Bharat Ratna
Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian honour, given for exceptional service towards advancement of Art, Literature and Science, and in recognition of Public Service of the highest order. The Recommendations for Bharat Ratna are made by the Prime Minister himself to the President in 1954.
List of recipients of Bharat Ratna
1. Shri Chakravarti Rajagopalachari , 1954.
2. Dr. Sarvapali 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 Keshave Karve, 1958.
9. Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy , 1961.
10. Shri Purushottam Das Tandon, 1961.
11. Dr. Rajendra Prasad, 1962.
12. Dr. Zakir Hussain (1897-1969) 1963
13. Dr. Pandurang Vaman Kane, 1963.
14. Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri (Posthumous), 1966.
15. Smt. Indira Gandhi, 1971.
16. Shri Varahagiri Venkata Giri, 1975.
17. Shri Kumaraswami Kamraj (Posthumous), 1976.
18. Mother Mary Taresa Bojaxhiu (Mother Teresa), 1980.
19. Shri Acharya Vinobha Bhave (Posthumous), 1983.
20. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, 1987.
21. Shri Marudu 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. Aruna Asaf Ali (Posthumous), 1997.
32. Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, 1997.
33. Smt. Madurai Sanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi , 1998.
34. Shri Chidambaram Subramniam , 1998.
35. Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan (Posthumous) 1999.
36. Professor Amartya Sen, 1999.
37. Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi (Posthumous) 1999.
38. Pandit Ravi Shankar, 1999.
39. Lata Mangeshkar, 2001.
40. Ustad Bismillah Khan, 2001.
41. Pandit Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi, 2008.