Rajendra Prasad, the
former President of India on 2 January 1955 gave his order to establish an
award. As per the order of the then President (till 1966), the award did not
allowed any one to grant the posthumous awards. Further in January 1966, a
provision was inserted for this.
Till date, 12
posthumous awards have been given of which one includes Netaji Subhas Chandra
Bose. Bose was given the award in 1992, which was withdrawn due to legal technicalities. The case of Bose is the only and last case recorded till
date of withdrawal of the award. The Order of precedence of India is the
protocol list (hierarchy of important positions) has placed Bharat Ratna
awardees at the seventh position.
Non-Indians, who have been conferred with the award
• Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1987)
• Nelson Mandela (1990)
Naturalised Indian citizen to be awarded
• Mother Teresa (1980)
The eldest person to be awarded who was alive at
the time of receiving the award
• Dhondo Keshav Karve (age 100)
Posthumously eldest over all
• Vallabhbhai Patel is the eldest overall
(posthumously at the age of 75)
C Rajagopalachari, CV Raman and Radhakrishnan of
three from Madras Presidency now Tamil Nadu was the first people to conferred
with the award in 1954. Rajagopalachari was the Independence activist and last
and the only Indian Governor-General of India. CV Raman was a Physicist from
Madras and also a Nobel laureate and Radhakrishnan was a philosopher and
India's First Vice President from 1952-1962 and was also the Second President
of India from 1962-1967.
