Bharat Ratna

Bharat Ratna: Must-know Facts and Important FAQs on the Bharat Ratna Award

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Introduction:

This award is the highest honourary civilian award of the Republic of India. The award is conferred as recognition of excellence in service or performance of the highest order regardless of caste, creed, gender, occupation and position. Earlier, the award was honoured for excellence in art, literature, science and public services. From 2011 onwards, the award category has been extended to any field of human endeavour by the Government of India. The award was introduced in the year 1954 and was non-posthumous. Later in 1955, the statute of the award was changed to posthumous. Lal Bahadur Shastri was the first person to be honoured with Bharat Ratna posthumously in 1966.

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The Highest Civilian Honor’s Distinguished Insignia

The recipients of this award receive a Sanad (certificate) signed by the President of India along with the medallion which is a peepal leaf in shape with the image of the sun in the centre of the front side embossed with “Bharat Ratna” in Devanagari script. The reverse side of the medal consists of The State Emblem of India at the centre embossed with the motto “Satyameva Jayate” in Devanagari script and is produced at Alipore Mint in Kolkata, West Bengal.

A Prestigious Honor with Notable Recipients

The award is restricted to a maximum of 3 nominees in a particular year which The President of India announces on recommendation of the Prime Minister.

C. Rajagopalachari was the first recipient of the award in 1954. Along with him, the second Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and CV Raman were the third person honoured with Bharat Ratna.

In 2024, Karpoori Thakur, the 11th chief minister of Bihar and popularly known as Jan Nayak was honoured with Bharat Ratna on his 100th birth anniversary.

As of 2024, the award has been conferred to 49 individuals of which 15 were honoured posthumously. Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, also known as Frontier Gandhi and Nelson Mandela are the only non-Indians honoured with the award.

Sachin Tendulkar is the youngest recipient of the award and the only sports personality to receive the award.

The complete list of Awardees of Bharat Ratna chronologically:

  1. Shri Chakravarti Rajagopalachari – 1954
  2. Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan – 1954
  3. Dr. Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman – 1954
  4. Dr. Bhagwan Das – 1955
  5. Dr. Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya – 1955
  6. Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru – 1955
  7. Pt. Govind Ballabh Pant – 1957
  8. Dr. Dhondo Keshav Karve – 1958
  9. Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy – 1961
  10. Shri Purushottam Das Tandon – 1961
  11. Dr. Rajendra Prasad – 1962
  12. Dr. Zakir Husain – 1963
  13. Dr. Pandurang Vaman Kane – 1963
  14. Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri (Posthumous) – 1966
  15. Smt. Indira Gandhi – 1971
  16. Shri Varahagiri VenkataGiri – 1975
  17. Shri Kumaraswamy Kamraj (Posthumous) – 1976
  18. Mother Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu (Mother Teresa) –
    1980
  19. Shri Acharya Vinoba Bhave (Posthumous) – 1983
  20. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan – 1987
  21. Shri Marudur Gopalan Ramachandran (Posthumous) – 1988
  22. Dr.Bhim Rao Ramji Ambedkar (Posthumous)- 1990
  23. Dr. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela – 1990
  24. Shri Rajiv Gandhi (Posthumous) – 1991
  25. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (Posthumous) – 1991
  26. Shri Morarji Ranchhodji Desai – 1991
  27. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (Posthumous) – 1992
  28. Shri Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhai Tata – 1992
  29. Shri Satyajit Ray – 1992
  30. Shri Gulzarilal Nanda – 1997
  31. Smt. ArunaAsaf Ali (Posthumous) – 1997
  32. Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam – 1997
  33. Smt. Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi –
    1998
  34. Shri Chidambaram Subramaniam – 1998
  35. Shri Jayaprakash Narayan (Posthumous) – 1999
  36. Professor Amartya Sen – 1999
  37. Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi (Posthumous) – 1999
  38. Pandit Ravi Shankar – 1999
  39. Sushri Lata Dinanath Mangeshkar – 2001
  40. Ustad Bismillah Khan – 2001
  41. Pandit Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi – 2009
  42. Prof. C. N. R. Rao – 2014
  43. Shri Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar – 2014
  44. Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee – 2015
  45. Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya (Posthumous) – 2015
  46. Shri Nanaji Deshmukh (Posthumous) – 2019
  47. Dr. Bhupendra Kumar Hazarika (Posthumous) – 2019
  48. Shri Pranab Mukherjee – 2019
  49. Karpoori Thakur (Posthumous) – 2024.
Bharat ratna award

Important FAQs on Bharat Ratna:

Q.1 Who was the first recipient of Bharat Ratna?
Ans: C. Rajagopalachari, the Last Governer- General of the Dominion of India.

Q.2 Who was the female personality to honour Bharat Ratna?
Ans: Indira Gandhi.

Q.3 In which year Bharat Ratna was introduced?
Ans: 1954.

Q.5 Who was the 1st person to receive the award posthumously?
Ans: Lal Bahadur Shastri.

Q.6 On which day Bharat Ratna is awarded?
Ans: Republic Day, 26th of January.

Q.7 Who is the first female singer to receive Bharat Ratna?
Ans: M.S. Subbulakshmi.

Q.8 Who is the youngest person to receive the Bharat Ratna?
Ans: Sachin Tendulkar.

Q.9 Who has been awarded with Bharat Ratna in 2024?
Ans: Karpoori Thakur.

Q.10 Is there any prize money associated with Bharat Ratna?
Ans: No.

Q.11 What are the facilities that the Bharat Ratna awardee enjoys?

Ans: 1. Treatment as a state guest by state governments when travelling within a state.
2. Indian missions abroad requested to facilitate recipients when requested.
3. Entitlement to a diplomatic passport.
4. Lifetime free executive class travel on Air India.

Q.12 How many individuals can be nominated for Bharat Ratna in a year?
Ans: 3.

Q.13 Who are the non -Indians to receive Bharat Ratna?
Ans: Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan & Nelson Mandela.

Q.14 Who is the only industrialist to be honoured with Bharat Ratna?
Ans: JRD Tata.

Q.15 Which Indian state has the highest number of Bharat Ratna awardees?
Ans: Uttar Pradesh with 10 numbers of Awardees.

Q.16 Where is the medallion of Bharat Ratna produced?
Ans: Alipore Mint, Kolkata, West Bengal.

Source credit: Wikipedia

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