Bharat Ratna Award List from 1954 to 2024

Bharat Ratna Award List India: The Bharat Ratna Award in India is the highest civilian award. Bharat Ratna is always awarded for the highest degrees of national service. The Bharat Ratna Award was started in 1954.

As per the Indian Government, Bharat Ratna award is always given to any candidate for highest order of performance in any filed of human endeavour. Every time the prime minister gives the recommendation for Bharat Ratna award to the president. Bharat Ratna Award is the highest civilian award of the country India. Bharat Ratna Award List is given below check here.

On Conferment of the award, the recipient receives a Sanad (certificate) signed by the president and a medallion. Complete Bharat Ratna Award List with awarded date and description is given below.

Bharat Ratna Award List 1954 to 2024

The Bharat Ratna Award List with brief description of recipient and all other details is given below in the table.

Sr. No.	Recipient of Bharat Ratna Award	Awarded In Year	Brief Description
1	C.Rajagopalachari (First recipient of Bharat Ratna Award)	1954	C.Rajagopalachari was an Indian independence activist, statesman and lawyer. Rajagopalachari was the only Indian and last Governor-General of independent India. He was Chief Minister of Madras Presidency (1937–39) and Madras State (1952–54) and founder of the Indian political party Swatantra Party.
2	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (First recipient of Bharat Ratna Award)	1954	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan served as India's 1st Vice-President from 1952 to 1962 and 2nd President of India from 1962 to 1967. Since 1962, his birthday on 5 September is observed as "Teachers' Day" in India.
3	C. V. Raman (First recipient of Bharat Ratna Award)	1954	C. V. Raman is widely known for his work on the scattering of light and the discovery of the effect, better known as "Raman scattering", Raman mainly worked in the field of atomic physics and electromagnetism and was presented Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930.
4	Bhagwan Das	1955	Bhagwan Das was a Independence activist, philosopher, and educationist, and co-founder of Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapithand and worked with Madan Mohan Malaviya for the foundation of Banaras Hindu University.
5	M. Visvesvaraya	1955	M. Visvesvaraya was a Civil Engineer, Statesman, and Diwan of Mysore (1912–18), was a Knight Commander of the order of the Indian Empire. His birthday, 15 September, is observed as "Engineer's Day" in India.
6	Jawaharlal Nehru	1955	Jawaharlal Nehru was an Independence activist and author. He was the 1st and the longest-serving Prime Minister of India (1947–64).
7	Govind Ballabh Pant	1957	Govind Ballabh Pant was an Independence activist pant was premier of United Provinces (1937–39, 1946–50) and 1st Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (1950–54). He served as Union Home Minister from 1955–61.
8	Dhondo Keshav Karve	1958	Dhondo Keshav Karve was a social reformer and educator. He is widely known for his works related to woman education and remarriage of Hindu widows. He established the Widow Marriage Association (1883), Hindu Widows Home (1896), and started Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey Women's University in 1916.
9	Bidhan Chandra Roy	1961	Bidhan Chandra Roy was a physician, political leader, philanthropist, educationist, and social worker, He is often considered as "Maker of Modern West Bengal". He was second Chief Minister of West Bengal (1948–62) and his birthday on 1 July is observed as "National Doctors' Day" in India.
10	Purushottam Das Tandon	1961	Purushottam Das Tandon is often titled as "Rajarshi". He was an independence activist and served as speaker of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly (1937–50). He was actively involved in a campaign to get official language status to Hindi.
11	Rajendra Prasad	1962	Rajendra Prasad was an Independence activist, lawyer, statesman, and scholar, Prasad was closely associated with Mahatma Gandhi in the non-cooperation movement for Indian independence. He was later elected as the 1st President of India (1950–62).
12	Zakir Husain	1963	Zakir Husain was an Independence activist and education philosopher, Zakir Husain served as a Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University (1948–56) and the Governor of Bihar (1957–62). Later, he was elected as 2nd Vice-President of India (1962–67) and went on to become the 3rd President of India (1967–69).
13	Pandurang Vaman Kane	1963	Pandurang Vaman Kane was an Indologist and Sanskrit scholar, He is best known for his five-volume literary work, history of Dharmasastra: Ancient and Medieval Religious and Civil Law in India; the "monumental" work that extends over nearly 6,500 pages and being published from 1930 to 1962.
14	Lal Bahadur Shastri	1966	Lal Bahadur Shastri is known for his slogan "Jai Jawan Jai Kisan" ("Hail the Soldier, Hail the Farmer"). He was an Independence activist Shastri served as second Prime Minister of India (1964–66) and led the country during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.
15	Indira Gandhi	1971	She is known as the "Iron Lady of India". Indra Gandhi was the 1st female Prime Minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and from 1980 to 1984. During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, her government supported Bangladesh Liberation War which led to the formation of a new country, Bangladesh.
