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Distinguished Alumni

St. Xavier’s Collegiate School was established in 1860 in Kolkata, India by missionaries of the Society of Jesus. The school is named after St. Francis Xavier. The School, whose alumni range from the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore to the former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly, is widely regarded as one of India’s most prestigious institutions, and has been described by the British writer Dennison Berwick as the “Harrow on the Hooghly”. In 2010, St Xavier’s completed 150 years.

Rabindranath Tagore: A genius with incredible versatility; Honoured with the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, writer and Nobel laureate 1875.

Jagadish Chandra Bose: World Renowned Scientist. He invented the radio before Marconi and showed that plants, too, could feel in their own way. Though he was highly interested in biology, famous physics professor Father Lafont inspired Bose with the love for physics, Inventor of crescograph and Fellow of the Royal Society.

Lord S. P. Sinha:

Sir Romesh Chandra Mitter: Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court

Sir Biren Mookerjee: Was a leading industrialist who established the IISCO steel plant at Burnpur and other industrial establishments.

Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy: Former Prime Minister of Pakistan

Satyendranath Tagore: First Indian to join the Indian Civil Service, elder brother of Rabindranath

Surendranath Tagore: India Civil Service

Maharaja Jogindra Nath Roy of Natore

Prince Ghulam Mahomed of the Mysore

Alfred Bose: Civil Service

P. R. Das: The Hon’ble Justice of the Patna High Court

Tulsi Charan Goswami: Indian Delegation to the Empire Parliamentary Conference held in Canada in 1928.

Surendra Nath Roy of Behala

Ramananda Chatterjee: The Father of India Journalism.

Chanchal Sarkar: The Founder Director of the Press institute of India; founder, editor and owner of the Calcutta based magazine, the modern review.

Norman Pritchard: First Asian & Indian win individual of the silver in the 1900 Paris Olympics; Indian athlete of British descent and Hollywood actor.

Siddhartha Shankar Ray: Former Chief Minister of West Bengal, from 1972 to 1977. A renowned leading barrister and politician, he was the Chief Minister of West Bengal, from 1972 to 1977. Also former Governor of Punjab and former Ambassador to the USA. Played an active role in curbing militancy in Punjab.

Jyoti Basu: Former Chief Minister of West Bengal, Eminent Communist Leader. A Communist and one of the most charismatic figures in Indian politics. Created a record by serving West Bengal as Chief Minister from 1977 to 2002, longest serving Chief Minister of an India state. Missed the Prime Minister’s chair by a whisker.

General Joyanto Nath Chaudhuri: OBE was Chief of Army Staff and the military governor of Hyderabad state. He was the recipient of the Padma Vibhushan.

General Shankar Roychowdhury: Was Chief of Army Staff and member of Rajya Sabha. He was the recipient of the Param Vishisht Seva medal. Senior Cambridge class of 1951.

Major General S.K. Chaudhuri: Was decorated with the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal for distinguished Service. Senior Cambridge class of 1951.

Lt. Colonel Surinder Kapur: Was awarded the Mahavir Chakra for his role in the 1971 Bangladesh War. Senior Cambridge class of 1951.

Major N. Bavaadam: Was killed in Action during the Indo- China War of 1962. Senior Cambridge class of 1951.

R. D. Burman: Film score composer.

Utpal Dutta: Indian film actor, received the National Film Award for Best Actor in 1970.

Raj Kapoor: Bollywood Actor

Purushottam Lal: Poet, teacher and publisher, one of the finest teachers of English literature in Bengal. Engaged in a life-long project of translating Mahabharata from original Sanskrit script to English. Promoted Indian literature in English by publishing the works of many young writers from Writers’ Workshop, a publishing house run by him.

Naresh Kumar: A Davies Cup Captain and Wimbledon player.

Premjit Lal: One of the longest serving Davis Cuppers, he was part of the Indian team that defeated Brazil at the semis in Kolkata in 1966. Lal reached the junior Wimbledon final in 1959 and played one of the longest tie-breaks with Bjorn Borg on the Centre Court and recipient of the Arjuna Award.

B.M. Khaitan: Owner of the Williamson Magor Group, this captain of industry is a Kolkata thoroughbred. A gentleman industrialist, a pucca sahib to the core, he is humility personi-fied. Khiatan once told a customs official who wanted to know his identity, “I own a tea stall at Mangoe Lane.”

Aveek Sarkar: Editor/Owner Ananda Bazar Group of Publications

Dhritiman Chatterjee: Talented Actor, Debator and Ad-Wizard, He will be remembered for his performances in the films of Satyajit Ray and Aparna Sen.

Sanjeev Goenka: Leading Industrialist & Philanthropist in Kolkata. Amongst other industries, owns and manages Calcutta Electric Supply Co (CESC)

Dr. Kaushik Basu: Chief Economic Adviser, Govt. of India.

Tarun Das: President- Aspen Institute India and Former Chief Mentor, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)

Barun De: Historian; Chairman, West Bengal Heritage Commission, Calcutta

Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla: Co-founders of Lexulous

Dipankar P Gupta: Former Solicitor General of India

Dilshad Khan: Hindustani classical singer

Sanjeev Sanyal: Economist and environmentalist.

Dr. Shashi Tharoor: The under secretary-general at the UN, Tharoor has authored articles, short stories and novels, the last of which Riot was published in 2001. In 1998, he was named as a Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and former External Affairs minister.

Arjun Malhotra: Co-founder of HCL Technologies and Chairman of Headstrong

Harsh Goenka: Chairman of RPG Enterprises, A scion of the RPG Group, this Goenka scion, residing in Mumbai, presides over the vast Ceat company. He is not only a dynamic industrialist but he also is a well-known art collector. Keeps a rather low profile and manages to stay away from the arc-lights compared to the others of his ilk.

R Gopalakrishnan: Executive Director of Tata Sons

Roopen Roy: Managing Director, Deloitte India

Sanjiv Lamba: Member of the Executive Board of The Linde Group

Partho Chatterjee: Former ITC limited

Prasenjit Chatterjee: Received the National Film Award – Special Jury Award / Special Mention (Feature Film) in 2007
Neil O’Brien: MP, Chairman of Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations.

Ashish Dawan: Senior managing director and co-founder of Chrys Capital. Dhawan, best known for marquee deals in BPO firm Spectramind and wind energy company Suzlon, is moving onto a brand new role in the not-for-profit sector specifically in the area of K-12 education.

Ritankar Pal:

Derek O’Brien: MP, Quizmaster
Saurav Ganguly: Cricketer and Captain of the Indian Cricket Team. Regarded as one of the finest batsmen in the world and an effective medium pace bowler. Made a century on his debut at Lord’s and followed up with another test hundred. Nicknamed ‘Prince of Calcutta’ by Geoffrey Boycott.

Captain Ryan Chakraborty: Was the leader of a team from the 52 special action group that participated in the rescue mission during the terror attack in Mumbai.

Mahan Mitra (Mahan Maharaj): Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award 2011 for mathematics, the highest academic honour in the country