# List of Jawaharlal Nehru University people

This is a list of people associated with the Jawaharlal Nehru University. Excluded are those people whose only connection with JNU is that they were awarded an honorary degree.

## Alumni
### Arts

| Name | Class Year | Degree | Notability |
| Sanjay Chauhan (screenwriter) | | MA, MPhil (Centre for Indian Languages, School of Languages) | Film story, Screenplay, Dialogue writer, Author [I am Kalam; Sahib Biwi aur Gangster; Paan Singh Tomar; Urmi, Main Aur Pradhan Mantri] |
| P. Jaya Kumar | | MA (Arts and Aesthetics) | Filmmaker, Screenwriter, Author |
| Srijit Mukherji | | | Bengali film director |
| Swara Bhaskar | | MA (Sociology) | Bollywood actress |
| Archishman Sarker | | MA (Arts and Aesthetics), MPhil (Art History) | Indian art historian |
| Shaunak Sen | | PhD (Arts and Aesthetics) | Indian filmmaker, winner of Golden Eye award |
| B. V. Nandini Reddy | 1994 | International Politics | Telugu Film Director |

### Politics and Law
#### Heads of State and Government

| Name | Class Year | Degree | Notability | References |
| Baburam Bhattarai | 1986 | PhD in Urban Planning | 36th Prime Minister of Nepal | |
| Ali Zeidan | | | 24th Prime Minister of Libya | |

#### Others

| Name | Class Year | Degree | Notability |
| Abdul Sattar Murad | 1976 | | Minister of Economy, Afghanistan |
| Ajit Seth | | M.Phil | 30th Cabinet Secretary of India |
| Amitabh Kant | | MA | CEO of NITI Aayog |
| Amitabh Rajan | | MA (History); PhD (Sociology) | Home Secretary of Maharashtra, Chairman of Reserve Bank of India Services Board |
| Arvind Gupta | | PhD (School of International Studies) | Deputy National Security Advisor of India |
| Ashok Tanwar | | | Former President of Indian Youth Congress |
| Aishe Ghosh | | MA, M.Phil | Student Activist |
| Muhammed Muhsin | | PhD in Social Work | Politician Communist Party of India, MLA - Kerala Legislative Assembly |
| Dipsita Dhar | | | Student Activist |
| Chandan Kumar | | Master in Computer Science | Student Activist |
| Gurjit Singh | | | |
| Lê Lương Minh | | | 13th Secretary General of ASEAN |
| Jyotindra Dixit | | PhD (School of International Studies) | 2nd National Security Adviser |
| Nirmala Sitharaman | 1984 | MA (Economics); M.Phil. | Former Defense Minister of India Finance Minister, India |
| Palagummi Sainath | | | Renowned journalist, Ramon Magsaysay Laureate |
| Prakash Karat | | M.Phil & PhD | Former General Secretary of Communist Party of India Marxist |
| Ranjit Nayak | | MA (Sociology) | World Bank's Chief for Kosovo Chief Adviser of Macedonia on International & EU affairs |
| Pradeep Narwal | | MA (History) | INC Politician AICC Secretary |
| Shehla Rashid | | MA (Sociology) | student activist |
| Sitaram Yechury | | | General Secretary, Communist Party of India (Marxist) |
| Subrahmanyam Jaishankar | | MA (Political Science); M.Phil. & PhD in International Relations | IFS Officer, 30th Foreign Secretary of India Minister of External Affairs |
| Syed Ibrahim | | MA | 24th Director of Intelligence Bureau |
| Venu Rajamony | | MA in International Relations | IFS Officer. Former Press Secretary to President of India Former Indian Ambassador to Netherlands. |

### Humanities and Social Sciences

| Name | Class Year | Degree | Notability |
| Abhijit Banerjee | 1983 | MA in Economics | Nobel laureate and Ford Foundation Professor at MIT |
| Anant Kumar | 1990 | BA in German | Award-winning German Writer in Kassel and Resident Writer of Royal City Gotha |
| David Vumlallian Zou | | MA; M.Phil. | historian |
| Mahmood Kooria | | M.A. | historian |
| Muzaffar Alam | 1977 | | George V. Bobrinsky Professor of History at University of Chicago |
| Sanjoy Bhattacharya | | MA | historian |
| Bishnu Mohapatra | | Mphil | Political Scientist and Poet |

