All about Bharat Ratna Awards –
The Bharat Ratna Award are India’s highest civilian honour. This awards was instituted in 1954 to give recognition to exceptional service, or performance of the highest order in any field of human endeavour.
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- The recommendations for awarding the Bharat Ratna are made by the Prime Minister to the President of India.
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- Any person is eligible for this award without any distinction of race, occupation, position or sex.
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- The number of Bharat Ratna awards is restricted to a maximum of three, for a particular year.
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- It should be noted here that it’s not mandatory to award Bharat Ratna every year.
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- The Bharat Ratna Awardee, on conferment, receives a Sanad (certificate) signed by the President of India and a medallion. The medallion has its base shape of sacred peepal leaf, it is rimmed in platinum.
- The Bharat Ratna Awardee, on conferment, receives a Sanad (certificate) signed by the President of India and a medallion. The medallion has its base shape of sacred peepal leaf, it is rimmed in platinum.
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- The Bharat Ratna award does not carries any monetary grant.
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Rules & Regulations: This award cannot be used as a ‘prefix or suffix’ to the recipient’s name. However, a recipient of the award can state the folloeing with his name:
- ‘Awarded Bharat Ratna by the President’ or
- ‘Recipient of Bharat Ratna Award’.
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Rules & Regulations: This award cannot be used as a ‘prefix or suffix’ to the recipient’s name. However, a recipient of the award can state the folloeing with his name:
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- The first Indian to receive Bharat Ratna Award was the famous scientist, Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman in 1954. He is also a Nobel prize winner.
<< Read about Indian Nobel prize Winners here >>
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- First three recipients of Bharat Ratna: In 1954, three remarkable Indians were awarded Bharat Ratna – C Rajgopalachari, S. Radhakrishnan and C.V.Raman.
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- First posthumous Bharat Ratna: Lal Bahadur Shastri was the first Bharat Ratna recipient to be honoured posthumously in 1966.
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- First Naturalised Citizen Bharat Ratna: Mother Teresa was the first naturalized Indian citizen to receive Bharat Ratna Award in 1980.
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- Non-Indian Bharat Ratna Awardees: Two non Indians have been awarded India’s highest civilian honour. Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan was awarded in 1987 and Nelson Mandela in 1990.
Latest Bharat Ratna Award:
- Bharat Ratna 2019: On the eve of the 70th Republic Day, former President Pranab Mukherjee, Bharatiya Jana Sangh leader Nanaji Deshmukh (posthumously) and singer Bhupen Hazarika (posthumously) are conferred the country’s highest civilian award Bharat Ratna in 2019.
- In 2015, Educationist Madan Mohan Malviya (posthumously) and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee are awarded the 44th and 45th Bharat Ratna Award respectively.
The List of all Bharat Ratna Winners –
| S.No. | Name of Recipient |
Awarded in |
Field of Work |
| 1 | Shri Chakravarti Rajagopalachari | 1954 | Independence activist. Last Governor – General of India. |
| 2 | Dr. Sarvapali Radhakrishnan | 1954 | Philosopher, India’s 1st Vice President (1952 – 1962), and India’s 2nd President (1962 – 1967) |
| 3 | Dr. Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman | 1954 | Physicist, known for discovery of the Raman Effect on light |
| 4 | Dr. Bhagwan Das | 1955 | Kashi Vidya Peeth Founder, Author, Independence activist. |
| 5 | Dr. Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya | 1955 | Civil engineer, Diwan of Mysore. |
| 6 | Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru | 1955 | Independence activist, Author, 1st Prime Minister of India, (advised the president to award himself) |
| 7 | Pt. Govind Ballabh Pant | 1957 | Independence activist, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Home Minister |
| 8 | Dr. Dhondo Keshave Karve | 1958 | social reformer, Educationist |
