Bharat Ratna, India’s Highest Civilian Award

India’s Highest Civilian Award is Bharat Ratna. It was instituted in 1954. The Bharat Ratna award is the highest civilian award in India. It is conferred “in the distinction of superior service/performance of the highest order.” The award is not restricted to Indians; it may be awarded to any person, irrespective of nationality. This article provides a list of recipients of the Bharat Ratna award, along with a brief description of their work/contribution.

What is Bharat Ratna?

The highest civilian award in India, Bharat Ratna is equivalent to the Nobel Prize. It is given “for the highest degrees of national service”, including “artistic, literary, and scientific achievements”. The award was established on January 02, 1955, by the President of India.

Facts on Bharat Ratna

The Bharat Ratna is the Republic of India’s highest civilian honour. The award, which was established in 1954, is given “in honour of excellent service/performance of the highest level,” regardless of race, occupation, status, or sex. A committee headed by the Prime Minister of India, with the advice and agreement of the President of India, makes proposals for the Bharat Ratna.

The honour comes with a Sanad (certificate) autographed by the President and a peepal-leaf–shaped medallion, but there is no monetary prize. The holders of the Bharat Ratna are ranked seventh in India’s order of precedence.

The first receiver of the Bharat Ratna was Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, a  philosopher.C. Rajagopalachari, politician and scientist Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, who was honoured in 1954. Since then, the award has been bestowed on 45 individuals, including 12 who were awarded posthumously. The original statutes did not provide for posthumous recognition but in January 1955 were amended to permit them.

As per the amendments, “if the awardee dies before the actual presentation of the award”, it may be presented posthumously; it is not necessary that the recipient be alive when recommended for the award.

Although there have been 45 recipients since its inception, there have been no awards since 2013.

Bharat Ratna, along with other personal civilian honours of India, was briefly suspended from January 1974 to January 1980 during the state of emergency declared by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

It resumed when the Morarji Desai government came into power in 1977. There is no formal guideline or criterion as to who may be awarded the Bharat Ratna, nor is there any formal process for nominations.

The award has been bestowed upon distinguished individuals from a wide range of fields, including public service, science, engineering, medicine, arts, literature, and sports. It is often referred to as India’s “highest civilian award”

It can also be awarded to non-Indians.

Bharat Ratna Award List

Here is the list of Bharat Ratna Awards:

1954: Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, C. Rajagopalachari, Dr C. V. Raman

1955: Dr. M. Visvesvaraya, Dr. Bhagwan Das, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru

1957: Pt. Govind Ballabh Pant

1958: Dr. Dhondo Keshav Karve

1961: Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy,  Purushottam Das Tandon

1962: Dr Rajendra Prasad

1963: Dr. Pandurang Vaman Kane and Dr Zakir Hussain

1966: Lal Bahadur Shastri

1971: Smt. Indira Gandhi,

1975: V. V. Giri

1976: K. Kamaraj (Posthumous)

1980: Mother Teresa

1983: Acharya Vinoba Bhave (Posthumous)

1987: Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

1988: M. G. Ramachandran (Posthumous)

1990: Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (Posthumous), Dr. Nelson Mandela

1991: Rajiv Gandhi (Posthumous), Morarji Desai

1992: Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (Posthumous), J. R. D. Tata, Satyajit Ray

1997: Aruna Asaf Ali,  Gulzarilal Nanda, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

1998: Chidambaram Subramaniam and M. S. Subbulakshmi

1999: Jayaprakash Narayan (Posthumous), Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi (Posthumous), Professor Amartya Sen, Pandit Ravi Shankar

2001: Ustad Bismillah Khan, Lata Mangeshkar

2009: Pandit Bhimsen Joshi

2014: Sachin Tendulkar, Professor C. N. R. Rao

2015: Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya

2019:  Nanaji Deshmukh (Posthumous), Pranab Mukherjee, Bhupen Hazarika (Posthumous)

There have been 47 people who have been awarded Bharat Ratna till now. The list includes politicians, social reformers, scientists, sportspersons and artists.

Conclusion

Recipients receive a Sanad (certificate) autographed by the President. Also, they get a medallion that is in the shape of a peepal leaf. There have been occasions when the award has been announced posthumously and has been received by the next of kin. The recommendations for Bharat Ratna are assembled by the Prime Minister to the President, with three candidates standing per year. It is declared on Republic Day or Independence Day.