भारत रत्न से सम्मानित व्यक्ति List of Bharat Ratna recipients

List of Bharat Ratna recipients

Year

Laureates

State / Country

1954

3

C. Rajagopalachari

Tamil Nadu

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

Tamil Nadu

C. V. Raman

Tamil Nadu

1955

3

Bhagwan Das

Uttar Pradesh

M. Visvesvaraya

Karnataka

Jawaharlal Nehru

Uttar Pradesh

1957

1

Govind Ballabh Pant

Uttarakhand

1958

1

Dhondo Keshav Karve

Maharashtra

1961

2

Bidhan Chandra Roy

West Bengal

Purushottam Das Tandon

Uttar Pradesh

1962

1

Rajendra Prasad

Bihar

1963

2

Zakir Husain

Andhra Pradesh

Pandurang Vaman Kane

Maharashtra

1966

1

Lal Bahadur Shastri

Uttar Pradesh

(Posthumous)

1971

1

Indira Gandhi

Uttar Pradesh

1975

1

V. V. Giri

Odisha

1976

1

K. Kamaraj

Tamil Nadu

(Posthumous)

1980

1

Mother Teresa

Mother Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu 

West Bengal

(Born in Skopje,

now North Macedonia)

1983

1

Vinoba Bhave

Maharashtra

(Posthumous)

1987

1

Abdul Ghaffar Khan*

Pakistan

1988

1

M. G. Ramachandran

Tamil Nadu

(Posthumous)

1990

2

B. R. Ambedkar

Maharashtra

(Posthumous)

Nelson Mandela*

South Africa

1991

3

Rajiv Gandhi

Uttar Pradesh

(Posthumous)

Vallabhbhai Patel

Gujarat

(Posthumous)

Morarji Desai

Gujarat

1992

3

Abul Kalam Azad

West Bengal

(Posthumous)

J. R. D. Tata

Maharashtra

Satyajit Ray

West Bengal

1997

3

Gulzarilal Nanda

Punjab

Aruna Asaf Ali

West Bengal

(Posthumous)

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Tamil Nadu

1998

2

M. S. Subbulakshmi

Tamil Nadu

Chidambaram Subramaniam

Tamil Nadu

1999

4

Jayaprakash Narayan

Bihar

(Posthumous)

Amartya Sen

West Bengal

Gopinath Bordolo

Assam

(Posthumous)

Ravi Shankar

Uttar Pradesh

2001

2

Lata Mangeshkar

Maharashtra

Bismillah Khan

Uttar Pradesh

2009

1

Bhimsen Joshi

Karnataka

2014

2

C. N. R. Rao

Karnataka

Sachin Tendulkar

Maharashtra

2015

2

Madan Mohan Malaviya

Uttar Pradesh

(Posthumous)

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Madhya Pradesh

2019

3

Pranab Mukherjee

West Bengal

(Posthumous)

Bhupen Hazarika

Assam

(Posthumous)

Nanaji Deshmukh

Maharashtra

(Posthumous)

Total 

48

List of Bharat Ratna recipients

भारत रत्न से सम्मानित व्यक्ति 

Year

Laureates

Notes

1954

C. Rajagopalachari

• Known as the “Mootharignar” (“Scholar Emeritus”) 

• Rajagopalachari was the Governor-General of India (1948–50). 

• He was the home minister in Nehru’s first cabinet. 

• Rajaji was the first Governor of West Bengal.

•  chief minister of Tamil Nadu between 1952 and 1954. 

• founder of Swatantra Party

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

• India’s first Vice-President (1952–62) 

• second President (1962–67).

• 5 September: “Teachers’ Day” 

C. V. Raman

• “Raman scattering”,

•  Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930.

1955

Bhagwan Das

• co-founder of Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith 

• worked with Madan Mohan Malaviya for the foundation of Banaras Hindu University

M. Visvesvaraya

• Civil engineer

• Diwan of Mysore (1912–18) 

• 15 September : Engineer’s Day in India.

Jawaharlal Nehru

• first and the longest-serving Prime Minister of India (1947–64). 

• Nehru himself was Prime Minister of India at the time of the receiving award.

1957

Govind Ballabh Pant

• first Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (1950–54). 

• He served as Union Home Minister from 1955 to 1961

1958

Dhondo Keshav Karve

• He established the Widow Marriage Association (1883), Hindu Widows Home (1896), and started Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey Women’s University in 1916.

1961

Bidhan Chandra Roy

• “Maker of Modern West Bengal”

• second Chief Minister of West Bengal (1948–62)

•  his birthday on 1 July is observed as National Doctors’ Day in India.

Purushottam Das Tandon

• “Rajarshi”, Tandon 

1962

Rajendra Prasad

• first President of India (1950–62).

1963

Zakir Husain

• Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University (1948–56)

• Governor of Bihar (1957–62)

• second Vice-President of India (1962–67)

•  third President of India (1967–69).

