Bharat Ratna recipients

Bharat Ratna Award Information

Type Civilian
Category General
Instituted 1954
Last Awarded 2001
Total Awarded 40
Awarded by Government of India
Description An image of the Sun along
with the words "Bharat Ratna",
inscribed in Devanagari script,
on a peepul leaf
First Awardee(s) Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Last Awardee(s) Ustad Bismillah Khan, Lata Mangeshkar

Bharat Ratna recipients


1. Aruna Asaf Ali - (16 July 1909 - 29 July 1996) (born Aruna Ganguli), was an Indian independence fighter. She is widely remembered for hoisting the Congress flag at the Gowalia Tank maidan in Bombay during the Quit India Movement, 1942.

2. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (April 14, 1891 — December 6, 1956) was an Indian jurist, Bahujan political leader and a Buddhist revivalist, who is the chief architect of the Indian Constitution, also known as Babasaheb. Born into a poor Untouchable community, Ambedkar spent his life fighting against the system of Chaturvarna, the Hindu categorization of human society into four varnas and the Indian caste system. He is also credited for having sparked the Dalit Buddhist movement. Ambedkar has been honoured with the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, given for the highest degree of national service.

3. Abul Kalam Muhiyuddin Ahmed (11 November 1888 – 22 February 1958) was a Muslim scholar and a senior political leader of the Indian independence movement. He was one of the most prominent Muslim leaders to support Hindu-Muslim unity, opposing the partition of India on communal lines. Following India's independence, he became the first Minister of Education in the Indian government. He is commonly remembered as Maulana Azad; he had adopted Azad (Free) as his pen name.He would become the youngest person to serve as the President of the Indian National Congress in 1923.

4. Vinoba Bhave,born Vinayak Narahari Bhave (September 11, 1895 - November 15 1982) often called Acharya (In Sanskrit and Hindi means teacher), is considered as a National Teacher of India and the spiritual successor of Mahatma Gandhi.In 1958 Vinoba was the first recipient of the international Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna posthumously in 1983.

5. Bidhan Chandra Roy (July 1, 1882 Bankipore in Patna, Bihar – July 1, 1962) [1] was the second Chief Minister of West Bengal, India. He remained in his post for 14 years as a Congress Party candidate, from January 14, 1948 until his death in 1962. He was a respected physician and a renowned freedom fighter.The nation honored Dr. Roy with the Bharat Ratna on February 4, 1961.

6. Gopinath Bordoloi (1890-1950) was the first Chief Minister of the Indian state of Assam, and also a leading Indian freedom-fighter. He was a follower of the Gandhian principle of non violence as a political tool.He was awarded the Bharat Ratna posthumously in 1999.

7. Bhagwan Das (January 12, 1869 - September 18, 1958) was an Indian theosophist and public figure. For a time he served in the Central Legislative Assembly of undivided India. He became allied with the Hindustani Culture Society and was active in opposing rioting as a form of protest. As an advocate for national freedom from the British rule, he was often in danger of reprisals from the Colonial government and was honoured with the Bharat Ratna in 1955.

8.Morarji Ranchhodji Desai (February 29, 1896 – April 10, 1995) was an Indian independence activist and the Prime Minister of India from 1977-79. He was the first Indian Prime Minister who did not belong to the Indian National Congress. He is the only Indian to receive the highest civilian awards from both India and Pakistan, namely the Bharat Ratna and Nishaan-e-Pakistan.

9. Rajiv Gandhi , born in Bombay, (August 20, 1944 – May 21, 1991), the elder son of Indira and Feroze Gandhi, was the 7th Prime Minister of India (and the 3rd from the Nehru-Gandhi family) from his mother's death on 31 October 1984 until his resignation on December 2, 1989 following a general election defeat. He was the youngest Prime Minister of India (at the age of 40).

10. Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (19 November 1917 - October 31, 1984) was the Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms from 1966 to 1977 and for a fourth term from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. She was India's first and to date only female prime minister.He received India's highest civilian decoration, the Bharat Ratna, in 1975.

11. Dr. Zakir Hussain (February 8, 1897 - May 3, 1969) , was the third President of India from May 13, 1967 until his death on May 3, 1969.He was awarded the highest Indian national honour, the Bharat Ratna in 1963. He is the first Indian President to die in office on the 3rd day of May, 1969.

12. Dr. Pandurang Vaman Kane (pronounced Kaa-nay) (1880-1972) was a notable Indologist and Sanskrit scholar. He was born in a conservative Chitpavan Brahmin family in the Ratnagiri district in Maharashtra, India.The highest accolade bestowed upon him was the Bharat Ratna in 1963.

13. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam , born October 15, 1931, Tamil Nadu, India, usually referred as Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam^ , was the eleventh President of India, serving from 2002 to 2007.Due to his unconventional working style, he is also popularly known as the People's President. Before his term as India's president, he distinguished himself as engineering visionary and was awarded India's highest civilian honour Bharat Ratna in 1997 for his work with DRDO and his role as scientific advisor to the Indian government. He is popularly known as the Missile Man of India for his work and is considered a progressive mentor, innovator and visionary in India.
The Government of India has honoured him with the nation's highest civilian honours: the Padma Bhushan in 1981; Padma Vibhushan in 1990; and the Bharat Ratna in 1997.

14. Kamaraj Kumarasami,(15 July 1903 – 2 October 1975) was an Indian politician widely considered to be the only kingmaker in Indian politics, and known for his honesty, integrity and simplicity.
He was involved in the Indian independence movement and was a close ally of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. He was instrumental in bringing to power two Prime Ministers, Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1964 and Indira Gandhi in 1966. He was affectionately known as the Gandhi of the South.

15. Maharshi Dhondo Keshav Karve (April 18, 1858 - November 9, 1962) was a preeminent social reformer of his time in India in the field of welfare of womankind.
* 1942 - Awarded Doctor of Letters (D. Litt.) by Banaras Hindu University
* 1951 - Awarded D.Litt. by Pune University
* 1954 - Awarded D.Litt. by S.N.D.T. University
* 1955 - Awarded Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India
* 1957 - Awarded LL.D. by University of Mumbai
* 1958 - Awarded Bharat Ratna by the Government of India

16. Ustad Bismillah Khan Sahib (March 21, 1916 – August 21, 2006) was a shehnai maestro from India. The term "Ustad" or "Pandit" in relation to Indian classical music implies Master or Guru.
He was the third classical musician to be awarded the Bharat Ratna (in 2001), the highest civilian honour in India.

17.Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan -(b. at Hashtnagar in Utmanzai, Peshawar, North-West Frontier Province, British India, c. 1890 – d. in Peshawar, NWFP, Pakistan, 20 January 1988) was a Pashtun Indian political and spiritual leader known for his non-violent opposition to British Rule in India. A lifelong pacifist, a devout Muslim, [1]and a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, he was also known as Badshah Khan (also Bacha Khan, Urdu, Pashto: lit., "King of Kings"), and Sarhaddi Gandhi (Urdu: lit., "Frontier Gandhi"). In 1985 he was nominated for the Nobel peace prize. In 1987 he became the first non-citizen to be awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award.

18. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela -(born 18 July 1918) is a former President of South Africa, the first to be elected in fully representative democratic elections. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist and leader of the African National Congress and its armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe. He spent 27 years in prison, much of it on Robben Island, on convictions for crimes that included sabotage committed while he spearheaded the struggle against apartheid.

19. Gulzārilāl Nandā (July 4, 1898 - January 15, 1998) was an Indian politician and an economist with specialization in labor problems. He was the interim Prime Minister of India twice for thirteen days each: the first time after the death of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1964, and the second time after the death of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1966. (His both terms had ended after the ruling Indian National Congress party procedurally elected a new prime minister.)
Nanda was a follower of Mahatma Gandhi's principles.
The Government of India honored Nanda with a Bharat Ratna award in 1997.

20. Lata Mangeshkar , born September 28, 1929) is a singer from India. She is one of the most well-known playback singers in the Indian Hindi movie industry. Mangeshkar's career started in 1942 and has spanned over six decades. She has done playback singing for over 980 Hindi (or "Bollywood") movies, and has sung songs in over twenty regional Indian languages, primarily Marathi. She is the elder sister of the equally accomplished singer, Asha Bhosle.Lata is the second vocalist to receive "Bharat Ratna", India's highest civilian honour.
Mangeshkar was featured in the Guinness Book of World Records from 1974 to 1991 for "most recordings" in the world.

21. Jayaprakash Narayan ( October 11, 1902 - October 8, 1979), widely known as JP, was an Indian freedom fighter and political leader, remembered especially for leading the opposition to Indira Gandhi in the 1970s and for giving a call for peaceful Total Revolution.

22. Govind Ballabh Pant (September 10, 1887 - March 7, 1961) was a statesman of India, an Indian independence activist and one of the foremost political leaders from Uttarakhand (then in United Provinces) and of the movement to establish Hindi as the national language of India.

23. Vallabhbhai Patel (31 October 1875 – 15 December 1950) was a political and social leader of India who played a major role in the country's struggle for independence and guided its integration into a united, independent nation. In India and across the world, he was often addressed as Sardar , which means Chief in many languages of India.

