Bharat Ratna

India has produced a legacy of brave hearts since times immemorial. Probably there is not enough space to measure their sacrifices. However, we cannot close our eyes to those people who have made our country proud by excelling in their own fields and bringing us international recognition. Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian honour, given for exceptional service towards advancement of Art, Literature and Science, and in recognition of Public Service of the highest order.

1. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan 1954
Second President, First Vice President, Philosopher.

2. Chakravarti Rajagopalachari 1954
Last Governor-General, Freedom Fighter.

3. Sir C. V. Raman 1954
Nobel-prize winning Physicist

4. Bhagwan Das 1955
Literature, Freedom Fighter

5. Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya 1955
Civil Engineer

6. Jawaharlal Nehru 1955
First Prime Minister, Freedom Fighter, Author.

7. Govind Ballabh Pant 1957
Freedom Fighter, Home Minister

8. Dhondo Keshav Karve 1958
Educationist, Social Reformer, Awarded in his birth centenary year.

9. Dr. B. C. Roy 1961
Physician, Politician, Former Chief Minister of West Bengal

10. Purushottam Das Tandon 1961
Freedom Fighter, Educationist

11. Dr. Rajendra Prasad 1962
First President, Freedom Fighter, Jurist

12. Dr. Zakir Hussain 1963
Former President, Scholar.

13. Pandurang Vaman Kane 1963
Indologist and Sanskrit scholar

14. Lal Bahadur Shastri 1966
Posthumous, Second Prime Minister, Freedom Fighter

15. Indira Gandhi 1971
Former Prime Minister

16. V. V. Giri 1975
Former President, Trade Unionist.

17. K. Kamaraj 1976
Posthumous, Freedom Fighter, Chief Minister-Tamil Nadu.

18. Mother Teresa 1980
Nobel Laureate (Peace, 1979).

19. Acharya Vinoba Bhave 1983
Posthumous, Social Reformer, Freedom Fighter.

20. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan 1987
First non-citizen, Freedom Fighter.

21. M. G. Ramachandran 1988
Posthumous, Chief Minister-Tamil Nadu, Actor.

22. B. R. Ambedkar 1990
Posthumous, Architect-Indian Constitution

23. Nelson Mandela 1990
Second non-citizen and first non-Indian, Leader of Anti-Apartheid movement.

24. Rajiv Gandhi 1991
Posthumous, Former Prime Minister

25. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel 1991
Posthumous, Freedom Fighter, First Home Minister of India.

26. Morarji Desai 1991
Former Prime Minister, Freedom Fighter.

27. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad 1992
Posthumous, Freedom Fighter, First Education Minister of India

28. J. R. D. Tata 1992
Industrialist and philanthropist.

29. Satyajit Ray 1992
Film Director ,Oscar winner

30. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam 1997
Former President, Scientist.

31. Gulzarilal Nanda 1997
Freedom Fighter, former Prime Minister.

32. Aruna Asaf Ali 1997
Posthumous, Freedom Fighter.

33. M. S. Subbulakshmi 1998
Classical singer.

34. Chidambaram Subramaniam 1998
Freedom Fighter, Minister of Agriculture (Father of Green revolution).

35. Jayaprakash Narayan 1998
Posthumous, Freedom Fighter, Social Reformer.

36. Pandit Ravi Shankar 1999
Classical sitar player.

37. Amartya Sen 1999
Nobel Laureate (Economics, 1998), Economist.

38. Gopinath Bordoloi 1999
Posthumous, freedom fighter

39. Lata Mangeshkar 2001
Play back singer.

40. Ustad Bismillah Khan 2001
Classical Shehnai Maestro