Who was the first person of Indian origin to win a Pulitzer Prize?

Introduction / Context:
The Pulitzer Prize is one of the most prestigious awards in journalism and letters. Several persons of Indian origin have received it over the decades. This question asks specifically about the first person of Indian origin to win a Pulitzer Prize, which is an important fact in both general knowledge and modern Indian history of journalism.

Given Data / Assumptions:
- The focus is on the first Indian or Indian origin person to become a Pulitzer Prize winner. - The options list writers and journalists of Indian origin who have won or been associated with the prize. - Only one of them holds the distinction of being the first to receive it. - We assume official Pulitzer records and standard reference works as the base. - The task is to match each name with the timeline of Pulitzer recognition.

Concept / Approach:
Gobind Behari Lal, an Indian American journalist, shared the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Reporting for his coverage of science at the Harvard University tercentenary. This makes him the first person of Indian origin to win a Pulitzer. Other names in the list such as Vijay Seshadri, Jhumpa Lahiri and Geeta Anand are later winners in literature or journalism, while Arundhati Roy is a Booker Prize winner, not a Pulitzer laureate. The approach is to recall this chronological fact and select Gobind Behari Lal.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Review the names in the options and identify which of them have known Pulitzer connections. Step 2: Recall that Gobind Behari Lal won a Pulitzer Prize for Reporting in 1937, well before the other Indian origin laureates on the list. Step 3: Remember that Jhumpa Lahiri won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her collection Interpreter of Maladies many decades later. Step 4: Vijay Seshadri is a later Pulitzer winning poet, and Geeta Anand is a Pulitzer winning journalist, both contemporary figures whose wins came long after 1937. Step 5: Arundhati Roy is famous for winning the Booker Prize for The God of Small Things, not the Pulitzer. Step 6: As Gobind Behari Lal's win in 1937 clearly precedes all others, he is the correct answer.

Verification / Alternative check:
Many exam guides and history of journalism summaries clearly state that Gobind Behari Lal was the first person of Indian origin to receive a Pulitzer Prize. They often highlight that he worked as a science journalist in the United States and shared the prize with other reporters. Later Indian origin winners like Jhumpa Lahiri and Vijay Seshadri are mentioned under separate headings for literature. Since the timeline is unambiguous, this cross check confirms that Gobind Behari Lal is the correct answer.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Option A (Arundhati Roy) is wrong because she is associated with the Booker Prize, not the Pulitzer Prize. Option C (Vijay Seshadri) is wrong because although he won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, his win is much later than Gobind Behari Lal's 1937 award. Option D (Jhumpa Lahiri) is wrong because she became a Pulitzer winner for fiction decades after Gobind Behari Lal. Option E (Geeta Anand) is wrong because her Pulitzer in journalism also belongs to a later era and does not make her the first Indian origin laureate.

Common Pitfalls:
The main pitfall is to focus only on recent names like Jhumpa Lahiri or Vijay Seshadri and forget earlier generations of Indian origin journalists. Another error is to confuse the Pulitzer Prize with the Booker Prize or other literary awards. Exam candidates sometimes select Arundhati Roy simply because her name is strongly associated with a major international literary prize. To avoid this confusion, it is important to link each prize to its earliest Indian origin winner and remember that story clearly.

Final Answer:
The first person of Indian origin to win a Pulitzer Prize was Gobind Behari Lal.