The Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award of the Republic of India. It was started in 1954. This award is given “in recognition of exceptional service/performance of the highest order,” without distinction of race, occupation, position, or sex. C. Rajagopalachari was the first rewarded of Bharat Ratna. He was honoured with this reward in 1954. Since then, the award has been bestowed upon 45 individuals, including 12 who were awarded posthumously. The Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award of the Republic of India. Initially, this award was originally limited to achievements in the arts, literature, science, and public services, but later the government enhanced the criteria to include “any field of human endeavor” in December 2011. The Prime Minister of India recommends for the Bharat Ratna to the President, with a maximum of three nominees being awarded per year. The receiver gets a Sanad (certificate) signed by the President and a peepal-leaf–shaped medallion; there is no monetary prize associated with the award. Bharat Ratna recipients rank seventh in the Indian order of precedence.
Year | Laureates |
2015 | Madan Mohan Malaviya |
2015 | Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
2014 | C. N. R. Rao |
2014 | Sachin Tendulkar |
2008 | Bhimsen Joshi |
2001 | Lata Mangeshkar |
2001 | Bismillah Khan |
1999 | Jayaprakash Narayan |
1999 | Amartya Sen |
1999 | Gopinath Bordoloi |
1999 | Ravi Shankar |
1998 | M. S. Subbulakshmi |
1998 | Chidambaram Subramaniam |
1997 | Gulzarilal Nanda |
1997 | Aruna Asaf Ali |
1997 | A. P. J. Abdul Kalam |
1992 | Abul Kalam Azad |
1992 | J. R. D. Tata |
1992 | Satyajit Ray |
1991 | Rajiv Gandhi |
1991 | Vallabhbhai Patel |
1991 | Morarji Desai |
1990 | B. R. Ambedkar |
1990 | Nelson Mandela |
1988 | M. G. Ramachandran |
1987 | Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan |
1983 | Vinoba Bhave |
1980 | Mother Teresa |
1976 | K. Kamaraj |
1975 | V. V. Giri |
1971 | Indira Gandhi |
1966 | Lal Bahadur Shastri |
1963 | Zakir Husain |
1963 | Pandurang Vaman Kane |
1962 | Rajendra Prasad |
1961 | Bidhan Chandra Roy |
1961 | Purushottam Das Tandon |
1958 | Dhondo Keshav Karve |
1957 | Govind Ballabh Pant |
1955 | Bhagwan Das |
1955 | M. Visvesvaraya |
1955 | Jawaharlal Nehru |
1954 | C. Rajagopalachari |
1954 | Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan |
1954 | C. V. Raman |