Bharat Ratna is the most prestigious award given by Indian
government. Anyone with a great performance in any field is eligible for this
honor.
- The medal looks like a peepul leaf with “Bharat Ratna” written on it in Devanagari script. An image of sun is also printed on it. The back side of the award carries the state emblem and motto.
- The award was started by formal President of India Rajendra Prasad on 2nd January, 1954. At that time only the alive people were eligible for their national service. Later in 1966, this criterion was changed.
- The first person to receive Bharat Ratna was scientist C.V. Raman and the first person to receive Bharat Ratna after death was Lal Bahadur Shashtri.
- Among 45 awards given so far only 2 awards were given to foreign citizen-Nelson Mandela (1990), Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1987). Mother Terasa is the only naturalized Indian citizen who had received the award.
- In the beginning the award was limited to the people of arts, literature, science, and public services field. From 2011, the criteria were changed by the government and now people from any field can be awarded for their achievements.
- The Bharat Ratna award was suspended twice. Once in 1977-1980, when national government was changed and again in 1992-1995 when there were public litigation regarding the constitutional validity of the award.
- Prime Minister of India recommends the names to President for the award. Only three persons can be awarded for a year.
- Subhas Chandra Bose was awarded with Bharat Ratna posthumously in 1992. But due to controversy (as there is no evidence of Subhas Chandra Bose’s death) the award was withdrawn. It is the only incident in the history of Bharat Ratna that an award was withdrawn.
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| Bharat Ratna Medal |
Quick General Knowledge about Bharat Ratna
| Person | Info |
| C. Rajagopalachari, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, and C. V. Raman, | First to receive the award |
| Lal Bahadur Shastri | First to receive the award posthumously |
| Mother Terasa | Only naturalized Indian citizen to receive the award |
| Sachin Tendulkar | First Sportsman to receive the award. He is also the youngest receiver of Bharat Ratna |
| Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Nelson Mandela | Non-Indians who received the award |
| Indira Gandhi | First Women to receive the award |
| Vallabhbhai Patel | Eldest to receive the award posthumously (at age 116) |
List of Bharat Ratna Recipient
| Person | Year | Info |
| Radhakrishnan | 1954 | Indian President |
| C. V. Raman | 1954 | Physicist |
| C Rajagopalachari | 1954 | Independence activist,Indian Governor-General of India |
| Jawaharlal Nehru | 1955 | Prime Minister |
| Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya | 1955 | Civil engineer |
| Bhagwan Das | 1955 | Independence activist,Founder of Kashi Vidya Peeth |
| Govind Ballabh Pant | 1957 | Independence activist |
| Dhondo Keshav Karve | 1958 | Social reformer |
| Purushottam Das Tandon | 1961 | Independence activist |
| Bidhan Chandra Roy | 1961 | Physician, Political Leader, |
| Rajendra Prasad | 1962 | Independence activist, Indian President |
| Pandurang Vaman Kane | 1963 | Indologist and Sanskrit scholar |
| Zakir Hussain | 1963 | Independence activist, Indian President |
| Lal Bahadur Shastri | 1966 | Independence activist, Prime Minister |
| Indira Gandhi | 1971 | Prime Minister |
| V. V. Giri | 1975 | Indian President |
| K. Kamaraj | 1976 | Independence activist, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu |
| Mother Teresa | 1980 | Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata |
| Vinoba Bhave | 1983 | Social reformer, Independence activist |
| Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan | 1987 | Independence activist |
| M. G. Ramachandran | 1988 | Film actor, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu |
| Nelson Mandela | 1990 | Leader of the Anti-Apartheid movement |
| B. R. Ambedkar | 1990 | Chief architect of the Indian Constitution, Social Reformer |
| Morarji Desai | 1991 | Independence activist, Prime Minister |
| Vallabhbhai Patel | 1991 | Independence activist, First Home Minister |
| Rajiv Gandhi | 1991 | Prime Minister. |
| Satyajit Ray | 1992 | Bengali Filmmaker |
| J. R. D. Tata | 1992 | Industrialist and Philanthropist |
| Abul Kalam Azad | 1992 | Independence activist |
| Aruna Asaf Ali | 1997 | Independence activist |
| Gulzarilal Nanda | 1997 | Independence activist |
| A. P. J. Abdul Kalam | 1997 | Aeronautical Engineer, Indian President |
| Jayaprakash Narayan | 1998 | Independence activist, Politician |
| Chidambaram Subramaniam | 1998 | Independence activist |
| M. S. Subbulakshmi | 1998 | Carnatic classical singer |
| Gopinath Bordoloi | 1999 | Independence activist, Chief Minister of Assam |
| Amartya Sen | 1999 | Economist |
| Ravi Shankar | 1999 | Sitar player |
| Bismillah Khan | 2001 | Shehnai player |
| Lata Mangeshkar | 2001 | Playback singer |
| Bhimsen Joshi | 2009 | Classical singer |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 2014 | Cricketer |
| C. N. R. Rao | 2014 | Scientist |
| Madan Mohan Malaviya | 2015 | Educational reformer, Founder of Banaras Hindu University. |
| Atal Bihari Vajpayee | 2015 | Prime Minister |