Bharat Ratna Award List In India (1954 – 2023)

Last Updated: 23 March 2023

In India, the name of the highest Civilian Award is known as the Bharat Ratna Award, meaning Jewel of India.

The Award was first awarded in the year 1954 as a recognition of exceptional service or performance of the highest order. It was decided to be awarded without distinction of race, occupation, position, or sex.

The order of precedence for the Civilian Awards:

Bharat Ratna
Padma Vibhushan

Padma Bhushan
Padma Shri

Before we see the list of Bharat Ratna Award list in India, let us first look at some of the important facts.

Facts About Bharat Ratna Award

Every year a maximum of 3 persons can be awarded the Bharat Ratna Award.

In December 2011 the Government expanded the criteria for the award to include “Any Field Of Human Endeavor”.

The Recommendations for the Award are made by the Prime Minister to the President.

The Award recipients rank seventh in the Indian Order of Precedence.

Recipients receive a peepal-leaf–shaped medallion and a Certificate (Sanad) signed by the President of India.

A total number of 16 People were awarded after their death.

Sachin Tendulkar became the first youngest recipient to receive the Bharat Ratna Award at the age of 40.

Dhondo Keshav Karve was awarded the Bharat Ratna Award on his 100th birthday.

Two non-Indians received the Award.

Bharat Ratna Award was suspended from July 1977 to January 1980.

✝ Indicates A Posthumous Honour
* Indicates Non-citizen Recipient
+ Indicates Naturalised Citizen Recipient

Page Contents

Bharat Ratna Award 1954 -1958

1954

No.	Laureates	State	Role
1	C. Rajagopalachari	Tamil Nadu	1) Lawyer 2) Founder of the Indian Political Swatantra Party
2	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan	Tamil Nadu	1) Philosopher 2) Second President of India
3	C. V. Raman	Tamil Nadu	1) Physicist 2) Worked in the field of Atomic Physics and Electromagnetism

1955

No.	Laureates	State	Role
1	Bhagwan Das	Uttar Pradesh	1) Philosopher 2) Worked with Madan Mohan Malaviya for the foundation of Banaras Hindu University
2	M. Visvesvaraya	Karnataka	1) Civil engineer 2) His birthday (15 September) is observed as Engineer’s Day in India
3	Jawaharlal Nehru	Uttar Pradesh	First and the longest-serving Prime Minister of India (16 years 286 days)

1957

No.	Laureate	State	Role
1	Govind Ballabh Pant	Uttarakhand	First Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (1950–54)

1958

No.	Laureate	State	Role
1	Dhondo Keshav Karve	Maharashtra	Widely known for his works related to women’s education and the remarriage of Hindu widows

Bharat Ratna Award 1961 -1966

1961

No.	Laureates	State	Role
1	Bidhan Chandra Roy	West Bengal	1) Physician 2) Mr. Roy’s birthday (1 July) is observed as National Doctors Day in India
2	Purushottam Das Tandon	Uttar Pradesh	Involved in a campaign to get official language status to Hindi

1962

No.	Laureate	State	Role
1	Rajendra Prasad	Bihar	First President of India (13 May 1950–13 May 1962)

1963

No.	Laureates	State	Role
1	Zakir Husain	Uttar Pradesh	Third President of India (13 May 1967–3 May 1969)
2	Pandurang Vaman Kane	Maharashtra	1) Mr. Kane is an Ideologist and Sanskrit scholar 2) Best known for his five-volume literary work. 3) His book “Monumental” extends over nearly 6,500

1966

No.	Laureate	State	Role
1	Lal Bahadur Shastri^{^✝}	Uttar Pradesh	1) Known for his slogan “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan” 2) Second Prime Minister of India (9 Jun 1964 – 11 Jan 1966)

Bharat Ratna Award 1971-1976

1971

No.	Laureate	State	Role
1	Indira Gandhi	Uttar Pradesh	1) Known as the “Iron Lady of India” 2) Third Prime Minister of India (24 Jan 1966 – 24 Mar 1977)

1975

No.	Laureate	State	Role
1	V. V. Giri	Odisha	1) First acting President 2) Fourth President of India (24 August 1969–24 August 1974)

1976

No.	Laureate	State	Role
1	K. Kamaraj^✝	Tamil Nadu	Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for three terms (1954–57, 1957–62, 1962–63)

Bharat Ratna Award 1980-1988

1980

No.	Laureate	State	Role
1	Mother Teresa⁺	West Bengal (Born in Skopje)	1) Catholic Nun 2) Founder of the Missionaries of Charity 3) Managed homes for people who were dying of HIV/AIDS, leprosy, and tuberculosis

1983

No.	Laureate	State	Role
1	Vinoba Bhave^✝	Maharashtra	1) Best known for his Land-Gift Movement and Bhoodan movement 2) Bhave was given the honorific title Acharya (teacher)

1987

No.	Laureate	Country	Role
1	Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan^*	Pakistan	1) Known as Frontier Gandhi 2) Founded Khudai Khidmatgar (Red Shirt movement) in 1929

