minister for Water Supply and Animal Husbandry.
A BJP politician, she has represented Jamnagar in the Lok Sabha since 2014 and was earlier an MLA from Khambhalia.
A surgeon and BJP politician, he was the first MP elected from Ahmedabad West and served three consecutive Lok Sabha terms.
A five-time MLA and two-time MP, he represented Porbandar in the Lok Sabha and switched from Congress to the BJP in 2013.
A BJP politician, she represented the Vadodara constituency across the 12th, 13th and 14th Lok Sabha.
Ruler of Dhasa state in Saurashtra, he was the first Indian prince to surrender his principality to become a Gandhian freedom fighter.
A Gujarati poet, folklorist and freedom fighter given the title Rashtriya Shayar by Gandhi, he was jailed for his patriotic songs.
Born in Cambay and a former Chief Justice of Baroda, this Gandhian led the Dharasana Salt Satyagraha and was called the Grand Old Man of Gujarat.
Born into a Porbandar trading family, she was a political activist who took part in satyagrahas and was repeatedly imprisoned.
Born in Ahmedabad, he was a close associate of Gandhi who organized the Salt Satyagraha in Gujarat and wrote biographies of Patel and Desai.
A monk and Gujarati writer, he managed Gandhi's publications Navajivan and Young India and inspired Gandhi's autobiography.
Born in Gujarat, he worked for the education and upliftment of the tribals of south Gujarat at Vedchhi and was jailed in multiple satyagrahas.
A Surat-rooted associate of Gandhi and first registrar of Gujarat Vidyapith, he edited the periodical Harijan and wrote on Gandhian philosophy.
Son of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, he participated in the Quit India movement, was Mayor of Bombay and served as a Rajya Sabha MP until 1973.
Born in Ahmedabad into the Sarabhai family, she was a Congress general secretary and independence activist known for her partition relief work.
Born in Kheda district, he was an early disciple of Gandhi nicknamed the Onion Thief for his role in initiating the 1918 Kheda Satyagraha.
Born in Surat and physician to the Baroda royals, he joined the freedom movement, led the Gujarat Kisan Sabha and worked in the Bardoli Satyagraha.
Born in Bhavnagar, this engineer-turned-social-worker championed tribal and Dalit welfare and coined the term adivasi.
Born as Mool Shankar in Tankara, Kathiawar, he was the Hindu reformer and philosopher who founded the Arya Samaj in 1875.
A Gujarati reformer and journalist who founded Satyaprakash and won the 1862 Maharaj Libel Case, advocating widow remarriage and women's education.
Born in Surat, he founded the Manav Dharma Sabha in 1844, the first reform association in Gujarat, and campaigned for widow remarriage.
Born in Surat, he was a Gujarati educationist, reformer and novelist who wrote the first Gujarati travelogue and social novel.
Born in Ahmedabad, he was the first Gujarati to join the British judiciary and founded the Prarthana Samaj and Dharma Sabha for religious reform.
Born in Ahmedabad, he was a novelist and social reformer who wrote the satire Bhadrambhadra and served as Mayor of Ahmedabad.
A textile-industry pioneer regarded as the founder of modern Ahmedabad, he was a social activist who started the city's first women's hospital.
Born in Ahmedabad, she was among the first two women graduates in Gujarat and a reformer who founded women's education institutes.
Born in Ahmedabad, she was one of Gujarat's first two women graduates, a social reformer who fought child marriage and championed women's education.
Born in Ahmedabad, she was a Gujarati writer, translator and educationist who headed the Vanita Vishram institute.
Born in Surat, she helped word the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as all human beings and was a pioneering educationist and women's rights leader.
Daughter of Sardar Patel, she was a freedom fighter jailed in the Quit India movement and later a Lok Sabha MP from Sabarkantha and Mehsana.
A Padma Bhushan awardee, she founded numerous women and child welfare organisations in Saurashtra and was an MLA and Rajya Sabha member.
Born in Ahmedabad, this Padma Shri freedom fighter was jailed in the Quit India movement and later served as Education Minister of Gujarat.
Born near Limbdi in Saurashtra, she joined the Dandi March at eighteen and later devoted her life to tribal welfare in the Dangs.
A Gujarati freedom fighter who led the Junagadh liberation, he served as a minister in the Saurashtra, Bombay and Gujarat cabinets.
Born in Rajkot, he was the first Chief Minister of Saurashtra State and served as President of the Indian National Congress from 1955 to 1959.
A Gujarati independence activist and Congress politician, he served as Chief Minister of Saurashtra State from 1954 to 1956.
A Gujarati Gandhian freedom fighter jailed during the Emergency, he served as Governor of Tamil Nadu from 1977 to 1980.
Born in Bhavnagar, he was an educator and freedom fighter who founded the Dakshinamurti and Gram Dakshinamurti rural education institutions.
Born in Gujarat, this lawyer-turned-educator introduced Montessori methods to India and founded the Bal Mandir pre-primary school in Bhavnagar.
Born in Surat, he founded the Gujarati Sahitya Parishad and Gujarat Sahitya Sabha, and the Ranjitram Suvarna Chandrak is named after him.
A Gujarati Nagar freedom fighter and confidant of Gandhi, he was among independent India's first five Governors, serving Madhya Pradesh, Bombay and Mysore.