Bharat Ratna : The Jewel of India
Contents: Preface. 1. Bharat Ratna--an introduction. 2. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. 3. Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari. 4. Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman. 5. Bhagwan Das. 6. Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya. 7. Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru. 8. Govind Ballabh Pant. 9. Dhondo Keshav Karve. 10. Bidhan Chandra Roy. 11. Purushottam Das Tandon. 12. Dr. Rajendra Prasad. 13. Zakir Hussain. 14. Dr. Pandurang Vaman Kane. 15. Lal Bahadur Shastri. 16. Indira Gandhi. 17. V.V. Giri. 18. K. Kamaraj. 19. Mother Teresa. 20. Vinoba Bhave. 21. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan. 22. M.G. Ramachandran. 23. B.R. Ambedkar. 24. Nelson Mandela. 25. Rajiv Gandhi. 26. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. 27. Morarji Desai. 28. Abul Kalam Azad. 29. J.R.D. Tata. 30. Satyajit Ray. 31. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. 32. Gulzarilal Nanda. 33. Aruna Asaf Ali. 34. M.S. Subbulakshmi. 35. Chidambaram Subramaniam. 36. Jayaprakash Narayan. 37. Ravi Shankar. 38. Amartya Sen. 39. Gopinath Bordoloi. 40. Lata Mangeshkar. 41. Bismillah Khan. Index.
"Bharat Ratna is India\'s highest civilian award, awarded for the highest degrees of national service. This service 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 no special title nor any other honorifics, but they do have a place in the Indian order of precedence. The award was established by the first President of India, Rajendra Prasad, on January 2, 1954. Along with other major national honours, such as the Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri, the awarding of the Bharat Ratna was suspended from July 13, 1977 to January 26, 1980. The honour has been awarded to forty persons, a list which includes two non-Indians and a naturalized Indian citizen. Originally, the specifications for the award called for a circular gold medal carrying the state emblem and motto, among other things. It is uncertain if a design in accordance with the original specifications was ever made. The actual award is designed in the shape of a peepul leaf and carries the Hindi--written words "Bharat Ratna" on the front." (jacket)
