| Bharat Ratna is the Republic of India's highest civilian award. Until 2011, the official criteria for awarding the Bharat Ratna stipulated it was to be conferred "for the highest degrees of national service. This service includes artistic, literary, and scientific achievements, as well as "recognition of public service of the highest order." In December 2011, the Government of India modified the criteria to allow sportspersons to receive the award; since then, the award may be conferred "for performance of highest order in any field of human endeavour." Any person without distinction of race, occupation, position or sex is eligible for the award. The recommendations for an award of the "Bharat Ratna" are made by the Prime Minister of India to the President of India; a maximum of three awards may be made in a given year. The holders of the Bharat Ratna rank 7th in the Indian order of precedence; however, the honour does not carry a monetary grant. The honour does not confer any pre- or post-nominal titles or letters; recipients are constitutionally prohibited from using the award name as a title or post-nominal. However, if they desire, recipients may state they are Bharat Ratna awardees in their curriculum vitae, on letterheads or on business cards. |
Check all the winners of Bharat Ratna presented under Bharat Ratna since 1954 .
Jayaprakash Narayan(Posthmus) |
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam(Government of India) |
M. G. Ramachandran(Posthumous, film actor, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu) |
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan(First non-citizen, independence activist) |
Vinoba Bhave(Posthumous, social reformer, independence activist) |
Mother Teresa(Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of Charity) |
K. Kamaraj(Posthumous, independence activist, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu State) |
V. V. Giri(Trade unionist and fourth President) |
Indira Gandhi(Third Prime Minister) |
Lal Bahadur Shastri(Posthumous, independence activist, second Prime Minister) |
Zakir Husain(Independence activist, Scholar, third President) |
Pandurang Vaman Kane(Indologist and Sanskrit scholar) |
Rajendra Prasad(Independence activist, jurist, first President) |
Bidhan Chandra Roy(Physician, Chief Minister of West Bengal) |
Purushottam Das Tandon(Independence activist, educator) |
Dhondo Keshav Karve(Educator, social reformer) |
Govind Ballabh Pant(Independence activist, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Home Minister) |
Bhagwan Das(Independence activist, author) |
Mokshagundam Visvesvaray(Civil engineer, Diwan of Mysore) |
Jawaharlal Nehru(Independence activist, author, first Prime Minister) |
C. V. Raman(Physicist) |
C. Rajagopalachari(Independence activist, last Governor-General) |
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