What is Bharata Ratna?
The Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award of the Republic of India. Instituted in 1954, the award is conferred “in recognition of exceptional service/performance of the highest order”, without distinction of race, occupation position, or sex. The award was originally limited to achievements in the arts, literature, science, and public services, but the government expanded the criteria to include “any field of human endeavour” in December 2011.
The first recipients of the Bharat Ratna were politician C. Rajagopalachari, philosopher Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, and scientist C. V. Raman, who was honoured in 1954. Since then, the award has been bestowed on 45 individuals, including 12 who were awarded posthumously.
Bharat Ratna Award Winners
| S.No. | Name of the Awardees | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shri C. Rajagopalachari | 1954 |
| 2 | Dr.Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan | 1954 |
| 3 | Dr.C. V. Raman | 1954 |
| 4 | Dr.Bhagwan Das | 1955 |
| 5 | Dr.M Visvesvaraya | 1955 |
| 6 | Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru | 1955 |
| 7 | Pt. Govind Ballabh Pant | 1957 |
| 8 | Dr.Dhondo Keshav Karve | 1958 |
| 9 | Dr.Bidhan Chandra Roy | 1961 |
| 10 | Shri.Purushottam Das Tandon | 1961 |
| 11 | Dr.Rajendra Prasad | 1962 |
| 12 | Dr.Zakir Husain | 1962 |
| 13 | Dr.Pandurang Vaman Kane | 1963 |
| 14 | Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri (posthumous) | 1966 |
| 15 | Smt.Indira Gandhi | 1971 |
| 16 | Shri V. V. Giri | 1975 |
| 17 | Shri K. Kamaraj(posthumous) | 1976 |
| 18 | Mother Teresa | 1980 |
| 19 | Shri Acharya Vinoba Bhave | 1983 |
| 20 | Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan | 1987 |
| 21 | Shri M. G. Ramachandran | 1988 |
| 22 | Dr.B. R. Ambedkar | 1990 |
| 23 | Nelson Mandela | 1990 |
| 24 | Shri.Rajiv Gandhi (posthumous) | 1991 |
| 25 | Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (posthumous) | 1991 |
| 26 | Shri Morarji Desai | 1991 |
| 27 | Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (posthumous) | 1992 |
| 28 | Shri J. R. D. Tata | 1992 |
| 29 | Shri Satyajit Ray | 1992 |
| 30 | Shri Gulzarilal Nanda | 1997 |
| 31 | Smt.Aruna Asaf Ali(posthumous) | 1997 |
| 32 | Dr.A. P. J. Abdul Kalam | 1997 |
| 33 | Smt.M. S. Subbulakshmi | 1998 |
| 34 | Shri Chidambaram Subramaniam | 1998 |
| 35 | Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan (posthumous) | 1999 |
| 36 | Professor Amartya Sen | 1999 |
| 37 | Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi (posthumous) | 1999 |
| 38 | Pandit Ravi Shankar | 1999 |
| 39 | ShushriLata Mangeshkar | 2001 |
| 40 | Ustad Bismillah Khan | 2001 |
| 41 | Pandit Bhimsen Joshi | 2009 |
| 42 | Professor C. N. R. Rao | 2014 |
| 43 | Shri Sachin Tendulkar | 2014 |
| 44 | Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya (posthumous) | 2015 |
| 45 | Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee | 2015 |
| 46 | Pranab Mukherjee | 2019 |
| 47 | Bhupen Hazarika | 2019 |
| 48 | Nanaji Deshmukh | 2019 |
Did You Know?
- The original 1954 specifications of the award was a circle made of gold 1 3⁄8 inches (35 mm) in diameter with a centred sunburst design on the obverse side.
- The text “Bharat Ratna”, in Devanagari Script, is inscribed on the upper edge in silver gilt with a wreath set along on the lower edge.
- Bhupen Hazarika was an Indian playback singer, lyricist, musician, singer, poet and film-maker from Assam, widely known as Sudhakantha.
- Chandikadas Amritrao Deshmukh also known as Nanaji Deshmukh (11 October 1916 – 27 February 2010) was a social activist from India. He worked in the fields of education, health, and rural self-reliance.