16	V. V. Giri	1975	While studying at the University College Dublin, V.V. Giri was involved in the Irish Sinn Fein movement. Returning to India, he organized labour unions and brought them to take active participation in Indian freedom struggle. He was elected as the first President of the All India Trade Union Congress in 1926. Post-independence, V.V. Giri held positions of Governor of Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Mysore and various other cabinet ministries. He became the first acting President and was eventually elected as the fourth President of India (1969–74).
17	K. Kamaraj	1976	K. Kamaraj was an Independence activist and statesman. He was a former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for three terms; (1954–57), (1957–62), and (1962–63).
18	Mother Teresa	1980	"Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta" was a catholic nun and the founder of the Missionaries of Charity. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her humanitarian work in 1979 and was beatified on 19 October 2003 by Pope John Paul II and canonized on 4 September 2016 by Pope Francis.
19	Vinoba Bhave	1983	He was an Independence activist, social reformer, and a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi, Vinoba Bhave is best known for his "Bhoodan Movement", "Land-Gift Movement". He was given the honorific title "Acharya" ("teacher") and was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award (1958) for his humanitarian work.
20	Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan	1987	Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan is widely known as "Frontier Gandhi", independence activist and Pashtun leader Khan was a follower of Mahatma Gandhi. He joined Khilafat Movement in 1920 and founded Khudai Khidmatgar ("Red Shirt movement") in 1929.
21	M. G. Ramachandran	1988	Actor turned politician Ramachandran served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for three terms; (1977–80), (1980–84), and (1985–87).
22	B. R. Ambedkar	1990	B. R. Ambedkar was a social reformer and leader of the Dalits (Untouchables), B.R. Ambedkar was the Chief Architect of the Indian Constitution and also served as the first Law Minister of India. Ambedkar predominantly campaigned against the social discrimination with Dalits, the Hindu varna system. He was associated with the Dalit Buddhist movement and accepted Buddhism as a religion along with his close to half a million followers on 14 October 1956.
23	Nelson Mandela	1990	Nelson Mandela was a leader of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in South Africa, Mandela was the President of South Africa (1994–99). He is often called as the "Gandhi of South Africa", Mandela's African National Congress movement was influenced by Gandhian philosophy. In 1993, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
24	Rajiv Gandhi	1991	Rajiv Gandhi was the 9th Prime Minister of India serving from 1984 to 1989.
25	Vallabhbhai Patel	1991	Vallabhbhai Patel is widely known as the "Iron Man of India", He was an independence activist and first Deputy Prime Minister of India (1947–50). Post-independence, Sardar Patel (Leader) worked with V. P. Menon towards dissolving 555 princely states into the Indian Union.
26	Morarji Desai	1991	Morarji Desai was an Independence activist. Hei was the 6th Prime Minister of India (1977–79). He is the only Indian national to be awarded the Nishan-e-Pakistan, highest civilian award given by the Government of Pakistan.
27	Abul Kalam Azad	1992	Abul Kalam Azad was an Independence activist. He was India's 1st Minister of Education and worked towards free primary education. He is widely known as "Maulana Azad" and his birthday on 11 November is observed as National Education Day in India.
28	J. R. D. Tata	1992	J. R. D. Tata was an industrialist, philanthropist, and aviation pioneer, Tata founded India's first airline Air India. He is the founder of various institutes including Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Tata Memorial Hospital, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Tata Motors, TCS, National Institute of Advanced Studies, and National Centre for the Performing Arts.
29	Satyajit Ray	1992	Satyajit Ray was having debuted as a director with Pather Panchali in 1955, Film-Maker Ray is credited with bringing world recognition to Indian cinema. In 1984, Ray was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India's highest award in cinema.
30	Gulzarilal Nanda	1997	Gulzarilal Nanda was an Independence activist. He was two times Interim Prime Minister of India (1964, 1966) and two times deputy chairman of the Planning Commission.
31	Aruna Asaf Ali	1997	Aruna Asaf Ali was an Independence activist. He is better known for hoisting the Indian flag in Bombay during the Quit India Movement in 1942. Post-Independence, Ali was elected as Delhi's 1st Mayor in 1958.
32	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam	1997	Aerospace and Defense Scientist, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam was involved in the development of India's first satellite launch vehicle SLV III and was the architect of Integrated Guided Missile Development Program. He worked for Indian National Committee for Space Research, Indian Space Research Organization, Defense Research and Development Laboratory and was appointed as the Scientific Advisor to the Defense Minister, Secretary to Department of Defense Research and Development and Director General of Defense Research and Development Organization. Later, he served as the 11th President of India from 2002 till 2007.
33	M. S. Subbulakshmi	1998	M. S. Subbulakshmi was carnatic classical vocalist. SHe, often hailed as "Queen of songs", was the 1st Indian musician to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award.
