The Bharat Ratna is India’s highest civilian award. Exams ask about the firsts, the latest awardees and a few famous names. Here is a clean summary.
Basics
| Point | Detail |
|---|---|
| Instituted | 2 January 1954 |
| Total recipients | 53 (up to the 2024 awards) |
| Maximum per year | Usually 3 (in 2024, 5 were awarded) |
| Recommended by | The Prime Minister to the President |
| Form | A peepal-leaf-shaped medal; no cash prize |
| Title? | Not a title; cannot be used as a prefix (Article 18) |
| Suspended | 1977–80 and 1992–95 (approx) |
Firsts
| First | Name | Year |
|---|---|---|
| First recipients | C. Rajagopalachari, S. Radhakrishnan, C.V. Raman | 1954 |
| First posthumous award | Lal Bahadur Shastri | 1966 |
| First woman | Indira Gandhi | 1971 |
| First naturalised citizen | Mother Teresa | 1980 |
| First foreigner | Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan | 1987 |
| Second foreigner | Nelson Mandela | 1990 |
| First musician | M.S. Subbulakshmi | 1998 |
| First sportsperson; youngest | Sachin Tendulkar (aged 40) | 2014 |
The 2024 awardees (five, the most in one year)
| Name | Field |
|---|---|
| Karpoori Thakur (posthumous) | Former Bihar Chief Minister; social justice |
| L.K. Advani | Former Deputy Prime Minister |
| P.V. Narasimha Rao (posthumous) | Former Prime Minister; 1991 reforms |
| Chaudhary Charan Singh (posthumous) | Former Prime Minister; farmers’ leader |
| M.S. Swaminathan (posthumous) | Agricultural scientist; Green Revolution |
Important recipients by field
| Field | Recipients |
|---|---|
| Prime Ministers | Nehru (1955), Shastri (1966), Indira Gandhi (1971), Rajiv Gandhi (1991), Morarji Desai (1991), Gulzarilal Nanda (1997), A.B. Vajpayee (2015), P.V. Narasimha Rao (2024), Charan Singh (2024) |
| Presidents | Radhakrishnan (1954), Rajendra Prasad (1962), Zakir Husain (1963), V.V. Giri (1975), A.P.J. Abdul Kalam (1997), Pranab Mukherjee (2019) |
| Scientists | C.V. Raman (1954), M. Visvesvaraya (1955), A.P.J. Abdul Kalam (1997), C.N.R. Rao (2014), M.S. Swaminathan (2024) |
| Music | M.S. Subbulakshmi (1998), Ravi Shankar (1999), Lata Mangeshkar (2001), Bismillah Khan (2001), Bhimsen Joshi (2009), Bhupen Hazarika (2019) |
| Social reform / freedom | B.R. Ambedkar (1990), Sardar Patel (1991), Maulana Azad (1992), J.P. Narayan (1999), Nanaji Deshmukh (2019) |
| Economists / industry | J.R.D. Tata (1992), Amartya Sen (1999) |
| Film | Satyajit Ray (1992), M.G. Ramachandran (1988) |
Exam-ready one-liners
- The Bharat Ratna was instituted on 2 January 1954.
- The first recipients were Rajagopalachari, Radhakrishnan and C.V. Raman.
- Lal Bahadur Shastri was the first posthumous recipient (1966).
- Sachin Tendulkar is the youngest and first sportsperson (2014).
- Five awards were given in 2024, the most in a single year.
Related reading
Quiz: test yourself
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Based on Ministry of Home Affairs lists. Total as of the 2024 awards.
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