From C Rajagopalachari to Karpoori Thakur: List of Bharat Ratna winners

Bharat Ratna is awarded to people for their exceptional public service and performance of the highest order in any field like literature, science and art

Karpoori Thakur, a socialist leader and former Bihar Chief Minister, will be awarded the Bharat Ratna posthumously.

The President's office made the decision a day before Thakur's birth anniversary, praising the socialist leader's lifelong commitment to the upliftment of underprivileged sections of society and his unwavering fight for Social Justice.

Thakur was born into an impoverished family in Bihar's Samastipur but went on to make tremendous gains in politics, earning him the nickname Jan Nayak (people's leader).

Born in 1924, Thakur went on to become the chief minister in the 1970s and his tenure is best remembered for introducing reservations for the backward classes, besides the state's first brush with prohibition. He died in 1988.

The Bharat Ratna is India's highest civilian award. It was instituted in 1954 and is awarded to people for their exceptional public service and performance of the highest order in any field like literature, science and art.

The Bharat Ratna award has been conferred to 49 people so far, of whom 15 were awarded posthumously.

Bharat Ratna winners from 1954 to 2024

1. Chakaravarti Rajagopalachari (statesman, writer, lawyer, and independence activist) - 1954

2. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (philosopher, politician and former President of India) - 1954

3. Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (physicist)- 1954

4. Bhagwan Das (Independence activist, philosopher, and educationist)- 1955

5. Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya (Civil engineer, statesman, and Diwan of Mysore) - 1955

6. Jawaharlal Nehru (Independence activist, author and former Prime Minister of India)- 1955

7. Govind Ballabh Pant (Independence activist) - 1957

8. Dhondo Keshav Karve (Social reformer and educator)- 1958

9. Bidhan Chandra Roy (physician, political leader, philanthropist, educationist, and social worker)- 1961

10. Purushottam Das Tandon (Independence activist) - 1961

11. Rajendra Prasad (Independence activist, lawyer, statesman, scholar and former President of India)- 1962

12. Zakir Husain (Independence activist)- 1963

13. Pandurang Vaman Kane (Indologist and Sanskrit scholar) -1963

14. Lal Bahadur Shastri (Posthumous) (Independence activist and former Prime Minister of India) - 1966

15. Indira Gandhi (politician and former Prime Minister of India) -1971

16. Varahagiri Venkata Giri (Independence activist and former President of India) -1975

17. Kumaraswamy Kamraj (Posthumous) (politician and former Tamil Nadu chief minister) 1976

18. Mother Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu (Mother Teresa) (founder of the Missionaries of Charity) - 1980

19. Vinoba Bhave (Posthumous) (Independence activist, social reformer) -1983

20. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Independence activist) -1987

21. Marudur Gopalan Ramachandran (Posthumous) (actor turned politician) -1988

22. Bhim Rao Ramji Ambedkar (Posthumous) (Social reformer) -1990

23. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (anti-apartheid activist) - 1990

24. Rajiv Gandhi (Posthumous) (politician and former Prime Minister of India) -1991

25. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (Posthumous) (Independence activist) - 1991

26. Morarji Ranchhodji Desai (Independence activist and Prime Minister of India) - 1991

27. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (Posthumous) (Independence activist) -1992

28. Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata (Industrialist) - 1992

29. Satyajit Ray (Filmmaker) - 1992

30. Gulzari Lal Nanda (Independence activist) - 1997

31. Aruna Asaf Ali (Posthumous) (Independence activist) - 1997

32. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam (Aerospace, defence scientist and former President of India) -1997

33. Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi (Carnatic classical vocalist) -1998

34. Chidambaram Subramaniam (Independence activist) - 1998

35. Jayaprakash Narayan (Posthumous) (Independence activist, social reformer) - 1999

36. Amartya Sen (economist) - 1999

37. Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi (Posthumous) (Independence activist) - 1999

38. Ravi Shankar (sitar player) - 1999

39. Lata Dinanath Mangeshkar (playback singer) - 2001

40. Ustad Bismillah Khan (Hindustani classical shehnai player) - 2001

41. Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi (Hindustani classical vocalist) - 2009

42. C N R Rao (chemist and professor) - 2014

43. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (cricketer) - 2014

44. Atal Bihari Vajpayee (politician and former Prime Minister of India) 2015

45. Madan Mohan Malaviya (Posthumous) (Scholar and educational reformer) - 2015

46. Nanaji Deshmukh (Posthumous) (social activist) - 2019

47. Bhupendra Kumar Hazarika (Posthumous) (playback singer, lyricist, musician, poet, and film-maker) - 2019

48. Pranab Mukherjee (politician and former President of India) 2019

49. Karpoori Thakur (Posthumous) (politician and former Bihar chief minister) - 2024a