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Plant foods are important due to their antioxidant activity (AOA) attributed to the phenolics which are known to protect organisms against harmful effects of oxygen radicals. However, information on antioxidant activity of Indian plant foods is scanty. Therefore, the present study evaluated the AOA of cereals, millets, pulses and legumes, commonly consumed in India and assessed the relationship with their total phenolic content (TPC). AOA was assessed by DPPH (2,2-Diphenyl-1-picryl hydrazyl) radical scavenging assay, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay and reducing power. DPPH scavenging activity ranged from 0.24 and 1.73 mg/g, whereas FRAP ranged from 16.21 to 471.71 micromoles/g. Finger millet (Eleusine cora cana) and Rajmah (Phaseolus vulgaris) had the highest FRAP 471.71, 372.76 and DPPH scavenging activity 1.73, 1.07. Similar trends were observed with reducing power. Among cereals and legumes, Finger millet (Ragi) and black gram dhal (Phaseolus mungo Roxb) had the highest TPC, the values being 373 and 418 mg/100 g respectively, while rice (Oryza sativa) and green gram dhal (Phaseolus aureus Roxb) showed the least (47.6 and 62.4 mg/100 g). In the present study, FRAP (r = 0.91) and reducing power (r = 0.90) showed significant correlation with TPC in cereals and millets, but not in pulses and legumes. The results suggest that TPC contributes significantly to the AOA of Indian cereals and millets.