Indian Awards – Bharat Ratna

Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award of the Republic of India.

• It was introduced on 2nd January 1954 by Indian President Dr. Rajendra Prasad. 
• conferred “in recognition of exceptional service/performance of the highest order”, without distinction of race, occupation, position or sex.
• Originally limited to achievements in the arts, literature, science and public service but government expanded the criteria to include “any feild of human endeavour” in December 2011.

       Prime Minister recomends the names to President, with a maximum of three nominees being awarded per year. Recepients receive a certificate signed by the President and a peepal-leaf-shaped medallion, there is no moneraty grant associated with the award. 

        Bharat Ratna receipients rank seventh in the Indian Order of Precedence. They are constitutionally prohibited from using the award name as a title.

The original statues did not provide for posthumous awards but were amended in January 1955 to permit them. Lal Bahadur Shastri was the first to be honoured posthumously. Till now 12 posthumous awards were given. The award was awarded to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose posthumously in 1992 was finally withdrawn after finding legal procedures.

The receiver of the award is also registered in the Gazette of India that is released and published by Department of Publication. Receipients whose awards are revoked had to surrender their medals.

The award can be given to foreigners also. The award has been awarded to one naturalised citizen, Mother Teresa in 1980 and to two non-Indians, Pakistan national Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan in 1987 and former South African President Nelsan Mandela in 1990.

List of Recipients

List of Recipients

SR	Name	Birth / death	Awarded	Notes
1.	Chakravarti Rajagopalachari	1878–1972	1954	Independence activist, last Governor-General
2.	C. V. Raman	1888–1970	1954	Physicist
3.	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan	1888–1975	1954	Philosopher, second President
4.	Bhagwan Das	1869–1958	1955	Independence activist, author
5.	Visvesvaraya	1861–1962	1955	Civil engineer, Diwan of Mysore
6.	Jawaharlal Nehru	1889–1964	1955	Independence activist, author, first Prime Minister
7.	Govind Ballabh Pant	1887–1961	1957	Independence activist, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Home Minister
8.	Dhondo Keshav Karve	1858–1962	1958	Educator, social reformer
9.	Bidhan Chandra Roy	1882–1962	1961	Physician, Chief Minister of West Bengal
10.	Purushottam Das Tandon	1882–1962	1961	Independence activist, educator
11.	Rajendra Prasad	1884–1963	1962	Independence activist, jurist, first President
12.	Zakir Hussain	1897–1969	1963	Scholar, third President
13.	Pandurang Vaman Kane	1880–1972	1963	Indologist and Sanskrit scholar
14.	Lal Bahadur Shastri	1904–1966	1966	Posthumous, independence activist, second Prime Minister
15.	Indira Gandhi	1917–1984	1971	Third Prime Minister
16.	V. V. Giri	1894–1980	1975	Trade unionist and fourth President
17.	K. Kamaraj	1903–1975	1976	Posthumous, independence activist, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu State
18.	Mother Teresa	1910–1997	1980	Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of Charity
19.	Vinoba Bhave	1895–1982	1983	Posthumous, social reformer, independence activist
20.	Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan	1890–1988	1987	First non-citizen, independence activist
21.	M. G. Ramachandran	1917–1987	1988	Posthumous, film actor, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
22.	B. R. Ambedkar	1891–1956	1990	Posthumous, chief architect of the Indian Constitution, politician, economist, and scholar
23.	Nelson Mandela	b. 1918	1990	Second non-citizen and first non-Indian recipient, Leader of the Anti-Apartheid movement
24.	Rajiv Gandhi	1944–1991	1991	Posthumous, Sixth Prime Minister
25.	Vallabhbhai Patel	1875–1950	1991	Posthumous, independence activist, first Home Minister
26.	Morarji Desai	1896–1995	1991	Independence activist, fourth Prime Minister
27.	Abul Kalam Azad	1888–1958	1992	Posthumous, independence activist, first Minister of Education
28.	J. R. D. Tata	1904–1993	1992	Industrialist and philanthropist
29.	Satyajit Ray	1922–1992	1992	Bengali filmmaker
30.	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam	b. 1931	1997	Aeronautical Engineer,11th President of India
31.	Gulzarilal Nanda	1898–1998	1997	Independence activist, interim Prime Minister
32.	Aruna Asaf Ali	1908–1996	1997	Posthumous, independence activist
33.	M. S. Subbulakshmi	1916–2004	1998	Carnatic classical singer
34.	Chidambaram Subramaniam	1910–2000	1998	Independence activist, Minister of Agriculture
35.	Jayaprakash Narayan	1902–1979	1999	Posthumous, independence activist and politician
36.	Ravi Shankar	b. 1920	1999	Sitar player
37.	Amartya Sen	b. 1933	1999	Economist
38.	Gopinath Bordoloi	1890–1950	1999	Posthumous, independence activist, Chief Minister of Assam
39.	Lata Mangeshkar	b. 1929	2001	Playback singer
40.	Bismillah Khan	1916–2006	2001	Hindustani classical shehnai player
41.	Bhimsen Joshi	1922–2011	2008	Hindustani classical singer
41.	C. N. R. Rao	b. 1934	2014	Chemist
41.	Sachin Tendulkar	b. 1973	2014	Cricketer
41.	Madan Mohan Malaviya	1861-1946	2015	Educationist and politician
41.	Atal Bihari Vajpayee	b.1924	2015	Former Prime Minister of India