The List: Five historical figures who shaped today's India

Starting this week on BBC Radio 4, Incarnations: India in 50 Lives, sheds light on the most dynamic figures in India's history, from poets to inventors and rulers. Here its presenter, Professor Sunil Khilnani, selects five people whose mark is still felt in the country

1. Panini (c5th century BC, grammarian)

Panini was a scholar who produced an amazing analysis of how the Sanskrit language - considered to be the language the gods speak - works. He developed a code looking at what sounds signify. This is what modern linguists call "generative grammar" - but Panini did it 2,500 years ago. In the west, it has only been done since the 1950s.

2. Kabir (c1440-1518, poet)

Kabir is one of the most radical voices in Indian history. Born into a family of weavers, his poems criticised all religious orthodoxies, as well as social prisms such as caste. He offended everyone and, in India today, where free expression is challenged by religious and caste groups, he is a reminder of the country's tradition of dissent and free speech.

3. Lakshmibai (1828-58, queen)

The Rani of Jhansi was a 19th-century queen of a minor Indian kingdom who became the most famous woman fighter of the 1857 uprising against the British. Held up as a villainess by the British and a mythic goddess by Indians, she is a symbol of the tendency in a male-dominated society to turn exceptional women into extra-human figures.

4. Raj Kapoor (1924-88, actor/director)

Kapoor (pictured above, in the 1951 film Awaara) incarnated on screen an idea of India that reflected the post-1947 nation. He portrayed a gentle socialism: a lot of his films are about a "common man", trying to make his way in the bad world. It is an interesting contrast to Hindi cinema today, in which you hardly see the poor.

5. Dhirubhai Ambani (1932-2002, entrepreneur)

Ambani's company Reliance Industries represents the new face of capitalism in India. Older companies had a philanthropic edge but Ambani was just: "We're going to succeed". Today, the company is split between his two sons, Mukesh and Anil, who are heroes to Indian entrepreneurs.

'Incarnations' starts at 1.45pm on Monday

Photograph: Rex

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