Lakshadweep · Island Realms
People
| Name | Years | Field | Known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sheikh Ubaidullah | — | Religion, by tradition | The preacher to whom island tradition attributes the conversion of Lakshadweep to Islam, and whose tomb is at the Juma mosque on Andrott. The account is legend rather than documented history — the date given, the shipwreck and the dream all belong to hagiography — but the tradition itself is a real and central part of how the islands narrate themselves. |
| Ali Manikfan | b. 1938 | Marine research, boatbuilding, languages | A Minicoy islander with no formal higher education who worked as a field researcher for the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, and after whom the damselfish Abudefduf manikfani is named. He rebuilt the ninth-century Arab sailing ship Sohar for Tim Severin's 1980–81 voyage to China, working from historical descriptions and sewn-plank technique, and received the Padma Shri in 2021. |
| P. M. Sayeed | 1941–2005 | Politics | Represented Lakshadweep in the Lok Sabha for around three decades from 1967 and served as Union Minister of Power. For a generation he was the territory's single channel to Delhi, which is what a one-seat union territory's politics tends to produce. |
| Hamdulla Sayeed | b. 1982 | Politics | P. M. Sayeed's son, elected to the Lok Sabha from Lakshadweep in 2009 as one of the youngest members of that House, and again subsequently. |
| Mohammed Faizal P. P. | — | Politics | Lok Sabha member for Lakshadweep for the Nationalist Congress Party, and a central figure in the public argument over the administration's 2021 draft regulations on land use, food and local self-government. |
People from Lakshadweep who shaped its history, arts, science, sport and public life. (5)