Bharat Ratna Award Winners List

The Bharat Ratna, established in 1954, is the highest civillian award given by the Government of India. It is given to those individuals, who contributed exceptional service to the nation in the fields of Science, Arts, Sports, Literature and Public Service of the highest order. In this Award, a medal and a certificate are issued but no cash is rewarded. However, the Bharat Ratna award winners will get several benefits and prvileges throughout their lives. The Prime Minister of India recommends the names for Bharat Ratna awards to the President of India, who approves them and confers the awards to the winners.

Bharat Ratna Award Winners from 1954 to 2024

Bharat Ratna Award may not be given every year as the government has the choice to decide whether to give the award in a particular year or not. Here is the list of Bharat Ratna Award winners along with brief description of the winners from 1954 to 2024 in the descending order:

Year	Bharat Ratna Winner's Name	Description
2024	Chaudhary Charan Singh	Served as the Prime Minister of India and dedicated his life to the welfare of farmers
	Karpoori Thakur	Popularly known as Jan Nayak and served as the Chief Minister of Bihar
	Lal Krishna Advani	Served as the Deputy Prime Minister of India and co-founder of Bharatiya Janata Party
	MS Swaminathan	Famously known as Father of India's Green Revolution. Green Revolution increased our food production, thus making us food self-sufficient country
	PV Narasimha Rao	Served as the Prime Minister of India, credited for major economic reforms in India
2019	Bhupen Hazarika	Famous Indian playback singer, lyricist and filmmaker, who is popularly known as "Sudha Kontho"
	Nanaji Deshmukh	Social activist, who contributed to education and rural development
	Pranab Mukherjee	Served as the President of India
2015	Atal Bihari Vajpayee	Served as the Prime Minister of India, co-founder of Bharatiya Janata Party and also a renowned Hindi poet
	Madan Mohan Malaviya	Indian Independence activist and scholar, who founded Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha and co-founded Banaras Hindu University
2014	CNR Rao	Famous Indian scientist, who worked on solid-state and structural chemistry
	Sachin Tendulkar	Famous Indian cricketer, also known as "Master Blaster" and the youngest receipient of Bharat Ratna at the age of 40
2009	Bhimsen Joshi	Famous Indian vocalist from the Kirana Gharana school of Hindustani classical music
2001	Bismillah Khan	Indian classical musician and renowned Shehnai Maestro
	Lata Mangeshkar	Famous Indian playback singer, also known as "Nightingale of India"
1999	Amartya Sen	Indian Economist, who won Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1998 for his contribution to welfare economics
	Gopinath Bordoloi	Indian Freedom Fighter and first Chief Minster of Assam, also popularly known as Lokpriya
	Jayaprakash Narayan	An advocate of social reforms and also called Loknayak, who led Total Revolution Movement or Sampoorna Kranti against the then Congress government
	Ravi Shankar	Renowned Hindustani classical musician and expert Sitar Maestro
1998	C Subramaniam	Indian politician and architect of modern agricultural development policy that led to Indian Green Revolution
	MS Subbulakshmi	Indian Carnatic singer and first musician to be awarded Bharat Ratna
1997	APJ Abdul Kalam	Missile Man of India and later became President of India
	Aruna Asaf Ali	Indian Freedom Fighter and First Mayor of Delhi
	Gulzarilal Nanda	Twice served as the Acting Prime Minister of India and first deputy chairman of the Planning Commission
1992	Abul Kalam Azad	Freedom Figher and First Education Minister of India. National Education Day is celebrated on his birth anniversary
	JRD Tata	Indian industrialist and Tata Group's chairman, who obtained India's first commercial pilot license and who established Tata Airlines (which later became Air India)
	Satyajit Ray	Renowned Indian film director and Bengali author, who received Honorary Oscar Award for his lifetime contribution to the world of cinema
1991	Morarji Desai	First non-Congress person and oldest person to become the Prime Minister of India and was awarded with Pakistan's highest civilian award, Nishan-e-Pakistan
	Rajiv Gandhi	Youngest person to become the Prime Minister of India and sometimes hailed as the Father of IT and Telecom Revolution in India
	Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel	Indian Freedom Fighter and First Deputy Prime Minister of India. He is responsible for integrating 565 Princely States into India. Also called the "Iron Man of India"
1990	BR Ambedkar	Chief architect of the Indian Constitution and Advocate for the rights of Dalits and other marginal communities
	Nelson Mandela	Famous for his fight against apartheid in South Africa and became the first Black President of that country
1988	MG Ramachandran	Indian actor, founder of AIADMK Party and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
1987	Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan	First non-Indian citizen to win the award. Known as Frontie Gandhi, who founded Khudai Khidmatgar Movement (or Red Shirt Movement)
1983	Acharya Vinoba Bhave	Famous for Bhoodan Movement that led to voluntary distribution of land by landlords to the landless. He is the first Indian to win Ramon Magsaysay Award
1980	Mother Teresa	Nobel Laureate and Founder of Missionaries of Charity that serves the poor, sick and destitute people
1976	K Kamaraj	Former Chief Minister of Madras State and famous for Kamaraj Plan, 1963, which stated that experienced ministers should resign and work for objectives of the Congress party so as to encourage new leadership
1975	VV Giri	Fourth President of India and the only independent candidate to become a President
1971	Indira Gandhi	Third and only female Prime Minister of India and the first female to receive the award
1966	Lal Bahadur Shastri	Second Prime Minister of India, who gave the slogan "Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan" and the award was given to him posthumously
1963	Pandurang Vaman Kane	Famous Indologist and Sanskrit scholar
	Zakir Husain	Famous educationist and intellectual, who became Second Vice President and Third President of India
1962	Babu Rajendra Prasad	Indian Freedom Fighter and First President of India
1961	Bidhan Chandra Roy	Renowned physician, freedom fighter, social worker and second Chief Minister of West Bengal
	Purushottam Das Tandon	Indian Freedom Fighter and played a major role in achieving Hindi as one of the the official languages of India
1958	Dhondo Keshav Karve	Famous social reformer, who founded India's first Women's University in Pune and he is the oldest recipient of Bharat Ratna at the age of 100
1957	Govind Ballabh Pant	Indian Freedom Fighter and First Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh
1955	Bhagwan Das	Indian Freedom Fighter and Theosophist
	M Visvesvaraya	Civil Engineer famous for the developement of earlier engineering projects in India
	Jawaharlal Nehru	The First and longest serving Prime Minister of India
1954	C Rajagopalachari	The last Governor General of India, who founded the Swatantra Party later in 1959 and who is famous for CR Formula
	CV Raman	Indian physicist famous for discovering the Raman Effect and first Asian to receive Nobel Prize in any science branch
	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan	The First Vice President of India and later became the Second President of India