Bharat Ratna

The highest – Civilian award is given for exceptional service the advancement of art, literature and science, and in reconnition of public service of the highest order. The decoration is in the form of a peepal leaf, about 5.8 cm long, 4.7 cm wide and 3.1 mm thick. It is the toned bronze. On its obserse is embossed a replica of the sun, 1.6 cm in diameter, below which the words “Bharat Ratna” are embossed in Hindi. On the reverse are State emblem and the motto, also in Hindi. The emblem, the sun and the rim are of platinum. The inscriptions are in burnished bronze.

1. The first three recipients of Bharat Ratna were C.Rajagopalchari, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan and Dr. C.V. Raman in 1954
2. There is no formal provision that recipients of Bharat Ratna should be India citizens. It has been award to a naturalised India citizen, “Mother Teresa” in 1980 and to two non Indians Khan Abdul Ghaffer Khan of pakistan in 1987 and former African president “ Nelson Mandela” in 1990.
3. Sachin Tendulkar at the age of 40, became youngest person and first sports to receive the honor.
4. The award was briefly suspended twice in its history.The first suspension occurred after Morarji Desai was sworn in as the four primeminister of India in 1977 and Suspension was rescinded on 1980 after Indira Gandhi again became the prime minister.

• List of Bharat Ratna recipients

Year	Laureates	Notes
1954	C. Rajagopalachari	Independence activist, last and only Indian Governor-General of India
	C.V.Raman	Nobel laureate physicist (1930)
	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan	Philosopher, India's first Vice-President (1952–62), and second President (1962–67)
1955	Visvesvaraya	Civil engineer, statesman and Diwan of Mysore (1912–18)
	Jawaharlal Nehru	Independence activist, author, and first Prime Minister of India (1947–64)
	Bhagwan Das	Independence activist, theosophist, and founder of Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith
1957	Govind Ballabh Pant	Independence activist, first Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (1950–54)
1958	Dhondo Keshav Karve	Social reformer
1961	Bidhan Chandra Roy	Physician-Surgeon and second Chief Minister of West Bengal (1948–62)
	Purushottam Das Tandon	Independence activist, educator
1962	Rajendra Prasad	Independence activist, second Vice-President of India (1962–67), and third President of India (1967–69)
1963	Zakir Hussain	Independence activist, second Vice-President of India (1962–67), and third
	Pandurang Vaman Kane	Indologist and Sanskrit scholar
1966	Lal Bahadur Shastri	Independence activist and third Prime Minister of India (1964–66)
1971	Indira Gandhi	Former Prime Minister of India (1966–77, 1980–84)
1975	V.V. Giri	Trade unionist, first Acting President of India, and fourth President of India (1969–74)
1976	K.Kamaraj	Independence activist and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu (1954–57, 1957–62, 1962–63)
1980	Mother Teresa	Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of Charity and Nobel peace prize laureate (1979)
1983	Vinoba Bhave	Independence activist, social reformer, and Ramon Magsaysay Award laureate (1958)
1987	Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan	Independence activist
1988	M.G. Ramachandran	Film actor and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu (1977–80, 1980–84, 1985–87)
1990	B.R. Ambedkar	Chief architect of the Indian Constitution and social reformer
	Nelson Mandela	Leader of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in South Africa and Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1993)
1991	Rajiv Gandhi	Ninth Prime Minister of India (1984–89)
	Vallabhbhai Patel	Independence activist and first Deputy Prime Minister of India (1947–50)
	Morarji Desai	Independence activist and sixth Prime Minister of India (1977–79)
1992	Abul Kalam Azad	Independence activist
	J.R.D. Tata	Industrialist and philanthropist
	Satyajit Ray	Filmmaker
1997	Gulzarilal Nanda	Independence activist and two times interim Prime Minister of India
	Aruna Asaf Ali	Independence activist
	A.P.J. Abdul Kalam	Aerospace and Defense Scientist, eleventh President of India (2002–07)
1998	M.S. Subbulakshmi	Carnatic classical vocalist
	Chidambaram Subramaniam	Independence activist and former Minister of Agriculture of India (1964–66)
1999	Jayaprakash Narayan	Independence activist and social reformer
	Ravi Shankar	Hindustani classical Sitar player
	Amartya Sen	Nobel laureate economist (1998)
	Gopinath Bordoloi	Independence activist, first Chief Minister of Assam (1946–50)
2001	Lata Mangeshkar	Playback singer
	Bismillah Khan	Hindustani classical Shehnai player
2009	Bhimsen Joshi	Hindustani classical vocalist
2013	Sachin Tendulkar	Cricketer
	C.N.R. Rao	Chemist
2014	Madan Mohan Malaviya	Educationist and politician (President of Indian National Congress (INC) in 1909, 1918)
	Atal Bihari Vajpayee	Former Prime Minister of India (1996), (1998), (1999-2004), poet

• Fact about Bharat Ratna

Type	Civilian
Category	National
Description	An image of the Sun along with the words "Bharat Ratna", inscribed in Devanagari script, on a peepul leaf
Instituted	1954
First awarded	1954
Last awarded	2014
Total awarded	45
Awarded by	Government of India
First awardee(s)	C. Rajagopalachari Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan C. V. Raman
Recent awardee(s)	Madan Mohan Malaviya (posthumous) Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Youngest awardee	Sachin Tendulkar

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google Plus

About rakesh mishra

This is a short description in the author block about the author. You edit it by entering text in the "Biographical Info" field in the user admin panel.