Bharat Ratna Award – List of Bharat Ratna Award recipients

Bharat Ratna – Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award of the India. Recommendations to award the Bharat Ratna are made by the Prime Minister to the President, and a maximum of three people may be awarded in a year. The recipient receives a certificate signed by the President and a peepal leaf shaped medallion.

Bharat Ratna

               

               Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award of the India. Recommendations to award the Bharat Ratna are made by the Prime Minister to the President, and a maximum of three people may be awarded in a year. The recipient receives a certificate signed by the President and a peepal leaf shaped medallion.

 

Bharat Ratna Type – Civilian  Category – National  Instituted – 1954 First awarded – 1954 Last awarded – 2015 Awarded by – Government of India

 

List of recipients

	Name	Birth	Awarded	Notes
1.	C. Rajagopalachari	1878	1954	Independence activist, last and the only Indian Governor-General of India
2.	C. V. Raman	1888	1954	Physicist from Madras and a Nobel laureate
3.	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan	1888	1954	Philosopher, India’s First Vice-President (1952–1962), and India’s Second President(1962–1967)
4.	Bhagwan Das	1869	1955	Independence activist, author, Founder of Kashi Vidya Peeth
5.	Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya	1861	1955	Civil engineer, Diwan of Mysore
6.	Jawaharlal Nehru	1889	1955	Independence activist, author, first Prime Minister
7.	Govind Ballabh Pant	1887	1957	Independence activist, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Home Minister
8.	Dhondo Keshav Karve	1858	1958	Educator, social reformer
9.	Bidhan Chandra Roy	1882	1961	Physician, Chief Minister of West Bengal
10.	Purushottam Das Tandon	1882	1961	Independence activist, educator
11.	Rajendra Prasad	1884	1962	Independence activist, jurist, first President
12.	Zakir Hussain	1897	1963	Independence activist, scholar, third President
13.	Pandurang Vaman Kane	1880	1963	Indologist and Sanskrit scholar
14.	Lal Bahadur Shastri	1904	1966	Posthumous, independence activist, second Prime Minister
15.	Indira Gandhi	1917	1971	Third Prime Minister, first female Prime Minister of India (1966–1977, 1980–1984)
16.	V. V. Giri	1894	1975	Trade unionist and fourth President of India
17.	K. Kamaraj	1903	1976	Posthumous, independence activist, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu State
18.	Mother Teresa	1910	1980	Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata and Nobel laureate
19.	Vinoba Bhave	1895	1983	Posthumous, social reformer, independence activist
20.	Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan	1890	1987	First non-citizen, independence activist
21.	M. G. Ramachandran	1917	1988	Posthumous, film actor, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
22.	B. R. Ambedkar	1891	1990	Posthumous, Chief architect of the Indian Constitution, Crusader against Untouchability, Dalit Icon, Social Reformer, historian, politician, economist, and scholar
23.	Nelson Mandela	1918	1990	Second non-citizen and non-Indian recipient, Leader of the Anti-Apartheid movement and Nobel laureate
24.	Rajiv Gandhi	1944	1991	Posthumous, Sixth Prime Minister.
25.	Vallabhbhai Patel	1875	1991	Posthumous, independence activist, first Home Minister, Was responsible for unification of all Indian princely states.
26.	Morarji Desai	1896	1991	Independence activist, fourth Prime Minister
27.	Abul Kalam Azad	1888	1992	Posthumous, independence activist, first Minister of Education
28.	J. R. D. Tata	1904	1992	Industrialist and philanthropist
29.	Satyajit Ray	1922	1992	Bengali Filmmaker
30.	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam	1931	1997	Aeronautical Engineer, 11th President of India
31.	Gulzarilal Nanda	1898	1997	Independence activist, interim Prime Minister
32.	Aruna Asaf Ali	1908	1997	Posthumous, independence activist
33.	M. S. Subbulakshmi	1916	1998	Carnatic classical singer
34.	Chidambaram Subramaniam	1910	1998	Independence activist, Minister of Agriculture
35.	Jayaprakash Narayan	1902	1998	Posthumous, independence activist and politician
36.	Ravi Shankar	1920	1999	Sitar player from Calcutta
37.	Amartya Sen	1933	1999	Economist from Kolkata and a Nobel laureate
38.	Gopinath Bordoloi	1890	1999	Posthumous, independence activist, Chief Minister of Assam
39.	Lata Mangeshkar	1929	2001	Playback singer
40.	Bismillah Khan	1916	2001	Hindustani classical shehnai player
41.	Bhimsen Joshi	1922	2008	Hindustani classical singer
42.	C. N. R. Rao	1934	2014	Scientist
43.	Sachin Tendulkar	1973	2014	Cricket player
44.	Madan Mohan Malaviya	1861	2015	Educationist and Politician
45.	Atal Bihari Vajpayee	1924	2015	Former Prime Minister of India