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Bharat Ratna

     Bharat Ratna is India's highest civilian award, awarded for the highest degrees of national service. This service includes artistic, literary, and scientific achievements, as well as "recognition of public service of the highest order". Unlike knights, holders of the Bharat Ratna carry no special title nor any other honorifics, but they do have a place in the order of precedence. Bharat Ratna roughly translates as 'Gem of India'. It was established by the President of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad in 2nd January, 1954.

     The original statutes of January 1954 did not make allowance for posthumous awards, though this provision was added in the January 1955 statute. Subsequently, there have been ten posthumous awards, including the award to Subhash Chandra Bose in 1992, which was later withdrawn due to a legal technicality, the only case of an award being withdrawn.

     While there was no formal provision that recipients of the Bharat Ratna should be Indian citizens, this seems to have been the general assumption. There has been one award to a naturalized Indian citizen Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, better known as Mother Teresa (1980); and two to non-Indians Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1987) and Nelson Mandela (1990).

     Bharat Ratna medallion is an image of the Sun along with the words "Bharat Ratna", inscribed in Devanagari script, on a peepul leaf.

Complete List of Bharat Ratna Awardees

1. Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888-1975) - 1954 - Tamil Nadu

2. Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (1878-1972) - 1954 - Tamil Nadu

3. Dr. C.V. Raman (1888-1970) - 1954 - Tamil Nadu

4. Dr. Bhagwan Das (1869-1958) - 1955 - Uttar Pradesh
5. Dr. Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya (1861-1962) - 1955 - Karnataka
6. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) - 1955 - Uttar Pradesh
7. Govind Ballabh Pant (1887-1961) - 1957 - Uttar Pradesh
8. Dr. Dhondo Keshav Karve (1858-1962) - 1958 - Maharashtra
9. Dr.B.C. Roy (1858-1962) - 1961 - West Bengal
10. Purushottam Das Tandon (1882-1962) - 1961 - Uttar Pradesh
11. Dr. Rajendra Prasad (1884-1963) - 1962 - Bihar
12. Dr. Zakir hussain (1897-1969) - 1963 - Andhra Pradesh
13. Dr. Pandurang Vaman Kane (1880-1972) - 1963 - Maharashtra
14. Lal Bahadur Shastri (1904-1966) - 1966 (Posthumous) - Uttar Pradesh
15. Indira Gandhi (1917-1984) - 1971 - Uttar Pradesh
16. V.V. Giri (1894-1980) - 1975 - Andhra Pradesh

17. K. Kamaraj (1903-1975) - 1976 (Posthumous) - Tamil Nadu

18. Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu @ Mother Teresa (1910-1997) - 1980 (Naturalized Indian Citizen) - West Bengal
19. Acharya Vinoba Bhave (1895-1982) - 1983 (Posthumous) - Maharashtra
20. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1890-1988) - 1987 (First Non-Indian) - Pakistan

21. Dr. M.G. Ramachandran (1917-1987) - 1988 (Posthumous) - Tamil Nadu

22. Dr. Bhim Rao Ramji Ambedkar (1891-1956) - 1990 (Posthumous) - Maharashtra
23. Nelson Mandela (Born in 1918) - 1990 (Second Non-Indian) - South Africa
24. Rajiv Gandhi (1944-1991) - 1991 (Posthumous) - New Delhi
25. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (1875-1950) - 1991 (Posthumous) - Gujarat
26. Morarji Desai (1896-1995) - 1991 - Gujarat
27. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (1888-1958) - 1992 (Posthumous) - West Bengal
28. J.R.D. Tata (1904-1993) - 1992 - Maharashtra
29. Satyajit Ray (1922-1992) - 1992 - West Bengal

30. Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam (Born in 1931) - 1997 - Tamil Nadu

31. Gulzarilal Nanda (1898-1998) - 1997 - Punjab
32. Aruna Asaf Ali (1908-1996) - 1997 (Posthumous) - West Bengal

33. Dr. M.S. Subbulakshmi (1916-2004) - 1998 - Tamil Nadu

34. C. Subramaniam (1910-2000) - 1998 - Tamil Nadu
35. Jayaprakash Narayan (1902-1979) - 1998 (Posthumous) - Uttar Pradesh
36. Pandit Ravi Shankar (Born in 1920) - 1999 - Uttar Pradesh
37. Dr. Amartya Sen (Born in 1933) - 1999 - West Bengal
38. Gopinath Bordoloi (1890-1950) - 1999 (Posthumous) - Assam
39. Ustad Bismillah Khan (1916-2006) - 2001 - Uttar Pradesh
40. Kumari Lata Dinanath Mangeshkar (1929) - 2001 - Maharashtra
41. Bhimsen Joshi (b. 1922) - 2008 - Karnataka

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