BHARAT RATNA RECIPIENTS

On 2 January 1954, a press communique was released from the office of the secretary to the President of India to institute two civilian awards—Bharat Ratna and the three-tier Padma Vibhushan, classified into "Pahela Warg" (Class I), "Dusra Warg" (Class II), and "Tisra Warg" (Class III).^[2] The Bharat Ratna is termed as the highest civilian award of India, followed by Padma Vibhushan classifications. A year later on 15 January 1955, the Padma Vibhushan classifications were altered into three different awards; the Padma Vibhushan, the highest of three awards followed by the Padma Bhushan and the Padma Shri.^[3]

There is no formal provision that recipients of the Bharat Ratna should be Indian citizens. It has been awarded to anaturalised Indian citizen, Mother Teresa in 1980, and to two non-Indians, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan—a Pakistan national, in 1987 and Nelson Mandela—a South African national, in 1990.^[4] Sachin Tendulkar, at the age of 40, became the youngest person and first sportsperson to receive the honour,^[5] whereas Dhondo Keshav Karve was awarded on his 100th birthday on 18 April 1958 in a special ceremony.^[6][a] Till 2014, the award has been conferred upon 43 people with 11 posthumous declarations.^[9][10]

List of recipients[edit]

Key

# Naturalized citizen recipient

Non-citizen recipient

Posthumous recipient

List of laureates awarded with the Bharat Ratna^[9][10]

Year	Image	Laureates		Notes	Refs.
1954		C. Rajagopalachari		Independence activist, last and the only Indian Governor-General of India	[23]
		C. V. Raman		Nobel laureate physicist (1930)	[24][25]
		Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan		Philosopher, India's first Vice-President (1952–62), and secondPresident (1962–67)	[26][27][28]
1955	–	Bhagwan Das		Independence activist, theosophist, and founder of Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith	[29]
	–	Visvesvaraya		Civil engineer, Diwan of Mysore (1912–18), and Knight Commander of the Indian Empire	[30][31]
		Jawaharlal Nehru		Independence activist, author, and first Prime Minister of India (1947–64)	[32][33]
1957	–	Govind Ballabh Pant		Independence activist, first Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh(1950–54)	[34][35]
1958	–	Dhondo Keshav Karve		Social reformer	[36]
1961	–	Bidhan Chandra Roy		Physician-Surgeon and second Chief Minister of West Bengal(1948–62)	[37][38]
	–	Purushottam Das Tandon		Independence activist, educator	[39]
1962		Rajendra Prasad		Independence activist, lawyer, first President of India (1950–62)	[27][40]
1963	–	Zakir Hussain		Independence activist, second Vice-President of India (1950–62), and third President of India (1962–67)	[27][28][41]
	–	Pandurang Vaman Kane		Indologist and Sanskrit scholar	[42]
1966		Lal Bahadur Shastri		Independence activist and second Prime Minister of India (1964–67)	[33][42]
1971		Indira Gandhi		Former Prime Minister of India (1966–77, 1980–84)	[33]
1975	–	V. V. Giri		Trade unionist, first Acting President of India, and fourth President of India (1969–74)	[27][43]
1976	–	K. Kamaraj		Independence activist and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu(1954–57, 1957–62, 1962–63)	[44]
1980		Mother Teresa	#	Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of Charity and Nobel peace prize laureate (1979)	[45]
1983	–	Vinoba Bhave		Independence activist, social reformer, and Ramon Magsaysay Award laureate (1958)	[4][46]
1987		Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan		Independence activist	[47]
1988		M. G. Ramachandran		Film actor and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu (1977–80, 1980–84, 1985–87)	[44][c]
1990		B. R. Ambedkar		Chief architect of the Indian Constitution and social reformer	[49][50]
		Nelson Mandela		Leader of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in South Africa andNobel Peace Prize laureate (1993)	[51]
1991		Rajiv Gandhi		Sixth Prime Minister of India (1984–89)	[33]
		Vallabhbhai Patel		Independence activist and first Deputy Prime Minister of India(1947–50)	[52]
		Morarji Desai		Independence activist and fourth Prime Minister of India (1977–79)	[33][d]
1992		Abul Kalam Azad		Independence activist	[54][e]
	–	J. R. D. Tata		Industrialist and philanthropist	[4]
		Satyajit Ray		Filmmaker	[4]
1997	–	Gulzarilal Nanda		Independence activist and two times interim Prime Minister of India	[33]
	–	Aruna Asaf Ali		Independence activist	[58]
		A. P. J. Abdul Kalam		Aerospace and Defense Scientist, eleventh President of India (2002–07)	[27][59]
1998		M. S. Subbulakshmi		Carnatic classical vocalist	[60]
	–	Chidambaram Subramaniam		Independence activist and former Minister of Agriculture of India (1964–66)	[61]
1999	–	Jayaprakash Narayan		Independence activist and social reformer	[62]
		Ravi Shankar		Hindustani classical Sitar player	[63]
		Amartya Sen		Nobel laureate economist (1998)	[64]
		Gopinath Bordoloi		Independence activist, first Chief Minister of Assam (1946–50)	[65]
2001		Lata Mangeshkar		Playback singer	[66]
		Bismillah Khan		Hindustani classical Shehnai player	[67]
2008		Bhimsen Joshi		Hindustani classical vocalist	[68][69]
2013		C. N. R. Rao		Chemist	[10]
		Sachin Tendulkar		Cricketer	[10]

In 1992, a press release was published to confer the award posthumously on Bose which was later cancelled by the Supreme Court of India in 1997.