Pandurang Vaman Kane

• Sanskrit scholar

1966

Lal Bahadur Shastri

• slogan “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan” 

• second Prime Minister of India (1964–66)

•  PM during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.

1971

Indira Gandhi

• “Iron Lady of India”

• Prime Minister of India during 1966–77 and 1980–84.

• Gandhi herself was Prime Minister of India at the time of receiving the award.

1975

V. V. Giri

• Governor of Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Mysore

•  first acting president

•  fourth President of India (1969–74).

1976

K. Kamaraj

• Known as the “King Maker”

• He was the chief minister of Tamil Nadu between 1954 and 1963. 

1980

Mother Teresa 

• “Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta” 

• founder of the Missionaries of Charity

• She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize ,1979

1983

Vinoba Bhave

• Bhoodan movement, “Land-Gift Movement”.

• awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award (1958) 

1987

Abdul Ghaffar Khan*

• known as “Frontier Gandhi”

• He joined Khilafat Movement in 1920

•  founded Khudai Khidmatgar (“Red Shirt movement”) in 1929.

1988

M. G. Ramachandran

• Known as the “Puratchi Thalaivar” (“Revolutionary Leader”), 

• actor turned politician 

• first actor to become the chief minister of the state in the history of India. 

• He was the chief minister of Tamil Nadu for over ten years between 1977 and 1987. 

• He is the founder of Indian political party All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

1990

B. R. Ambedkar

• the first Law Minister of India.

• accepted Buddhism as a religion on 14 October 1956.

Nelson Mandela*

• President of South Africa (1994–99).

• “Gandhi of South Africa”

• In 1993, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1991

Rajiv Gandhi

Gandhi was the sixth Prime Minister of India serving from 1984 to 1989.

Vallabhbhai Patel

• known as the “Iron Man of India”

• first Deputy Prime Minister of India (1947–50)

• Patel worked with V. P. Menon towards dissolving 555 princely states into the Indian union.

Morarji Desai

• fourth Prime Minister of India (1977–79)

• only Indian national to be awarded the Nishan-e-Pakistan, 

• He was also the first Non Congress Prime Minister of India 

1992

Abul Kalam Azad

• I India’s first Minister of Education

•  known as “Maulana Azad” 

• 11 November birthday  : National Education Day 

J. R. D. Tata

• founded India’s first airline Air India. 

Satyajit Ray

• director of Pather Panchali (1955)

•  In 1984, Dadasaheb Phalke Award

• In 1991, he received Academy Honorary Award

1997

Gulzarilal Nanda

• two times interim Prime Minister of India (1964, 1966) 

• two times deputy chairman of the Planning Commission

Aruna Asaf Ali

• hoisting the Indian flag in Bombay during the Quit India Movement in 1942. 

• Ali was elected as Delhi’s first mayor in 1958.

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

• Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister, 

• eleventh President of India from 2002 until 2007.

1998

M. S. Subbulakshmi

• Carnatic classical vocalist Subbulakshmi was from Madurai, Tamil Nadu. 

• “Queen of songs”,

• the first Indian musician to receive the Ramon Magsaysay award

Chidambaram Subramaniam

• Independence activist and former Minister of Agriculture of India (1964–66), 

• Subramaniam is known for his contribution towards Green Revolution in India. 

1999

Jayaprakash Narayan

• referred as “Loknayak” (“People’s Leader”),

•  Total Revolution Movement or “JP Movement” initiated during mid-1970s

Amartya Sen

• Winner of the Nobel Economic Prize(1998)

Gopinath Bordolo

• first Chief Minister of Assam (1946–50)

Ravi Shankar

• Winner of four Grammy Awards 

• sitar player

2001

Lata Mangeshkar

• “nightingale of India”

• In 1989, Mangeshkar was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, 

Bismillah Khan

• shehnai player

2009

Bhimsen Joshi

• A Hindustani classical vocalist 

2014

C. N. R. Rao

• chemist and professor 

Sachin Tendulkar

• debuted in 1989

• Tendulkar played 664 international cricket matches

• only player to have scored one hundred international centuries 

• the first batsman to score a double century in a One Day International 

2015

Madan Mohan Malaviya

• founder of Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha (1906)

•  founder of Banaras Hindu University and served as the university’s vice-chancellor from 1919 until 1938. 

• President of Congress for four terms 

• Chairman of Hindustan Times from 1924 to 1946

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

• elected nine times to the Lok Sabha

• twice to the Rajya Sabha 

• Prime Minister of India for three terms; 1996, 1998, 1999–2004

• Minister of External Affairs during 1977–79 

2019

Pranab Mukherjee

• 13th President of India from 2012 until 2017. 

• leader in the Indian National Congress 

• Union Finance Minister from 2009 to 2012.

Bhupen Hazarika

• Indian playback singer, lyricist, musician, poet and film-maker from Assam, widely known as Sudhakantha. 

Nanaji Deshmukh

• Chandikadas Amritrao Deshmukh also known as Nanaji Deshmukh 

• was a social activist from India.