Recipients
Awarded in
About
Shri Chakravarti Rajagopalachari
1954
Activist, statesman, and lawyer
Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan
1954
India’s first Vice-President and second President
Dr. ChandrasekharaVenkata Raman
1954
Physicists, mathematicians, and scientists
Dr. Bhagwan Das
1955
Activist, philosopher, and educationist
Dr.MokshagundamVisvesvaraya
1955
Civil engineer, statesman, and Diwan of Mysore
Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru
1955
Activist and author served as the Prime Minister of India
Pt. Govind Ballabh Pant
1957
Activist and first Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh
Dr. Dhondo Keshav Karve
1958
Social reformer and educator
Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy
1961
Physician, political leader, philanthropist, educationist, and social worker
Shri Purushottam Das Tandon
1961
Activist and speaker of the United Provinces Legislative Assembly
Dr. Rajendra Prasad
1962
Activist, lawyer, statesman, and scholar
Dr. Zakir Husain
1963
Activist, economist, and education philosopher served as a Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University and the Governor of Bihar
Dr. Pandurang Vaman Kane
1963
Indologist and Sanskrit scholar, known for his five-volume literary work
Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri
1966
Activist and served as the second Prime Minister of India
Smt. Indira Gandhi
1971
First women Prime Minister of India
Shri Varahagiri Venkata Giri
1975
Trade Unionist
Shri Kumaraswamy Kamraj
1976
Independence activist and statesman, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
Mother Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu (Mother Teresa)
1980
Catholic nun and the founder of the Missionaries of Charity.
Shri Acharya VinobaBhave
1983
Activist, social reformer, and a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
1987
First noncitizen, independence activist
Shri Marudur Gopalan Ramachandran
1988
Actor, Film Producer, Film Director, Politician, Philanthropist, 3rd Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
Dr. Bhim Rao Ramji Ambedkar
1990
Social reformer and leader of the Dalits
Dr. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
1990
Leader of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in South Africa, President of South Africa
Shri Rajiv Gandhi
1991
Ninth Prime Minister of India
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
1991
Activist and first Deputy Prime Minister of India
Shri MorarjiRanchhodji Desai
1991
Activist, and Prime Minister of India
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
1992
Activist and first Minister of education
Shri Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhai Tata
1992
Industrialist, philanthropist, and aviation pioneer
Shri Satyajit Ray
1992
Director, filmmaker, writer, novelist
Shri Gulzarilal Nanda
1997
Activist, and interim Prime Minister of India.
Smt. Aruna Asaf Ali
1997
Activist
Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
1997
Aerospace and defense scientist
Smt. Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi
1998
Carnatic classical vocalist
Shri Chidambaram Subramaniam
1998
Activist and former Minister of Agriculture of India
Shri Jayaprakash Narayan
1999
Activist, and social reformer
Professor Amartya Sen
1999
Economist
Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi
1999
Activist
Pandit Ravi Shankar
1999
Musician, sitar player
Sushri Lata Dinanath Mangeshkar
2001
Singer
Ustad Bismillah Khan
2001
Hindustani classical shehnai player
Pandit Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi
2009
Hindustani classical vocalist
Prof. C. N. R. Rao
2014
Chemist and Professor, author
Shri Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar
2014
Cricketer
Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee
2015
Elected nine times to the Lok Sabha, twice to the Rajya Sabha, and served as the Prime Minister of India for three terms.
Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya
2015
Scholar and educational reformer
Shri Nanaji Deshmukh
2019
A social activist from India, education, health, and rural self-reliance.
Dr. Bhupendra Kumar Hazarika
2019
Indian playback singer, lyricist, musician, singer, poet, and filmmaker from Assam
Shri Pranab Mukherjee
2019
Indian politician and statesman, the 13th President of India, a senior leader in the Indian National Congress and occupied several ministerial portfolios in the Government of India