Bharat Ratna

Bharat Ratna is Indias highest Civilian award for extraordinary work in the
development of literature, art and science, or in recognition of public service of the
highest order. Bharat Ratna award has been conferred by the President of India
on January 26th of every year since 1954.

The actual award is designed in the shape of peepal leaf with Bharat Ratna
inscribed in Devanagari script in the sun figure.The reverse side of the decoration
Satyameva Jeyata has been written in Hindi with an inscription of state emblem.
The emblem, the sun and the rim are of platinum and the inscript ions are in
burnished bronze.

The awards were discontinued in 1977 by the Janata government but were
revived by the Congress government in 1980. After revived of these awards,
Mother Teresa was the first recipient.

No civilian awards in 1993 and 1994. Mr Staya Pal Anand challenged before the
MP High Court, the process of conferment of the Bharat Ratna to Rajiv Gandhi
posthumously. Mr Anand succeeded in obtaining an ex-parte stay against the
government in August 1992. The government announced thet no Bharat Ratna or
Padma awards would be given till the constitutionality of these awards was
decided by the courts. Therefore, these awards were not conferred in 1993 and
1994.

List of Bharat Ratna Award Winners

Bharat Ratna winners

Year

Dr Savapalli Radhakrishnan

1954

Dr Chandrasekara Venkat Raman

1954

Chakravarti Rajagopalacahri

1954

Dr Mokshagundam Vivesvarya

1955

Jawaharlal Nehru

1955

Dr Bhawan Das

1955

Pt Govind Ballabh Pant

1957

Dr Dhonde Keshav Karve

1958

Purushottam Das Tandon

1961

10

Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy

1961

11

Dr Rajendra Prasad

1962

12

Dr Zakir Hussain

1963

13

Dr Pandurang Vaman Kane

1963

14

Lal Bhadur Shastri

1966

15

Indira Gandhi

1971

16

Varahari Venkata Giri

1975

17

Kumaraswamy Kamraj

1976

18

Mother Teresa (Agnes Gonxhaa Bojaxhiu)

1980

19

Acharya Vinoba Bhave

1983

20

Khan Abdul Ghaffer Khan

1987

21

Marudur Gopalan Ramachandran

1988

22

Dr Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

1990

23

Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar

1990

24

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

1991

25

Rajiv Gandhi

1991

26

Morarji Ranchhodji Desai

1991

27

Satyajit Ray

1992

28

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

1992

29

Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhai Tata

1992

30

Gulzari Lal Nanda

1997

31

Aruna Asaf Ali

1997

32

Dr Abdul Pakir Jainulahbdeen Abdul kalam

1997

33

Madurai Shanmukavadivu Subbulakshmi

1998

34

Chidambaram Subramaniam

1998

35

Pandit Ravi Shankar

1999

36

Loknayak Jayprakash Narayan

1999

37

Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi

1999

38

Prof Amartya Sen

1999

39

Ustad Bismillah Khan

2001

40

Lata Dinanath Mangeshkar

2001

41

Pandit Bhimsen Joshi

2008

42

CNR Rao

2014

43

Sachin Tendulkar

2014