### Military and police

| Name | Degree | Notability |
| R. Hari Kumar | | Chief of naval staff of the Indian Navy |
| Anjana Sinha | Master of Arts | Director of National Industrial Security Academy |
| Soumen Mitra | MPhill | Police Commissioner of Kolkata |

### Science and Technology

| Name | Class Year | Degree | Notability |
| Alok Bhattacharya | 1976 | PhD | Parasitologist and Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate |
| Apurva Sarin | | | Cell biologist, N-Bios laureate |
| Arun Kumar Shukla | 2002 | M.Sc. | Structural Biologist, N-Bios laureate, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate, Infosys Prize laureate |
| Gaiti Hasan | 1980 | MPhil | microbiologist |
| Seyed E. Hasnain | 1980 | PhD | biologist |
| Srinivasan Ramachandran | | | bioinformatician, N-Bios laureate |
| Suman Kumar Dhar | | | Molecular biologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate |
| Somdatta Sinha | 1982 | PhD | Biologist |

### Others

* Brahma Chellaney, columnist and author on geostrategic affairs
* Harun Rashid Khan, Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India (2011 to 2016)
* Umesh Upadhyay, President & Director Media at Reliance Industries Limited
* Pankaj Mishra, novelist and essayist.
* Ashok Kumar Sarangi, Chief Vigilance Officer and CGM-in-Charge, Reserve Bank of India
* Jawed Habib, hairdresser and businessman
* Geetanjali Shree, Novelist and short-story writer, winner of International Booker prize
* Asad Zaidi, Hindi poet, literary critic, publisher, and translator
* Vijoo Krishnan, General Secretary, All India Kissan Sabha
* Yogendra Yadav, Phsephologist , Founder member of Aam Aadmi Party .
* Sanal Edamaruku, Indian Rationalist

## Faculty

| Name | Affiliation | Notability |
| Anvita Abbi | Professor of Linguistics | |
| Ayesha Kidwai | Professor of Linguistics | theoretical linguist and Infosys Prize recipient |
| Balaji Prakash | | biochemist, N-Bios laureate |
| Birendra Nath Mallick, | | Neurobiologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate |
| Brahm Shanker Srivastava, | | microbiologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate |
| Deepak Kumar | Professor of Physics between 1988 and 2016 | physicist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate |
| Franson Manjali | Professor of linguistics. | |
| Joy Pachuau | Professor of Historical studies | historian |
| Kapil Kapoor | Professor of Linguistics & English, Chairman Indian Institute of Advanced Study | |
| Kavita Singh | Professor of Art History between 2001 and 2023 | |
| Mahendra P. Lama | Professor, JNU | vice chancellor of Sikkim University |
| Makarand Paranjape | Professor of English between 1999 and 2018 | author, poet, and director of Indian Institute of Advanced Study |
| Muchkund Dubey | Former Professor of International Relations | 17th Foreign Secretary of India |
| Nivedita Menon | Professor of Political thought | |
| Pius Malekandathil | Former Professor of History | Historian and author |
| Prabhat Patnaik | Former Professor of Economics | |
| Pratiksha Baxi | | |
| Pushpesh Pant | Professor of International relations | food critic and writer |
| Raja Mohan | | |
| Robert L. Holmes | | philosopher |
| Sanjay Puri | held various positions since 1987 | Statistical physicist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate |
| Syed Iqbal Hasnain | | glaciologist, writer, and climate change activist |
| Gopal Guru | Professor of Political Studies, Editor of Economic and Political Weekly | He received Malcolm Adiseshiah Award for Distinguished Contribution to Development Studies for 2013–14 |
| Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya | Professor of Political Studies | Political Scientist |
| Zoya Hassan | Professor of Political Studies | Member of the National Commission for Minorities from 2006 to 2009, Political Scientist |
| Ajay Gudavarthy | Professor of Political Studies | |