| 9 | Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy | 1961 | a Physician, Chief Minister of West Bengal |
| 10 | Shri Purushottam Das Tandon | 1961 | Independence activist, Educationist. |
| 11 | Dr. Rajendra Prasad | 1962 | Independence activist, Jurist, 1st President of India |
| 12 | Dr. Zakir Hussain | 1963 | Independence activist, Scholar, 3rd President of India |
| 13 | Dr. Pandurang Vaman Kane | 1963 | Indologist, Sanskrit scholar |
| 14 | Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri (Posthumous) | 1966 | Independence activist, 2nd Prime Minister of India, (First posthumous award) |
| 15 | Smt. Indira Gandhi | 1971 | 3rd Prime Minister of India |
| 16 | Shri Varahagiri Venkata Giri | 1975 | Trade unionist, 4th President |
| 17 | Shri Kumaraswami Kamraj (Posthumous) | 1976 | Independence activist, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. |
| 18 | Mother Teresa | 1980 | Founder of Missionaries, Social activist (first naturalised citizen to be awarded) |
| 19 | Shri Acharya Vinobha Bhave (Posthumous) | 1983 | Independence activist and a Social reformer |
| 20 | Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan | 1987 | Independence activist, (First non-citizen) |
| 21 | Shri Marudu Gopalan Ramachandran (Posthumous) | 1988 | Film actor, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. |
| 22 | Dr. Bhim Rao Ramji Ambedkar (Posthumous) | 1990 | Chief architect of Indian Constitution, Social Reformer, Crusader against Untouchablity, Economist, Dalit Icon, Historian, scholar, and politician |
| 23 | Dr. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela | 1990 | Leader of Anti – Apartheid movement (2nd non – citizen and non – Indian recipient) |
| 24 | Shri Rajiv Gandhi (Posthumous) | 1991 | 6th Prime Minister of India |
| 25 | Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (Posthumous) | 1991 | Independence activist, 1st Home Minister |
| 26 | Shri Morarji Ranchhodji Desai | 1991 | Independence activist, 4th Prime Minister |
| 27 | Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (Posthumous) | 1992 | Independence activist, 1st Minister of Education |
| 28 | Shri Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhai Tata | 1992 | Philanthropist and an Industrialist |
| 29 | Shri Satyajit Ray | 1992 | Filmmaker |
| 30 | Shri Gulzarilal Nanda | 1997 | Independence activist, Interim Prime Minister |
| 31 | Smt. Aruna Asaf Ali (Posthumous) | 1997 | Independence activist |
| 32 | Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam | 1997 | Aeronautical Engineer and 11th President of India |
| 33 | Smt. Madurai Sanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi | 1998 | Carnatic classical singer |
| 34 | Shri Chidambaram Subramniam | 1998 | Independence activist, Minister of Agriculture |
| 35 | Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan (Posthumous) | 1999 | Independence activist, Politician |
| 36 | Professor Amartya Sen | 1999 | Economist, Nobel Laureate |
| 37 | Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi (Posthumous) | 1999 | Independence activist, Chief Minister of Assam |
| 38 | Pandit Ravi Shankar | 1999 | Sitar player |
| 39 | Sushri Lata Dinanath Mangeshkar | 2001 | Playback singer |
| 40 | Ustad Bismillah Khan | 2001 | Hindustani classical Shehnai player |
| 41 | Pandit Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi | 2009 | Hindustani classical Singer |
| 42 | Sachin Tendulkar | 2014 | Sports Person, Cricketer (Youngest Bharat Ratna Awardee) |
| 43 | Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao | 2014 | Chemist, for his works in solid-state and structural chemistry |
| 44 | Madan Mohan Malaviya | 2015 | Educationist(founder of Banaras Hindu University), Independence activist, known as “Mahamana” |
| 45 | Atal Bihari Vajpayee | 2015 | 11th Prime Minister of India |
| 46 | Nanaji Deshmukh | 2019 | Social Activist, and he established India’s first Saraswati Sishu Mandir at Gorakhpur in 1950. He had also participated in the Bhoodan Movement launched by Acharya Vinoba Bhave. |
| 47 | Dr. Bhupen Hazarika | 2019 | Music maestro, the Bard of Brahmaputra, He popularised India’s musical traditions globally. He made compositions in multiple languages including Bengali, Hindi, Oriya besides Assamese. |
| 48 | Pranab Mukherjee | 2019 | Former President and statesman. He was India’s youngest finance minister in 1982 at the age of 47. First occupant of the Rashtrapati Bhavan to have the distinction to have headed three crucial ministries – External Affairs, Defence and Finance. |
This is the latest updated list of Bharat Ratna award winners. We will update this as and when new updates arrive.
