Famous Personalities and Their Nicknames: Exam List
Notes on famous personalities and their nicknames for competitive exams: sobriquets of freedom fighters, scientists, sportspersons and world leaders, with who gave them.
By GK24 Editorial Team· Published · 4 min read
A sobriquet is a name a person is remembered by instead of, or along with, their own. In Indian public life these titles were rarely chosen by the people who carried them. Some were given by another leader, some by the press, some by a crowd at a public meeting, and the exam usually wants both halves of the pair: the nickname and the person, and now and then the person who coined it. This chapter is pure recall, so the way to hold it is in groups, because a scattered list of fifty names is forgotten by the next morning.
Why the paper asks this chapter
One-mark General Awareness questions need facts that have exactly one answer, and a sobriquet is one of the cleanest such facts. SSC, Railway, Banking and State papers therefore carry at least one question from this list in almost every shift, usually as a straight pairing question, sometimes as a match the following set and occasionally as a question about who conferred the title. The same names come back year after year, which is why this list rewards revision more than reasoning.
The national movement
| Sobriquet | Person | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Bapu, Mahatma | Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi | Mahatma is credited to Rabindranath Tagore |
| Father of the Nation | Mahatma Gandhi | First addressed so by Subhas Chandra Bose |
| Gurudev, Kabiguru | Rabindranath Tagore | The name Gurudev is credited to Gandhi |
| Netaji | Subhas Chandra Bose | Founder of the Azad Hind Fauj's revival |
| Iron Man of India, Sardar | Vallabhbhai Patel | Sardar came from the women of Bardoli, 1928 |
| Lokmanya | Bal Gangadhar Tilak | Called Father of Indian Unrest by Valentine Chirol |
| Punjab Kesari, Sher-e-Punjab | Lala Lajpat Rai | Died after the lathi charge at Lahore, 1928 |
| Deshbandhu | Chittaranjan Das | Co-founder of the Swaraj Party |
| Deshratna | Rajendra Prasad | First President of India |
| Grand Old Man of India | Dadabhai Naoroji | Wrote Poverty and Un-British Rule in India |
| Frontier Gandhi, Badshah Khan | Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan | Founded the Khudai Khidmatgar |
| Nightingale of India, Bharat Kokila | Sarojini Naidu | First woman President of the Indian National Congress |
| Mahamana | Madan Mohan Malaviya | Founder of Banaras Hindu University |
| Loknayak | Jayaprakash Narayan | Leader of the total revolution call |
| Babasaheb | B. R. Ambedkar | Chairman of the Drafting Committee |
| Shaheed-e-Azam | Bhagat Singh | Hanged at Lahore in 1931 |
Science, industry and public service
- Missile Man of India and People's President: A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.
- Father of the Indian Space Programme: Vikram Sarabhai; Father of the Indian Nuclear Programme: Homi Jehangir Bhabha.
- Father of the Green Revolution in India: M. S. Swaminathan; Milkman of India, who led the White Revolution: Verghese Kurien.
- Metro Man of India: E. Sreedharan; Missile Woman of India: Tessy Thomas.
- Father of Indian Cinema: Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, known as Dadasaheb Phalke.
- Father of the Indian Renaissance: Raja Ram Mohan Roy; Vidyasagar, the ocean of learning: Ishwar Chandra Bandyopadhyay.
- Sam Bahadur: Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw; Iron Lady of India: Indira Gandhi.
Rulers and poets
Older titles are asked in the same shape. Samudragupta is called the Napoleon of India, a description first used by the historian V. A. Smith for his conquests recorded in the Allahabad pillar inscription. Chandragupta II took the title Vikramaditya. Ashoka is called Devanampiya Piyadasi in his own edicts. Alauddin Khalji struck the title Sikandar-i-Sani, the second Alexander, on his coins. Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara is remembered as Andhra Bhoja, and Amir Khusro as Tuti-e-Hind, the parrot of India. Kalidasa is called the Shakespeare of India, and William Shakespeare in turn is the Bard of Avon.
Sport
Sports sobriquets are a favourite of Railway and SSC papers. Major Dhyan Chand is the Wizard or the Magician of hockey. Milkha Singh is the Flying Sikh, a name that came out of a race in Pakistan. P. T. Usha is the Payyoli Express and the Golden Girl. Sunil Gavaskar is the Little Master, while Sachin Tendulkar is the Master Blaster. Kapil Dev is the Haryana Hurricane. Viswanathan Anand is the Lightning Kid. Saina Nehwal's contemporary and the shuttler crowd call Pullela Gopichand a coach rather than a nickname holder, so keep the list to the classics the papers repeat.
