Mother Teresa voted greatest ever Indian

Mother Teresa, the Yugoslav-born Catholic nun who spent her life caring for the poor in the slums of Calcutta, has been voted the greatest Indian in a magazine poll.

In a survey by Outlook magazine to rank the "Greatest Indians of independent India", Mother Teresa polled the highest number of votes from more than 50,000 responses.

India marks the 55th anniversary of its independence from British colonial rulers on Thursday.

Mother Teresa, who won the Nobel Peace prize in 1979 for her work in Calcutta, beat India’s charismatic first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who came second.

Indira Gandhi, India’s prime minister for 15 years, was fourth in the list of 10.

Prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was tenth in the list, two places behind cricketer Sachin Tendulkar.

"Is it some sort of comment on 55 years of Indian history that the person voted the greatest Indian is the only one in the list who was not born in India?" Outlook magazine observed in its editorial.

The magazine decided not to include India’s best-known citizen, Mohandas K Gandhi, saying they preferred to "keep the father of our nation above a voting process".

"A poll of the greatest Christians of all time would look rather ridiculous if it included Jesus Christ as one of the nominees, wouldn’t it?" the magazine said.

Mother Teresa, who was born in 1910 in the Macedonian capital of Skopje, took Indian citizenship and spent her life caring for the poor, homeless and sick in the slums of Calcutta.

She died in Calcutta in 1997 at the age of 87.

Her order runs many centres around the world, including some for the terminally ill.