AWARDEE

Bharat Ratna Award | 2019 Awardees

• Nanaji Deshmukh
• Bhupen Hazarika
• Pranab Mukherjee

Bharat Ratna Award | 2015 Awardees

• Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee
• Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya (Posthumous)

Bharat Ratna Award | 2014 Awardees

• Shri Sachin Tendulkar
• Professor C. N. R. Rao

Bharat Ratna Award | 2009 Awardee

• Pandit Bhimsen Joshi

Bharat Ratna Award | 2001 Awardees

• Ustad Bismillah Khan
• Sushri Lata Mangeshkar

Bharat Ratna Award | 1999 Awardees

• Pandit Ravi Shankar
• Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi (Posthumous)
• Professor Amartya Sen
• Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan (Posthumous)

Bharat Ratna Award | 1998 Awardees 

• Shri Chidambaram Subramaniam
• Smt M.S. Subbulakshmi

Bharat Ratna Award | 1997 Awardees

• Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
• Smt Aruna Asaf Ali (Posthumous)
• Shri Gulzarilal Nanda

Bharat Ratna Award | 1992 Awardees

• Shri Satyajit Ray
• Shri J.R.D Tata
• Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (Posthumous)

Bharat Ratna Award | 1991 Awardees

• Shri Morarji Desai
• Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (Posthumous)
• Shri Rajiv Gandhi (Posthumous)

Bharat Ratna Award | 1990 Awardees

• Nelson Mandela
• Dr B.R Ambedkar

Bharat Ratna Award | 1988 Awardee

• Shri M.G Ramachandran

Bharat Ratna Award | 1987 Awardee

• Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

Bharat Ratna Award | 1983 Awardee

• Shri Acharya Vinoba Bhave

Bharat Ratna Award | 1980 Awardee

• Mother Teresa

Bharat Ratna Award | 1976 Awardee

• Shri K. Kamaraj (Posthumous)

Bharat Ratna Award | 1975 Awardee

• Shri V.V Giri

Bharat Ratna Award | 1971 Awardee

• Smt Indira Gandhi

Bharat Ratna Award | 1966 Awardee

• Shri Lal Bahadur Shashtri (Posthumous)

Bharat Ratna Award | 1963 Awardee

• Dr. Pandurang Vaman Kane

Bharat Ratna Award | 1962 Awardees

• Dr. Zakir Husain
• Dr. Rajendra Prasad

Bharat Ratna Award | 1961 Awardees

• Shri Purushottam Das Tandon
• Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy

Bharat Ratna Award | 1958 Awardee

• Dr. Dhondo Keshav Karve

Bharat Ratna Award | 1957 Awardee

• Pt. Govind Ballabh Pant

Bharat Ratna Award | 1955 Awardees

• Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru
• Dr. M Visvesvaraya
• Dr. Bhagwan Das

Bharat Ratna Award | 1954 Awardees

• Dr. C.V Raman
• Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
• Shri C. Rajagopalachari

RAJAJI

• Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (10 December 1878 – 25 December 1972), informally called Rajaji or C.R., was an Indian politician, independence activist, lawyer, writer, historian and statesman.
• Rajagopalachari was the last Governor-General of India as India soon became a Republic in 1950. Furthermore, he was the first Indian-born governor-general, since before him the posts were held by British nationals.
• He also served as leader of the Indian National Congress, Premier of the Madras Presidency, Governor of West Bengal, Minister for Home Affairs of the Indian Union and Chief Minister of Madras state.

RATNA

• Rajagopalachari was born on 10 December 1878 in Thorapalli Village, Madras Presidency as the third son of Chakravarti Venkataryan, the village munsif, and Chakravarti Singaramma.
• A weak and sickly child, Rajagopalachari was a constant worry to his parents who feared that he might not live long.
• As a young child, he was admitted to a village school in Thorapalli then at the age of five moved with his family to Hosur where Rajagopalachari enrolled at Hosur R.V.Government Boys Hr sec School.

RATNA

• He passed his matriculation examinations in 1891 and graduated in arts from Central College, Bangalore in 1894. Rajagopalachari also studied law at the Presidency College, Madras, from where he graduated in 1897.
• Rajagopalachari married Alamelu Mangalamma in 1897 and the couple had five children.
• Rajagopalachari’s interest in public affairs and politics began when he commenced his legal practice in Salem in 1900.