World figures
A few foreign sobriquets recur: the Man of Blood and Iron for Otto von Bismarck, the Maid of Orleans for Joan of Arc, the Lady with the Lamp for Florence Nightingale, the Great Emancipator for Abraham Lincoln, the Little Corporal for Napoleon Bonaparte, the Desert Fox for Erwin Rommel, Il Duce for Benito Mussolini and the Fuhrer for Adolf Hitler. Mother Teresa, who worked in Kolkata, is called the Saint of the Gutters.
Exam Point of View
Expect a straight pairing question: a sobriquet is given and four names follow, or a name is given and four sobriquets follow. The traps are the pairs that sit close together. Little Master is Gavaskar while Master Blaster is Tendulkar. Nightingale of India is Sarojini Naidu while Lata Mangeshkar is Swar Kokila or the Queen of Melody. Deshbandhu is C. R. Das while Deshratna is Rajendra Prasad. Napoleon of India is Samudragupta, not Chandragupta Maurya. The second family of questions asks who conferred a title, so keep Tagore for Mahatma, Gandhi for Gurudev, Bose for Father of the Nation, Chirol for Father of Indian Unrest and Smith for Napoleon of India ready. Match the following sets mix freedom fighters with scientists, so revise the groups rather than a single long list.
Important Facts
| Father of the Nation | Mahatma Gandhi, first so addressed by Subhas Chandra Bose |
|---|---|
| Mahatma | Title for Gandhi credited to Rabindranath Tagore |
| Gurudev | Rabindranath Tagore, name credited to Mahatma Gandhi |
| Iron Man of India | Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel |
| Father of Indian Unrest | Bal Gangadhar Tilak, as described by Valentine Chirol |
| Grand Old Man of India | Dadabhai Naoroji |
| Frontier Gandhi | Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan |
| Nightingale of India | Sarojini Naidu |
| Deshbandhu and Deshratna | Chittaranjan Das and Rajendra Prasad |
| Napoleon of India | Samudragupta, a description used by V. A. Smith |
| Missile Man of India | A. P. J. Abdul Kalam |
| Father of the Indian Space Programme | Vikram Sarabhai |
| Milkman of India | Verghese Kurien, who led the White Revolution |
| Flying Sikh | Milkha Singh |
| Wizard of hockey | Major Dhyan Chand |
| Payyoli Express | P. T. Usha |
Practice MCQs on this topic
Who among the following is known as the 'Iron Man of India'?
- A.Lala Lajpat Rai
- B.Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
- C.Bal Gangadhar Tilak
- D.Subhas Chandra Bose
Show answer
Patel was the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India, and he persuaded or pressed more than five hundred princely states into joining the Indian Union after 1947.
Read the full explanation →Who first addressed Mahatma Gandhi as the 'Father of the Nation'?
- A.Jawaharlal Nehru
- B.Rabindranath Tagore
- C.Subhas Chandra Bose
- D.Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
Show answer
Bose addressed Gandhi as the Father of the Nation in a radio broadcast made while he was leading the Azad Hind movement during the Second World War, and the phrase has stayed with Gandhi ever since.
Read the full explanation →Who is known as the 'Nightingale of India'?
- A.Lata Mangeshkar
- B.Sarojini Naidu
- C.Annie Besant
- D.Kamala Nehru
Show answer
Naidu was a poet in English whose collections include The Golden Threshold and The Bird of Time, and the lyrical quality of her verse earned her the name Nightingale of India, or Bharat Kokila.
Read the full explanation →Which freedom fighter is remembered as the 'Grand Old Man of India'?
- A.Dadabhai Naoroji
- B.Gopal Krishna Gokhale
- C.Surendranath Banerjee
- D.Pherozeshah Mehta
Show answer
Naoroji was a founder of the Indian National Congress, its President three times, and the first Indian to be elected to the British House of Commons.
Read the full explanation →Valentine Chirol described which leader as the 'Father of Indian Unrest'?
- A.Aurobindo Ghosh
- B.Bipin Chandra Pal
- C.Bal Gangadhar Tilak
- D.Lala Lajpat Rai
Show answer
Valentine Chirol, a British journalist, used the phrase Father of Indian Unrest for Tilak in his writing on Indian politics, and Tilak sued him for libel in England.
