Year |
Awardee |
Notes |
Indian State or Country or Region |
1954 |
Sir Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan |
Second President, First Vice President, Philosopher. |
Tamil Nadu |
|
Chakravarti Rajagopalachari |
Last Governor-General, Freedom Fighter. |
Tamil Nadu |
|
Sir C. V. Raman |
Nobel-prize winning Physicist |
Tamil Nadu |
1955 |
Bhagwan Das |
Literature, Freedom Fighter |
Uttar Pradesh |
|
Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya |
Civil Engineer, Dam Architect, Diwan of Princely state of Mysore |
Karnataka |
|
Jawaharlal Nehru |
First Prime Minister, Freedom Fighter, Author |
Uttar Pradesh |
1957 |
Govind Ballabh Pant |
Freedom Fighter, Jurist Home Minister |
Uttar Pradesh (now Uttarakhand) |
1958 |
Dhondo Keshav Karve |
Educationist, Social Reformer |
Maharashtra |
1961 |
Dr. B. C. Roy |
Physician, Politician, Former Chief Minister of West Bengal |
West Bengal |
|
Purushottam Das Tandon |
Freedom Fighter, Educationist |
Uttar Pradesh |
1962 |
Dr. Rajendra Prasad |
First President, Freedom Fighter, Jurist |
Bihar |
1963 |
Dr. Zakir Hussain |
Former President, Scholar |
Andhra Pradesh |
|
Pandurang Vaman Kane |
Indologist, Sanskrit scholar |
Maharashtra |
1966 |
Lal Bahadur Shastri |
Posthumous, Second Prime Minister, Freedom Fighter |
Uttar Pradesh |
1971 |
Indira Gandhi |
Former Prime Minister |
Uttar Pradesh |
1975 |
V. V. Giri |
Former President, Trade Unionist |
Orissa |
1976 |
K. Kamaraj |
Posthumous, Freedom Fighter, Chief Minister-Tamil Nadu |
Tamil Nadu |
1980 |
Mother Teresa |
Nobel Laureate (Peace, 1979) |
Republic of Macedonia (Naturalised Indian) |
1983 |
Acharya Vinoba Bhave |
Posthumous, Social Reformer, Freedom Fighter |
Maharashtra |
1987 |
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan |
First non-citizen, Freedom Fighter |
Pakistan |
1988 |
M. G. Ramachandran |
Posthumous, Chief Minister-Tamil Nadu, Actor |
Tamil Nadu |
1990 |
B. R. Ambedkar |
Posthumous, Architect of Indian Constitution, Social Reformer, Economist, Scholar |
Maharashtra |
|
Nelson Mandela |
Second non-citizen and first non-Indian, Leader of Anti-Apartheid Movement |
South Africa |
1991 |
Rajiv Gandhi |
Posthumous, Former Prime Minister |
New Delhi |
|
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel |
Posthumous, Freedom Fighter, First Home Minister of India |
Gujarat |
|
Morarji Desai |
Former Prime Minister, Freedom Fighter |
Gujarat |
1992 |
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad |
Posthumous, Freedom Fighter, First Education Minister of India |
West Bengal |
|
J. R. D. Tata |
Industrialist, Philanthropist |
Maharashtra |
|
Satyajit Ray |
Film Director, Oscar Winner |
West Bengal |
1997 |
APJ Abdul Kalam |
Former President, Scientist |
Tamil Nadu |
|
Gulzarilal Nanda |
Freedom Fighter, Former Prime Minister |
Punjab |
|
Aruna Asaf Ali |
Posthumous, Freedom Fighter |
West Bengal |
1998 |
M. S. Subbulakshmi |
Carnatic music vocalist |
Tamil Nadu |
|
Chidambaram Subramaniam |
Freedom Fighter, Minister of Agriculture (Father of Green revolution) |
Tamil Nadu |
|
Jayaprakash Narayan |
Posthumous, Freedom Fighter, Social Reformer |
Bihar |
1999 |
Pandit Ravi Shankar |
Classical Sitar player |
Uttar Pradesh |
|
Amartya Sen |
Nobel Laureate (Economics, 1998) |
West Bengal |
|
Gopinath Bordoloi |
Posthumous, Freedom Fighter |
Assam |
2001 |
Lata Mangeshkar |
Play Back Singer |
Maharashtra |
|
Ustad Bismillah Khan |
Classical Shehnai Maestro |
Bihar |
2008 |
Pandit Bhimsen Joshi |
Hindustani Classical Vocalist |
Karnataka |