Rohilkhand & Katehar · Upper Indus–Gangetic Plain
People
| Name | Years | Field | Known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ahmed Raza Khan (Ala Hazrat) | 1856–1921 | Islamic scholar | Wrote and taught at Bareilly, and gave his name to the Barelvi school — the strand of South Asian Sunni Islam centred on devotion to the Prophet and on the shrines, and today the majority tradition in much of the subcontinent. |
| Hafiz Rahmat Khan | 1710–1774 | Ruler | Regent of the Rohilla state and its principal builder, killed at the battle of Miranpur Katra in 1774, which ended Rohilkhand's independence and led to the founding of Rampur as its remnant. |
| Ustad Wazir Khan | c. 1860–1926 | Musician | Court musician at Rampur and holder of the Senia instrumental tradition; his teaching of Allauddin Khan is the link through which that lineage reached Maihar, and from there Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar. |
| Ustad Inayat Hussain Khan | 1849–1919 | Musician | Founded the Rampur-Sahaswan gharana of khayal singing at the Rampur court, a school defined by full-voiced delivery and elaborate taan work. |
| Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan | 1931–2021 | Musician | Of the Rampur-Sahaswan line, born at Badaun; a teacher whose students included several generations of Hindi film and classical singers. |
| Ustad Rashid Khan | 1968–2024 | Musician | Born at Sahaswan in Badaun; the most widely heard khayal singer of his generation, and the reason the gharana's name is familiar far outside classical audiences. |
| Jigar Moradabadi | 1890–1960 | Poet | Among the most popular Urdu ghazal poets of the twentieth century, and a mushaira performer whose recitation style shaped how the ghazal is heard. |
| Shakeel Badayuni | 1916–1970 | Poet and lyricist | From Badaun; wrote Urdu ghazal and, with the composer Naushad, some of the most durable Hindi film songs of the 1950s and 1960s. |
| Kamal Amrohi | 1918–1993 | Filmmaker | From Amroha; wrote and directed Mahal and Pakeezah, and brought the qasbah Urdu idiom of this region into Hindi cinema. |
| Jaun Elia | 1931–2002 | Poet | Born at Amroha and later in Karachi; a poet whose reputation has grown steadily since his death and whose Amrohvi family produced three generations of Urdu writers. |
| Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqulla Khan | 1897–1927; 1900–1927 | Revolutionaries | Both from Shahjahanpur, both hanged in December 1927 for the Kakori train action — and remembered together, as a Hindu and a Muslim from the same town in the same conspiracy. |
| Begum Hazrat Mahal's Rohilla allies and the 1857 leadership | 1857–1859 | Rebellion | Khan Bahadur Khan, grandson of Hafiz Rahmat Khan, led the 1857 government at Bareilly for nearly a year — the longest-held rebel administration in the region. |
People from Rohilkhand & Katehar who shaped its history, arts, science, sport and public life. (12)