Read the full explanation →Who is popularly called the 'Frontier Gandhi'?
- A.Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
- B.Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
- C.Muhammad Ali Jinnah
- D.Hakim Ajmal Khan
Show answer
He organised the Khudai Khidmatgar, the servants of God, also known as the Red Shirts, in the North West Frontier Province, and he held to non-violence so completely that he became known as the Frontier Gandhi, or Sarhadi Gandhi.
Read the full explanation →Which ruler is described as the 'Napoleon of India'?
- A.Chandragupta Maurya
- B.Samudragupta
- C.Harshavardhana
- D.Ashoka
Show answer
The historian V. A. Smith first described Samudragupta as the Napoleon of India, because of the long list of kings and republics he subdued, recorded in the Allahabad pillar inscription, or Prayag Prashasti, composed by his court poet Harisena.
Read the full explanation →Who is known as the 'Missile Man of India'?
- A.Homi Jehangir Bhabha
- B.Satish Dhawan
- C.A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
- D.Raja Ramanna
Show answer
Kalam worked on the SLV-3 launch vehicle and then led the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme, out of which the Agni, Prithvi, Trishul, Akash and Nag missiles came, and that work gave him the name Missile Man of India.
Read the full explanation →Who is regarded as the father of the Indian space programme?
- A.Vikram Sarabhai
- B.C. V. Raman
- C.Meghnad Saha
- D.Jagadish Chandra Bose
Show answer
Sarabhai set up the Physical Research Laboratory at Ahmedabad, persuaded the government that a developing country needed space technology for communication and weather, and built the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station in Kerala, so he is called the father of the Indian space programme.
Read the full explanation →Who is called the 'Milkman of India' for leading the White Revolution?
- A.M. S. Swaminathan
- B.Verghese Kurien
- C.Norman Borlaug
- D.Hiralal Chaudhuri
Show answer
Kurien built the cooperative dairy at Anand in Gujarat, gave the country the Amul brand and headed the National Dairy Development Board, whose Operation Flood turned India into a large milk producer.
Read the full explanation →The athlete nicknamed the 'Flying Sikh' is:
- A.Milkha Singh
- B.Gurbachan Singh Randhawa
- C.Balbir Singh Senior
- D.Ajit Pal Singh
Show answer
Milkha Singh was a sprinter who won the four hundred metres gold at the Commonwealth Games of 1958 and at the Asian Games, and who finished fourth in the four hundred metres final at the Rome Olympics of 1960.
Read the full explanation →The title 'Deshbandhu' is associated with which national leader?
- A.Rajendra Prasad
- B.Chittaranjan Das
- C.Jayaprakash Narayan
- D.Madan Mohan Malaviya
Show answer
C. R. Das was the Calcutta barrister who defended Aurobindo Ghosh in the Alipore bomb case, gave up a large practice for the non-cooperation movement, and founded the Swaraj Party with Motilal Nehru to contest the legislative councils.
Read the full explanation →Frequently Asked Questions
Who is known as the Iron Man of India?
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India, who integrated the princely states into the Union. He is also called the Bismarck of India for the same work.
Who first called Mahatma Gandhi the Father of the Nation?
Subhas Chandra Bose, who addressed Gandhi as the Father of the Nation in a radio broadcast during the Second World War while leading the Azad Hind movement.
Who gave Gandhi the title Mahatma?
The title is credited to Rabindranath Tagore. In turn Gandhi is credited with calling Tagore Gurudev, so the two titles are asked as a pair.
Who is called the Nightingale of India?
Sarojini Naidu, the poet and freedom fighter who became the first woman President of the Indian National Congress. Her Indian title is Bharat Kokila.
Why is Samudragupta called the Napoleon of India?
Because of the long list of kings he defeated, recorded in the Allahabad pillar inscription composed by his court poet Harisena. The description was first used by the historian V. A. Smith.
Who is the Missile Man of India?
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, who led the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme and later became the eleventh President of India. He is also called the People's President.
Sources
- India: A Reference Annual, chapters on the national movement and on personalities — Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India
- Themes in Indian History Part III (Class XII), Chapter: Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement — NCERT
- About ISRO: Dr Vikram Sarabhai and the beginnings of the Indian space programme — Indian Space Research Organisation
- Padma Awards and Bharat Ratna: list of recipients — Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India
