Bharat Ratna Award: List of recipients

Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian Award of India. It was instituted in 1954. List of recipients of Bharat Ratna are:

S.No.	Name	Awarded in	Birth/Death	About him/her
1	Shri Chakravarti Rajagopalachari	1954	1878 – 1972	Last Governor - General, Independence activist
2	Dr. Sarvapali Radhakrishnan	1954	1888 – 1975	India's 1st Vice President (1952 - 1962), Philosopher and India's 2nd President (1962 - 1967)
3	Dr. Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman	1954	1888 - 197	Physicist
4	Dr. Bhagwan Das	1955	1869 - 1958	Author, Independence activist, Kashi Vidya Peeth Founder
5	Dr. Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya	1955	1861 - 1962	Diwan of Mysore, Civil engineer
6	Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru	1955	1889 - 1964	Author, Independence activist, 1st Prime Minister
7	Pt. Govind Ballabh Pant	1957	1887 - 1961	Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Independence activist, Home Minister
8	Dr. Dhondo Keshave Karve	1958	1858 - 1962	Educator, social reformer
9	Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy	1961	1882 - 1962	Chief Minister of West Bengal and a Physician
10	Shri Purushottam Das Tandon	1961	1882 - 1962	Educator, Independence activist
11	Dr. Rajendra Prasad	1962	1884 - 1963	Jurist, Independence activist, 1st President of India
12	Dr. Zakir Hussain	1963	1897 - 1969	Scholar, Independence activist, 3rd President of India
13	Dr. Pandurang Vaman Kane	1963	1880 - 1972	Sanskrit scholar and Indologist
14	Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri (Posthumous)	1966	1904 - 1966	2nd Prime Minister of India, Independence activist
15	Smt. Indira Gandhi	1971	1917 - 1984	3rd Prime Minister of India
16	Shri Varahagiri Venkata Giri	1975	1894 - 1980	4th President, Trade unionist
17	Shri Kumaraswami Kamraj (Posthumous)	1976	1903 - 1975	Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Independence activist
18	Mother Teresa	1980	1910 - 1997	Founder of Missionaries of Charity and a Catholic nun
19	Shri Acharya Vinobha Bhave (Posthumous)	1983	1895 - 1982	Independence activist and a Social reformer
20	Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan	1987	1890 - 1988	Independence activist, First non-citizen
21	Shri Marudu Gopalan Ramachandran (Posthumous)	1988	1917 - 1987	Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Film actor
22	Dr. Bhim Rao Ramji Ambedkar (Posthumous)	1990	1891 - 1956	Crusader against Untouchablity, Chief architect of Indian Constitution, Social Reformer, Dalit Icon, Historian, Economist, scholar, politician
23	Dr. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela	1990	b - 1918	2nd non - citizen and non - Indian recipient, Leader of Anti  - Apartheid movement
24	Shri Rajiv Gandhi (Posthumous)	1991	1944 - 1991	6th Prime Minister of India
25	Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (Posthumous)	1991	1875 - 1950	Independence activist, 1st Home Minister
26	Shri Morarji Ranchhodji Desai	1991	1896 - 1995	4th Prime Minister and Independence activist
27	Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (Posthumous)	1992	1888 - 1958	1st Minister of Education and an Independence activist
28	Shri Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhai Tata	1992	1904 - 1993	Philanthropist and an Industrialist
29	Shri Satyajit Ray	1992	1922 - 1992	Filmmaker
30	Shri Gulzarilal Nanda	1997	1898 - 1998	Interim Prime Minister, Independence activist
31	Smt. Aruna Asaf Ali (Posthumous)	1997	1909 - 1996	Independence activist
32	Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam	1997	b - 1931	Aeronautical Engineer and 11th President of India
33	Smt. Madurai Sanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi	1998	1916 - 2004	Carnatic classical singer
34	Shri Chidambaram Subramniam	1998	1910 - 2000	Minister of Agriculture and an Independence activist
35	Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan (Posthumous)	1999	1902 - 1979	Politician, Independence activist
36	Professor Amartya Sen	1999	b - 1933	Economist
37	Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi (Posthumous)	1999	1890 - 1950	Chief Minister of Assam, Independence activist
38	Pandit Ravi Shankar	1999	1920 - 2012	Sitar player
39	Sushri Lata Dinanath Mangeshkar	2001	b - 1929	Playback singer
40	Ustad Bismillah Khan	2001	1916 - 2006	Hindustani classical shehnai player
41	Pandit Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi	2008	1922 - 2011	Hindustani classical singer