Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Bharat Ratna
Bharat Ratna
The Bharat Ratna is India's supreme decoration and honor, awarded 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." Unlike knights, holders of the Bharat Ratna carry no special
title, but they do have a place in the order of precedence.
The original specifications for the award called for a circular gold medal, 35
mm in diameter, with the sun and the Hindi legend "Bharat Ratna" above
and a floral wreath below. The reverse was to carry the state emblem and
motto. It was to be worn around the neck from a white ribbon. There is no
indication that any specimens of this design were ever produced and one
year later the design was altered.
The original statutes of January 1954 did not make allowance for
posthumous awards (and this perhaps explains why the decoration was never
awarded to Mahatma Gandhi), though this provision was added in the
January 1955 statute. Subsequently, there have been nine posthumous
awards. While there was no formal provision that recipients of the Bharat
Ratna should be Indian citizens, this seems to have been the general
assumption. There has been one award to a naturalized Indian citizen
Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, better known as Mother Teresa (1980); and two to
non-Indians Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1987) and Nelson Mandela
(1990). There has been one instance of the award being withdrawn when in
1992, the award was posthumously given to Subhash Chandra Bose but
withdrawn later.
Bharat Ratna medallion: An image of the Sun along with the words
"Bharat Ratna", inscribed in Devanagari script, on a peepul leaf
Complete list of the Awardees
Name
Awarded
Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888-1975) 1954
Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (1878-1972) 1954
Dr C.V. Raman (1888-1970)
1954
Dr Bhagwan Das (1869-1958)
1955
Dr Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya (1861-1962)
1955
Jawaharlal Nehru (1889 -1964)
1955