Bharat Ratna Award winners

Bharat Ratna Complete details

Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award of the country (India) that was instituted in the year 1954.

It awarded in exceptional public service or performance of the highest order in any field of human activities like the field of art, literature, and science.

Any person in any occupation, position or sex is eligible for this award.

The  Prime Minister of India himself made the recommendations for Bharat Ratna to the President of India.

The Bharat Ratna Award first awarded to politician C. Rajagopalachari, philosopher Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, and scientist C. V. Raman, 3 persons in 1954.

Till now there are 48 person individuals, including 16 who were awarded posthumously this Award.

The youngest  Bharat Ratna recipient was cricketer Sachin Tendulkar at age 40 years, who received this award in 2014.

Bharat Ratna Award:

  • In a particular year maximum of three awards are given.
  • On conferment of the award, the recipient receives a Sanad (certificate) signed by the President and a medal.
  • The Award does not carry any monetary grant.
  • In terms of Article 18 (1) of the Constitution, the award cannot be used as a prefix or suffix to the recipient’s name.

Bharat Ratna Medal:

  • The medal/seal is in the form of a peepal leaf, about 5.8 cm long, 4.7 cm wide and 3.1 mm thick.
  • It was made by bronze. On its middle embossed the sun of 1 .6 cm in diameter, below this the words Bharat Ratna are written in Devanagari script.
  • On the reverse of the medal state emblem is present and motto written in the Devanagari script.
  • The emblem, the sun, and rim are of platinum.
  • The inscriptions are in burnished bronze.

Bharat Ratna Award Winners :

YearName of PersonPlaceField
1954C.RajagopalachariTamil NaduIndependence  activist
1954Dr.Sarvepalli RadhakrishnanAndhra PradeshPhilosopher, India”s 1st Vice President (1952-62), and India”s 2nd President(196267)
1954C. V. RamanTamil NaduPhysicist
1955Bhagwan DasUttar PradeshIndependence activist, philosopher
1955Mokshagundam 

Visvesvaraya

KarnatakaCivil engineer and Diwan of Mysore (1912–18)
1955Jawaharlal NehruUttar PradeshIndependence activist, author & 1st Prime Minister.
1957Govind Ballabh PantUttar PradeshIndependence activist
1958Dhondo Keshav KarveMaharashtraSocial reformer
1961Bidhan Chandra RoyWest BengalA physician, political leader
1961Purushottam Das TandonUttar PradeshIndependence activist, educator
1962Rajendra PrasadBiharIndependence activist, lawyer& first President
1963Pandurang Vaman KaneMaharashtraIndologist and Sanskrit scholar
 

1963

 

Zakir Hussain

Andhra  PradeshIndependence activist, Scholar, third President
 

1966

 

Lal Bahadur Shastri

 

Uttar Pradesh

Posthumous, independence activist, second Prime Minister
 

1971

 

Indira Gandhi

Uttar PradeshThe First Woman Prime Minister of India
1975V. V. Giri (1975)OdishaTrade unionist
1976K. Kamaraj (Posthumous)Tamil NaduIndependence  activist
 

1980

 

Mother Teresa

West Bengal/AlbaniaCatholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata
1983Vinoba Bhave (Posthumous) 

Maharastra

social reformer, independence activist
1987Khan Abdul Ghaffar KhanPakistanFirst noncitizen, independence activist
1988M. G. Ramachandran Tamil NaduPosthumous, film actor, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
 

1990

 

Nelson Mandela

 

South Africa

Second non-citizen and non-Indian recipient.
 

 

1990

 

 

B. R. Ambedkar (Posthumous)

 

Madhya Pradesh

The chief architect of the Indian Constitution, Social Reformer, politician, economist, and scholar
1991Morarji DesaiGujaratIndependence activist
1991Vallabhbhai Patel (Posthumous)Gujaratindependence activist, first Home Minister.
1991Rajiv Gandhi (Posthumous)Uttar PradeshSixth Prime Minister.
1992Satyajit RayWest BengalBengali Filmmaker
1992J. R. D. TataMaharashtraIndustrialist and philanthropist
 

1992

 

Abul Kalam Azad

(Posthumous)

 

West Bengal

Independence  activist, first Minister of Education
1997Aruna Asaf AliWest BengalPosthumous, independence  activist
 

1997

 

Gulzarilal Nanda

 

Punjab

Independence activist, interim Prime Minister
1997

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Tamil NaduAeronautical Engineer, 11th President of India
 

1998

 

Jayaprakash Narayan

Bihar  Posthumous, independence activist and politician
1998Chidambaram SubramaniamTamil NaduIndependence activist, Minister of Agriculture
1998M. S. SubbulakshmiTamil NaduCarnatic classical singer
1999Gopinath Bordoloi

(Posthumous)

AssamIndependence  activist
1999Amartya SenWest BengalEconomist
1999Ravi ShankarWest BengalSitar player from Calcutta
2001Bismillah KhanBiharHindustani classical shehnai player
2001Lata MangeshkarMaharashtraPlayback singer
2009Bhimsen JoshiKarnatakaHindustani classical singer
2014Sachin TendulkarMaharashtraCricketer
2014C. N. R. RaoKarnatakaScientist
2015Madan Mohan Malaviya (Posthumous)Uttar PradeshScholar and educational reformer and founder of Banaras Hindu University.
2015Atal Bihari VajpayeeMadhya PradeshExprime Minister and one of the best parliamentarians for over four decades.
2019Pranab MukherjeeWest BengalIndian politician
2019Bhupen Hazarika

(Posthumous)

AssamIndian playback singer, lyricist, musician, poet and filmmaker
2019Nanaji Deshmukh

(Posthumous)

MaharashtraSocial  activist

Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award in India that was instituted in the year 1954.Maximum 3 people awarded at once in one year.

FAQ 

There was no prize money given in the Bharat Ratna award.

Indira Gandhi was the first woman to receive the Bharat Ratna award in 1971. She was also the first woman Prime Minister of India from 1966 to 1977.

Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar's youngest person to receive Bharat Ratna at age 40 years in 2014.

Bhupen Hazarika was the famous singer is awarded Bharat Ratna in 2019.

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