24. Dr. Rajendra Prasad (December 3, 1884 – February 28, 1963) was the first President of India.

Rajendra Prasad was an independence activist and, as a leader of the Congress Party, played a prominent role in the Indian Independence Movement. He served as President of the Constituent Assembly that drafted the constitution of the Republic from 1948 to 1950. He had also served as a Cabinet Minister briefly in the first Government of Independent India.

25. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (November 14, 1889 – May 27, 1964) was a major political leader of the Congress Party, a pivotal figure in the Indian independence movement and the first Prime Minister of independent India. He was also a key figure in international politics in the post-war period (in which he was considered the leader of third world interests) and patriarch of the Nehru-Gandhi family, one of the most influential forces in Indian politics. He is popularly referred to as Panditji (Scholar) and Pandit Nehru.

26. Purushottam Das Tandon (August 1, 1882 – July 1, 1962), was a independence fighter from Uttar Pradesh in India, of Khatri descent. He is widely remembered for his efforts in achieving the Official Language of India status for Hindi. He was customarily given the title Rajarshi.

27. Sir Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan , (September 5, 1888 – April 17, 1975), was an Indian philosopher and statesman.He was the first Vice President of India (1952-1962), and the second President of India (1962-1967). His birthday is celebrated in India as Teacher's Day.

28. Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari (December 10, 1878 - December 25, 1972), known as or Rajaji or C.R., was an Indian lawyer, writer, statesman and a devout Hindu . He was the second Governor-General of independent India. Later he became the Chief Minister of Madras State, and was one of the first recipients of India's highest civilian award Bharat Ratna (in 1954).

29. Amartya Kumar Sen (born 3 November 1933), is an Indian economist, philosopher, and a winner of the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences (Nobel Prize for Economics) in 1998, "for his contributions to welfare economics" for his work on famine, human development theory, welfare economics, the underlying mechanisms of poverty, and political liberalism.

30. Maruthur Gopala Ramachandran Menon (January 17, 1917–December 24, 1987), popularly known as MGR , or Puratchi Thalaivar (Tamil: Revolutionary Leader), was a leading actor in Tamil films and Chief Minister of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu from 1977 until his death.Bharat Ratna was conferred by the Government of India posthumously.

31. Bharat Ratna Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, (7 November 1888 – 21 November 1970) was an Indian physicist, who was awarded the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the molecular scattering of light and for the discovery of the Raman effect, which is named after him.

32. Satyajit Ray (2 May 1921–23 April 1992) was a Bengali Indian filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema.The Government of India awarded him the highest civilian honour Bharat Ratna shortly before his death

33. Lal Bahadur Shastri (October 2, 1904 - January 11, 1966) was the third (second, and acting, being Gulzarilal Nanda) Prime Minister of independent India and a significant figure in the Indian independence movement.qutoes -
# "Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan" ("Hail the soldier, Hail the farmer")
# "If one person gives up one meal in a day, some other person gets his only meal of the day", spoken during the food crisis to encourage people to evenly distribute food.

34. Pandit Ravi Shankar , born April 7, 1920, in Benares, United Provinces, British India is a Bengali Indian sitar player and composer. He is a disciple of Baba Allauddin Khan, the founder of the Maihar gharana of Hindustani classical music.The Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour, was awarded to him in 1999.

35. Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi , popularly known as M.S. or M.S.S.) (September 16, 1916 - December 11, 2004) was a renowned Carnatic vocalist. She was the first musician ever to be awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honor

36. Chidambaram Subramaniam (commonly known as CS)(January 30, 1910 - November 7, 2000), was the man who ushered in an era of self-sufficiency in food production in India. He hails from an agricultural family in Pollachi near Coimbatore. He was conferred the Bharat Ratna in 1998.

37. Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata (July 29, 1904–November 29, 1993) was a pioneer aviator and important businessman of India. He was one of the few people who were awarded Bharat Ratna during their life time.

38. Mother Teresa ( (August 26, 1910 – September 5, 1997) was a Albanian Roman Catholic nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata (Calcutta), India in 1950. For over forty years she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries.
By the 1970s she had become internationally famed as a humanitarian and advocate for the poor and helpless, due in part to a documentary, and book, Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her humanitarian work.

39. Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya,15 September 1860 - 14 April 1962) was an eminent Indian engineer and statesman. He is a recipient of the Indian republic's highest honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1955. He was also knighted by the British for his myriad contributions to the public good. Every year, 15th September is celebrated as the Engineer's Day in India in his memory and is a public holiday in some places, especially his birth state Karnataka.