1988

No.	Laureate	State	Role
1	M. G. Ramachandran^✝	Tamil Nadu	1) Mr. Ramachandran was an Actor 2) Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for three terms (1977–80, 1980–84, 1985–87)

Bharat Ratna Award 1990-1999

1990

No.	Laureates	State/Country	Role
1	B. R. Ambedkar^✝	Madhya Pradesh	1) Chief architect of the Indian Constitution 2) First Law Minister of India
2	Nelson Mandela^*	South Africa	1) Mandela is often called the Gandhi of South Africa 2) First President of South Africa (1994–99)

1991

No.	Laureates	State	Role
1	Rajiv Gandhi^✝	Uttar Pradesh	Rajiv Gandhi was the sixth Prime Minister of India (31 Oct 1984-2 Dec 1989)
2	Vallabhbhai Patel^✝	Gujarat	Mr. Patel is widely known as the “Iron Man of India”
3	Morarji Desai	Gujarat	1) Fourth Prime Minister of India (24 Mar 1977-28 Jul 1979) 2) Awarded the Nishan-e-Pakistan (highest civilian award of Pakistan)

1992

No.	Laureates	State	Role
1	Abul Kalam Azad^✝	West Bengal	1) First Education Minister 2) Widely known as Maulana Azad 3) His birthday 11 Nov is observed as National Education Day
2	J. R. D. Tata	Maharashtra	1) Founder of India’s first airline Air India 2) Founder of Tata Memorial Hospital, TCS, etc
3	Satyajit Ray	West Bengal	1) Director of Pather Panchali (1955) 2) Credited for bringing world recognition to Indian Cinema

1997

No.	Laureates	State	Role
1	Gulzarilal Nanda	Punjab	Two times interim Prime Minister of India (1964, 1966) for 13 days each
2	Aruna Asaf Ali^✝	West Bengal	1) Known for hoisting the Indian flag in Bombay during the Quit India Movement (1942) 2) Elected as Delhi’s first Mayor (1958)
3	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam	Tail Nadu	1) Aerospace and Defence Scientist 2) Involved in the development of India’s first satellite vehicle SLV III 3) 11th President of India (25 July 2002-25 July 2007)

1998

No.	Laureates	State	Role
1	M. S. Subbulakshmi	Tamil Nadu	Subbulakshmi is known for her divine voice & often hailed as the “Queen of songs”
2	Chidambaram Subramaniam	Tamil Nadu	1) Known for his contribution towards the Green Revolution in India 2) Former Minister of Agriculture (1964–66)

1999

No.	Laureates	State	Role
1	Jayaprakash Narayan^✝	Bihar	1) Known as Loknayak (People’s Leader) 2) Known for Total Revolution Movement
2	Amartya Sen	West Bengal	Research on ethics and political philosophy, development economics, etc
3	Gopinath Bordoloi^✝	Assam	First Chief Minister of Assam
4	Ravi Shankar	West Bengal	1) Winner of four Grammy Awards 2) Considered as the World’s best-known exponent of Hindustani Classical Music

Bharat Ratna Award 2001-2009

2001

No.	Laureates	State	Role
1	Lata Mangeshkar	Maharashtra	1) Credited as the Nightingale of India 2) She started her career in the 1940s and has sung songs in over 36 languages
2	Bismillah Khan	Bihar	1) Hindustani Classical Shehnai Player 2) Played an instrument for more than eight decades

2009

No.	Laureate	State	Role
1	Bhimsen Joshi	Karnataka	1) Hindustani classical vocalist 2) Widely known for singing with accurate notes and mastery over rhythm

Bharat Ratna Award 2014-2019

2014

No.	Laureates	State	Role
1	C. N. R. Rao	Karnataka	1) Recipient of Honorary Doctorates from 63 Universities 2) He worked in the fields of Materials Chemistry, Solid State, Spectroscopy.
2	Sachin Tendulkar	Maharashtra	1) Played 664 international Cricket matches in two decades 2) Holds record for scoring 100 international centuries 3) 30,000 runs in both ODI and Test Cricket

2015

No.	Laureates	State	Role
1	Madan Mohan Malaviya^✝	Uttar Pradesh	1) Founder of Banaras Hindu University 2) Served as the President of INC for 4 terms
2	Atal Bihari Vajpayee	Madhya Pradesh	1) Elected twice to the Rajya Sabha, 9 times to the Lok Sabha 2) Prime Minister of India for three terms (1996, 1998, 1999–2004)

2019

No.	Laureates	State	Role
1	Pranab Mukherjee	West Bengal	1) 13th President of India from 2012-2017 2) Union Finance Minister from 2009-2012
2	Bhupen Hazarika^✝	Assam	1) Indian Playback Singer from Assam known as Sudhakantha 2) His songs in the Assamese language have been translated & sung in many languages
3	Nanaji Deshmukh^✝	Maharashtra	1) Worked in the fields of health, education, and rural self-reliance 2) Member of the Rajya Sabha and leader of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh