Bengali culture .

 Bengali saints, authors, scientists, researchers, thinkers, music composers, painters and  film-makers have played a significant role in the development of Bengali culture . The  Bengal Renaissance of the 19th and early 20th centuries was brought about after the British  introduced Western education and ideas. Among the various Indian cultures, the Bengalis were  relatively quick to adapt to the British rule and actually use its principles (such as the  judiciary and the legislature) in the subsequent political struggle for independence. The  Bengal Renaissance contained the seeds of a nascent political Indian nationalism and was the  precursor in many ways to modern Indian artistic and cultural expression.

The Bengali poet and novelist, Rabindranath Tagore, became the first Nobel laureate from  Asia when he won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature. Other Bengali Nobel laureates include  Amartya Sen (1999 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences) and Muhammad Yunus (2006 Nobel  Peace Prize). Other famous figures in Bengali literature include Ram Mohan Roy, Kazi Nazrul  Islam, and Bangla science fiction writers such as Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, Humayun Ahmed,  Jagadananda Roy and Roquia Sakhawat Hussain (Begum Rokeya). Famous Bengali musicians include  Ravi Shankar, Sachin Dev Burman, Rahul Dev Burman and Norah Jones; Famous Bengali singers  include Kishore Kumar, Abbas Uddin, Runa Laila, Heamanta Mukherjee, Manna Dey, Shyamal  Mitra, Geeta Dutt, Nachiketa, Shreya Ghoshal, Shaan, Bappi Lahiri, Abhijeet, Kabir Suman and  Rezwana Chowdhury Banya. Famous Bengali scientists include Megh Nad Saha, Prafulla Chandra  Roy, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri, Jagadish Chandra Boseand  Satyendra Nath Bose; famous Bengali engineers include Fazlur Khan and Amar Bose; famous  Bengali filmmakers include Satyajit Ray, Bimal Roy, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak,Zahir Raihan,  Aparna Sen and Tareque Masud; and famous Bengali entrepreneurs include Sake Dean Mahomed,  Amar Bose, Jawed Karim and Subrata Roy.