Bharat Ratna is India's highest civilian award, awarded for the highest degrees of national service. The award is given for the exceptional service towards the advancement of Art, Literature and Science, and in recognition of public service of the highest order.
Recipients of Bharat Ratna
1954 - C. Rajagopalachari - Independence activist, last Governor-General
1954 - C. V. Raman - Physicist
1954 - Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan - Philosopher, second President
1955 - Bhagwan Das - Independence activist, author
1955 - Mokshagundam Visvesvaray - Civil engineer, Diwan of Mysore
1955 - Jawaharlal Nehru - Independence activist, author, first Prime Minister
1957 - Govind Ballabh Pant - Independence activist, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Home Minister
1958 - Dhondo Keshav Karve - Educator, social reformer
1961 - Bidhan Chandra Roy - Physician, Chief Minister of West Bengal
1961 - Purushottam Das Tandon - Independence activist, educator
1962 - Rajendra Prasad - Independence activist, jurist, first President of India
1963 - Zakir Hussain - Scholar, third President
1963 - Pandurang Vaman Kane - Indologist and Sanskrit scholar
1966 - Lal Bahadur Shastri - Posthumous, independence activist, third Prime Minister of India
1971 - Indira Gandhi - Fourth Prime Minister of India
1975 - V. V. Giri - Trade unionist and fourth President
1976 - K. Kamaraj - Posthumous, independence activist, Chief Minister of Madras State
1980 - Mother Teresa - Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of Charity
1983 - Vinoba Bhave - Posthumous, social reformer, independence activist
1987 - Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan - First non-citizen, independence activist
1988 - M. G. Ramachandran - Posthumous, film actor, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
1990 - B. R. Ambedkar - Posthumous, chief architect of the Indian Constitution, politician, economist, and scholar
1990 - Nelson Mandela - Second non-citizen and first non-Indian recipient, Leader of the Anti-Apartheid movement
1991 - Rajiv Gandhi - Posthumous, Seventh Prime Minister
1991 - Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel - Posthumous, independence activist, first Home Minister
1991 - Morarji Desai - Independence activist, fifth Prime Minister
1992 - Abul Kalam Azad - Posthumous, independence activist, first Minister of Education
1992 - J. R. D. Tata - Industrialist and philanthropist
1992 - Satyajit Ray - Filmmaker
1997 - A. P. J. Abdul Kalam - Aeronautical engineer, 11th President
1997 - Gulzarilal Nanda - Independence activist, second Prime Minister
1997 - Aruna Asaf Ali - Posthumous, independence activist
1998 - M. S. Subbulakshmi - Carnatic singer
1998 - Chidambaram Subramaniam - Independence activist, Minister of Agriculture
1999 - Jayaprakash Narayan - Posthumous, independence activist and politician
1999 - Ravi Shankar - Sitar player
1999 - Amartya Sen - Economist
1999 - Gopinath Bordoloi - Posthumous, independence activist, Chief Minister of Assam
2001 - Lata Mangeshkar - Playback singer
2001 - Bismillah Khan - Hindustani classical shehnai player
2008 - Bhimsen Joshi - Hindustani classical singer