RATNA

• At the age of 28, he joined the Indian National Congress and participated as a delegate in the 1906 Calcutta session. Inspired by Indian independence activist Bal Gangadhar Tilak, he later became a member of the Salem municipality in 1911.
• In 1917, he was elected Chairman of the municipality and served from 1917 to 1919. After Mahatma Gandhi joined the Indian independence movement in 1919, Rajagopalachari became one of his followers

RATNA

• He was also involved in the Vaikom Satyagraha movement against untouchabilityduring 1924–25.
• In the early 1930s, Rajagopalachari emerged as one of the major leaders of the Tamil Nadu Congress. When Gandhi organised the Dandi march in 1930, Rajagopalachari broke the salt laws at Vedaranyam near Nagapattinam, along with Indian independence activist Sardar Vedaratnam and was afterwards imprisoned by the British.
• He was subsequently elected President of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee.Following enactment of the Government of India Act in 1935, Rajagopalachari was instrumental in getting the Indian National Congress to participate in the 1937 general elections

RATNA

• Rajagopalachari issued the Temple Entry Authorization and Indemnity Act 1939, under which restrictions were removed on Dalits and Shanars entering Hindu temples.
• In March 1938 Rajagopalachari introduced the Agricultural Debt Relief Act, to ease the burden of debt on the province’s peasant population.
• Rajagopalachari resigned from the Congress Party over various disagreements over Madras Congress legislative party resolutions and differences with K. Kamaraj, the leader of the Madras Provincial Congress. rom 1946 to 1947, Rajagopalachari served as the Minister for Industry, Supply, Education and Finance in the Interim Government headed by Jawaharlal Nehru

RATNA

• When India and Pakistan attained independence on 15 August 1947, Supported by Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajagopalachari was appointed first Governor of West Bengal.
• Rajagopalachari then served as Governor-General of India from June 1948 until 26 January 1950, and was not only the last Governor-General of India, but the only Indian national ever to hold the office.
• At Nehru’s invitation, in 1950 Rajagopalachari joined the Union Cabinet as Minister without Portfolio. Following Patel’s death on 15 December 1950, Rajagopalachari was finally made Home Affairs Minister and went on to serve for nearly 10 months

RATNA

• Tired of being persistently over-ruled by Nehru with regard to critical decisions, Rajagopalachari submitted his resignation on the “grounds of ill-health” and returned to Madras in 1951.
• Following the 1952 elections in Madras, no party got clear majority and the-then Madras Governor Sri Prakasa appointed Rajagopalachari as the Chief Minister after nominating him to the Madras Legislative Council.

RATNA

• Other decisions that affected the economy and social fabric of Madras included the end to rationing of sugar, measures to regulate the running of universities, reduction in the hours of formal schooling for elementary school students.
• The last move was heavily criticized and ultimately led to the resignation of Rajagopalachari as Chief Minister on 13 April 1954 after much drama and politics.
• In January 1957, Rajagopalachari resigned from the Indian National Congress and established the Congress Reform Committee (CRC) with some other dissidents. It contested the 1957 state assembly elections and won 13 seats to emerge as the second-largest party in Madras

RATNA

• The committee became a fully-fledged political party and was renamed the Indian National Democratic Congress at a state conference held in Madurai on September 28–29, 1957.
• He established the right-wing Swatantra Party that stood for equality and opposed government interference and control over the private sector. The Swatantra Party won six seats in Madras state assembly elections and 18 in the Lok Sabha elections of 1962.

RATNA

• Active even at the age of 88, Rajagopalachari forged an alliance between the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Swatantra Party, and the Forward Bloc to defeat the Congress Party in the February 1967 Madras Legislative Assembly elections.
• The Swatantra Party also won 45 seats in the 1967 Lok Sabha elections to emerge as the single-largest opposition party.
• Rajagopalachari was admitted to the Government Hospital, Madras suffering from dehydration, uraemia, and a urinary infection. He died on 25 December 1972, at the ripe age of 94.