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India’s Highest Honor: The Bharat Ratna
Anyone who makes a significant contribution to the well-being of all life on Earth by finding or accomplishing anything innovative should be recognised and honoured for their efforts. Similarly to the Nobel Prize, the Bharat Ratna is presented to individuals in India who have made a significant contribution to their country’s well-being and to the advancement of Indian culture.
The Bharat Ratna (Gem of India) is the Republic of India’s highest prestigious regular citizen award. Commemorating “exceptional help/execution of the largest request” without regard to race, occupation, status, or gender, the award was first presented on January 2, 1954. Originally, the award could only be given to those who have made significant contributions in the fields of creative expression, writing, science, and public administration, but in December 2011, the government changed the regulations to include “any sector of human effort.” With a maximum of three recipients each year, proposals are submitted to the President. The President’s endorsement of the Sanad (authentication) and the Peepal leaf-shaped symbol are given to the recipients. There is no cash prize.
Bharat Ratna recipients must be citizens of India, although there is no formal structure for that to be the case. Two citizens of foreign countries, Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Nelson Mandela of South Africa, received the Nobel Peace Prize in the 1980s and 1990s, respectively. The first recipient was Tamil Nadu native M. S. Subbulakshmi. Sachin Tendulkar, at the age of 40, was the youngest recipient and the first sportsperson to receive the honour. On April 18, 1958, Dhondo Keshav Karve celebrated his 100th birthday with a lavish ceremony. Since 2015, the award has been conferred on 45 people, with 12 of those consultations occurring after their deaths.
Twice throughout its existence, the award has been temporarily halted. After Morarji Desai was elected as a leader in 1977, the award was suspended. On the 13th of July, 1977, his administration abolished all private common distinctions. On January 25, 1980, after Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister, the ban was lifted. Since there were two Public-Interest Suits filed in the Kerala High Court and another in the Madhya Pradesh High Court questioning their “proven legality,” nonmilitary personnel grants have been on hold once again since mid-1992. Following the conclusion of the lawsuit in December 1995, the High Court once again established the honours.
List of Glorified citizens who received the Bharat Ratna:
- C. Rajagopalchari (1954)
- Sarvapalli Radhakrishna (1954)
- C.V Raman (1954)
- Bhagvan das (1955)
- M. Visvesvaraya (1955)
- Jawaharlal Nehru (1955)
- Govind Ballabh Pant (1957)
- Dhondo Keshav karve (1958)
- Bidhan Chandra Roy (1961)
- Purushottam Das Tandon (1961)
- Rajendra Prasad (1962)
- Zakir Hussain (1963)
- Pandurang Vaman Kane (1963)
- Lal Bahadur Shastri (1966)
- Indira Gandhi (1971)
- V.V. Giri (1975)
- K. Kamraj (1976)
- Mother Teresa (1980)
- Vinoba Bhave (1983)
- Abdul Gafar Khan (1987)
- M.G.Ramachandran (1988)
- B.R.Ambedkar (1990)
- Nelson Mandela (1990)
- Rajiv Gandhi (1991)
- Vallabhai Patel (1991)
- Moraji Desai (1991)
- Abdul Kalm Azad (1992)
- J.R.D Tata (1992)
- Satyajit Ray (1992)
- Gulzarilal Nanda (1997)
- Aruna Asaf Ali (1997)
- A.P.J Abdul Kalam (1997)
- M.S.Subbulakshmi (1998)
- Chidambaram Subramanium (1998)
- Jayprakash Narayan (1999)
- Amartya Sen (1999)
- Gopinath Bordoloi (1999)
- Pt. Ravi Shankar (1999)
- Lata Mangeshkar (2001)
- Bismillah Khan (2001)
- Bhimsen Joshi (2009)
- C.N.R Rao (2014)
- Sachin Tendulkar (2014)
- Madan Mohan Malviya (2015)
- Atal Bihari Vajpayee (2015)
- Pranab Mukherjee (2019)
- Bhupen Hazarika (2019)
- Nanaji Deshmukh (2019)
Conclusion:
Every laureate who has received the Bharat Ratna, have something incredibly unique in their respective field. Women recipients as you can see in the list are just 5 in 48, and 2 recipients are from a different country. This prestigious award is received by the rarest of the rare. As Indians, we should all be proud of these eminent citizens and aspire on doing something great. Hope this article was informative and the viewers learnt something important.
