Bharat Ratna

The Bharat Ratna ( Hindi भारत रत्‍न , "Jewel of India" ) is the highest civil merit order in India and is only awarded in recognition of the highest merits. The medal with a diameter of 35 mm bears a sun and the lettering Bharat Ratna in Devanagari (including Hindi). It is surrounded by a wreath of flowers.

In 1954 the order was awarded for the first time. It was not initially intended for posthumous awards (which explains that it was not given to Mahatma Gandhi ), but this was later changed. At first it was only intended for Indians, but later in 1980 the naturalized Mother Teresa and then two non-Indians, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan in 1988 and Nelson Mandela in 1990 , received the medal.

List of medals

Surname	year	Award	annotation
S. Radhakrishnan (1888-1975)	1954		Politician, religious philosopher
C. Rajagopalachari (1878–1972)	1954		Politicians, freedom fighters
CV Raman (1888–1970)	1954		Scientist (physicist), Nobel Prize winner
Bhagwan Das (1869-1958)	1955		Politician
M. Visvesvaraya (1861–1962)	1955		engineer
Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964)	1955		Politicians, freedom fighters
Govind Ballabh Pant (1887–1961)	1957		Politicians, freedom fighters
Dhondo Keshav Karve (1858–1962)	1958		Social reformer
Bidhan Chandra Roy (1882–1962)	1961		Politicians, freedom fighters, scientists (physicists)
Purushottam Das Tandon (1882–1962)	1961		Politician
Rajendra Prasad (1884–1963)	1962		Politician
Zakir Hussain (1897-1969)	1963		Politician
Pandurang Vaman Kane (1880–1972)	1963		Humanities scholar (Indologist)
Lal Bahadur Shastri (1904–1966)	1966	posthumously	Politicians, freedom fighters
Indira Gandhi (1917–1984)	1971		politician
VV Giri (1894–1980)	1975		Politician
K. Kamaraj (1903-1975)	1976	posthumously	Politician
Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (Mother Teresa) (1910-1997)	1980		Sister, Mother Teresa, Nobel Prize Winner
Vinoba Bhave (1895–1982)	1983	posthumously	Politicians, freedom fighters
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1890–1988)	1987		Politicians, freedom fighters
MG Ramachandran (1917–1987)	1988	posthumously	Politician, actor
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891-1956)	1990	posthumously	Politician, lawyer, social reformer
Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)	1990		Politicians, freedom fighters
Rajiv Gandhi (1944–1991)	1991	posthumously	Politician
Vallabhbhai Patel (1875-1950)	1991	posthumously	Politicians, freedom fighters
Morarji Desai (1896-1995)	1991		Politician
Abul Kalam Azad (1888-1958)	1992		Politicians, freedom fighters, writers
JRD Tata (1904-1993)	1992		Businessman
Satyajit Ray (1921-1992)	1992		Film director
APJ Abdul Kalam (1931-2015)	1997		Scientist, rocket engineer, politician
Gulzarilal Nanda (1898–1998)	1997		Politician
Aruna Asaf Ali (1909-1996)	1997	posthumously	Freedom fighter
MS Subbulakshmi (1916-2004)	1998		singer
C. Subramaniam (1910-2000)	1998		Politician
Jayaprakash Narayan (1902–1979)	1998		Politicians, freedom fighters
Ravi Shankar (1920–2012)	1999		Musician
Amartya Sen (* 1933)	1999		Economist, philosopher, Nobel Prize winner
Gopinath Bordoloi (1890–1950)	1999	posthumously	Politicians, freedom fighters
Lata Mangeshkar (* 1929)	2001		singer
Bismillah Khan (1916-2006)	2001		Musician
Bhimsen Joshi (1922-2011)	2009		Singer
CNR Rao (* 1934)	2014		Scientist (chemist)
Sachin Tendulkar (* 1973)	2014		Cricketer
Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1924-2018)	2015		Politician, former prime minister
Madan Mohan Malaviya (1861–1946)	2015	posthumously	Politician, independence activist, academic teacher

statistics

By 2014, the order was awarded to 43 people, including 27 politicians, five scientists, three singers, two musicians and six other people with different vocation. Nine people were posthumously awarded the order.

Awarding to non-children: