Bharat Ratnas

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Every country has its great men and women who serve the country and who are responsible to some extent for taking their country to greater heights. India honours such people with the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award bestowed by the country for exceptional service towards advancement of art, literature and science, and in recognition of public service of the highest order.

This book covers the forty-six luminaries from various walks of life who are considered Bharat Ratnas or Gems of India and highlights their illustrious deeds. What made them special and worthy of the country's highest honour and why are they considered Gems of the Nation? One will find the answers to such questions in this book.

Wg Cdr DP Sabharwal is a post-graduate III Aeronautical Engineering. He had a distinguished career spanning twenty-five years in the Indian Air Force. He took premature retirement to pursue a career of teaching and writing. He has published twelve books on aviation related subjects.

India's highest award, the Bharat Ratna, which roughly translates as the 'Gem of India' is conferred for the highest degrees of national service that includes artistic, literary, and scientific achievements, as well as 'recognition of public service of the highest order'. Unlike knights, holders of the Bharat Ratna carry neither special title nor any other honorifics, but they do have a place in the order of precedence.

The order was established by Dr Rajendra Prasad, President of India, on 2 January 1954. The original statutes of January 1954 did not make allowance for posthumous awards, which perhaps explains why the decoration was never awarded to Mahatma Gandhi. This provision was added in the January 1955 statute. Subsequently, there have been eleven posthumous awards, including the award to Subhash Chandra Bose in 1992, which was later withdrawn due to a legal technicality following the controversy about whether he is dead or still alive, and is the only case of an award being withdrawn.

While there was no formal provision that recipients of the Bharat Ratna should be Indian citizens, this seems to have been the general assumption. There has been one award to a naturalized Indian citizen: Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, better known as Mother Teresa and two to non-Indians, namely Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Nelson Mandela. Beginning with 1954 when the award was given to three personalities, so far forty-six Bharat Ratnas have been awarded, the last ones being in 2015. The subsequent pages briefly highlight the achievements of these great personalities.