34	Chidambaram Subramaniam	1998	Chidambaram Subramaniam is an Independence activist and former Minister of Agriculture of India (1964–66), Subramaniam is known for his contribution towards Green Revolution in India. During the late 1970s, he worked for International Rice Research Institute, Manila, and the International Maize and Wheat Research Institute, Mexico.
35	Jayaprakash Narayan	1999	Jayaprakash Narayan was an Independence activist, social reformer, and commonly referred as "Lok Nayak" ("People's Hero"), He is better known for "Total Revolution Movement" or "JP Movement" initiated during the mid-1970s to "overthrow the corrupt and exploitative Congress Government".
36	Amartya Sen	1999	Amartya Sen was winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (1998), He has done research over several topics including social choice theory, ethics and political philosophy, welfare economics, decision theory, development economics, public health, and gender studies.
37	Gopinath Bordoloi	1999	Gopinath Bordoloi was an Independence activist. He was the 1st Chief Minister of Assam (1946–50). His efforts and association with the Minister of Home Affairs, Vallabhbhai Patel were widely acknowledged while keeping Assam united with India when parts of it were to merge with East Pakistan.
38	Ravi Shankar	1999	Ravi Shankar was winner of four Grammy Awards and often considered "the world's best-known exponent of Hindustani classical music", sitar player Shankar is known for his collaborative work with Western musicians including Yehudi Menuhin and George Harrison.
39	Bhimsen Joshi	2009	Bhimsen Joshi was Hindustani Classical Vocalist, He was a disciple of Kirana gharana, an Indian musical school. He is widely known for the Khyal genre of singing with a "mastery over rhythm and accurate notes".
40	Lata Mangeshkar	2001	Lata Mangeshkar is widely credited as the "Nightingale of India", She started her career in the 1940s and has sung songs in over 36 languages. In 1989, Mangeshkar was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India's highest award in cinema.
41	Bismillah Khan	2001	Bismillah Khan was Hindustani Classical Shehnai Player, He played the instrument for more than eight decades and is credited to have brought the instrument to the center stage of Indian music.
42	C. N. R. Rao	2014	C. N. R. Rao was the recipient of Honorary Doctorates from 63 Universities including Purdue, IIT Bombay, Oxford, chemist and professor. He has worked prominently in the fields of Solid State and Materials Chemistry, Spectroscopy and Molecular Structure. He has authored around 1600 research papers and 48 books.
43	Sachin Tendulkar	2014	Sachin Tendulkar played 664 international cricket matches in a career spanning over two decades. He holds various cricket records including the only player to have scored one hundred international centuries, the first batsman to score a double century in a One Day International and the only player to complete more than 30,000 runs in both ODI and Test cricket.
44	Madan Mohan Malaviya	2015	Madan Mohan Malaviya was a scholar and educational reformer. He was the founder of Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha (1906) and Banaras Hindu University and served as the university's vice-chancellor from 1919 till 1938. He was the President of Indian National Congress for four terms and was the Chairman of Hindustan Times from 1924 to 1946.
45	Atal Bihari Vajpayee	2015	Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the parliamentarian for over four decades, Vajpayee was elected nine times to the Lok Sabha, twice to the Rajya Sabha and served as the Prime Minister of India for three terms; 1996, 1998, 1999–2004. He was minister of External Affairs during 1977–79 and was awarded the "Best Parliamentarian" in 1994.
46	Pranab Mukherjee	2019	Pranab Mukherjee is an Indian politician who served as the 13th President of India from 2012 to 2017. He has been a senior leader in the Indian National Congress and has occupied several ministerial portfolios in the Government of India. Prior to his election as President, he was Union Finance Minister from 2009 to 2012.
47	Nanaji Deshmukh	2019	Nanaji Deshmukh was a social activist from India. He worked in the fields of education, health, and rural self-reliance. He was a member of RSS, a leader of the Bhartiya Jana Sangh and also a member of the Rajya Sabha. He was honored with the Padma Vibhushan in 1999. India’s first Saraswati Shishu Mandir was established by him at Gorakhpur in 1950.
48	Bhupen Hazarika	2019	Bhupen Hazarika was an Indian playback singer, lyricist, musician, singer, poet and film-maker from Assam. He is widely known as Sudhakantha. Before he got Bharat Ranta (India's highest civilian award), he received the National Film Award for Best Music Direction in 1975 and recipient of Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1987), Padmashri (1977), and Padmabhushan (2001), and also awarded with Dada Saheb Phalke Award (1992).

Bharat Ratna Award Benefits and Entitlements List

The Bharat Ratna Award does not carry any monetary benefits, The Bharat Ratna Awardee are given several entitlements which includes

The Medallion and Miniature
Certificate or Sanad singed by the President of India
Bharat Ratna Awardee is treated as a state guest by State Government when traveling within a state
Indian Missions abroad requested to facilitate recipients when requested
Diplomatic Passport
Executive class free travel on Air India for lifetime.
Placed 7a in the Indian order of precedence.