Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award. It is given in recognition of exceptional service/ performance of the highest order in any field of human endeavour. Since its inception in 1954, 45 persons have been decorated with Bharat Ratna so far. In 2015, the President of India conferred the award on Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya (Posthumous) and Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
| Sl No | Name | Awarded In |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Shri Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (1878-1972) | 1954 |
| 2. | Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888-1975) | 1954 |
| 3. | Dr Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (1888-1970) | 1954 |
| 4. | Dr Bhagwan Das (1869-1958) | 1955 |
| 5. | Dr Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya (1861-1962) | 1955 |
| 6. | Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) | 1955 |
| 7. | Pt. Govind Ballabh Pant (1887-1961) | 1957 |
| 8. | Dr Dhondo Keshav Karve (1858-1962) | 1958 |
| 9. | Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy (1882-1962) | 1961 |
| 10. | Shri Purushottam Das Tandon (1882-1962) | 1961 |
| 11. | Dr Rajendra Prasad (1884-1963) | 1962 |
| 12. | Dr Zakir Hussain (1897-1969) | 1963 |
| 13. | Dr Pandurang Vaman Kane (1880-1972) | 1963 |
| 14. | Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri (Posthumous) (1904-1966) | 1966 |
| 15. | Smt. Indira Gandhi (1917-1984) | 1971 |
| 16. | Shri Varahagiri Venkata Giri (1894-1980) | 1975 |
| 17. | Shri Kumaraswamy Kamraj (Posthumous) (1903-1975) | 1976 |
| 18. | Mother Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu (Mother Teresa) (1910-1997) | 1980 |
| 19. | Acharya Vinoba Bhave (Posthumous) (1895-1982) | 1983 |
| 20. | Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1890-1988) | 1987 |
| 21. | Shri Marudur Gopalan Ramachandran (1917-1987) | 1988 |
| 22. | Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (Posthumous) (1891-1956) | 1990 |
| 23. | Dr Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (1918-2013) | 1990 |
| 24. | Shri Rajiv Gandhi (Posthumous) (1944-1991) | 1991 |
| 25. | Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (Posthumous) (1875-1950) | 1991 |
| 26. | Shri Morarji Ranchhodji Desai (1896-1995) | 1991 |
| 27. | Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (Posthumous) (1888-1958) | 1992 |
| 28. | Shri Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhai Tata (1904-1993) | 1992 |
| 29. | Shri Satyajit Ray (Posthumous) (1922-1992) | 1992 |
| 30. | Shri Gulzari Lal Nanda (Posthumous) (1898-1998) | 1997 |
| 31. | Smt. Aruna Asaf Ali (Posthumous) (1909-1996) | 1997 |
| 32. | Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam (1931-2015) | 1997 |
| 33. | Smt. Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi (1916-2005) | 1998 |
| 34. | Shri Chidambaram Subramaniam (1910-2000) | 1998 |
| 35. | Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan (Posthumous) (1902-1979) | 1999 |
| 36. | Professor Amartya Sen (b-1933) | 1999 |
| 37. | Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi (Posthumous) (1890-1950) | 1999 |
| 38. | Pandit Ravi Shankar (1920-2012) | 1999 |
| 39. | Sushil Lata Dinanath Mangeshkar (b-1929) | 2001 |
| 40. | Ustad Bismillah Khan (1916-2006) | 2001 |
| 41. | Pandit Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi (b-1922-2011) | 2009 |
| 42. | .Prof. C.N.R. Rao (1934) | 2014 |
| 43. | Shri. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (b-1973) | 2014 |
| 44. | Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya (Posthumous) (1861-1946) | 2015 |
| 45. | Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee (b-1924) | 2015 |