← Static General Knowledge: Symbols, Firsts, Awards, Sports and Organisations

Lesson 6 of 8 · Static General Knowledge: Symbols, Firsts, Awards, Sports and Organisations

Awards and Honours: Bharat Ratna, Gallantry, Literary, Film and International Prizes

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Civilian awards

The Bharat Ratna and the Padma awards were instituted in 1954. The Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian honour, given for exceptional service in any field, and its medal is shaped like a peepal leaf. Its first recipients in 1954 were C. Rajagopalachari, S. Radhakrishnan and C.V. Raman. It could not at first be given after death; once that was allowed, Lal Bahadur Shastri became the first posthumous recipient (1966). Indira Gandhi was the first woman (1971), Mother Teresa the first naturalised citizen (1980), Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan the first non-Indian (1987) and Sachin Tendulkar the first sportsperson (2014). The Padma awards, in descending order Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri, are announced on the eve of Republic Day.

Awards are not titles

Article 18 of the Constitution abolishes titles other than military and academic distinctions. In Balaji Raghavan v. Union of India (1995) the Supreme Court held that the Bharat Ratna and the Padma awards are not titles under Article 18, but that they must not be used as a prefix or suffix to a person's name. The civilian awards were suspended by the Janata government in 1977 and restored in 1980.

Gallantry awards

The wartime awards, for bravery in the face of the enemy, are, in descending order, the Param Vir Chakra, Maha Vir Chakra and Vir Chakra, all instituted on 26 January 1950 with effect from 15 August 1947. The peacetime awards, for bravery other than in the face of the enemy, are the Ashoka Chakra, Kirti Chakra and Shaurya Chakra, instituted in 1952 as three classes of the Ashoka Chakra and given their present names in 1967. The Param Vir Chakra was designed by Savitri Khanolkar, and its first recipient was Major Somnath Sharma, who fell defending Badgam in Kashmir on 3 November 1947. Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon (1971) is the only Air Force recipient of the Param Vir Chakra. Rakesh Sharma received the Ashoka Chakra for his 1984 space flight, and Neerja Bhanot, the 22-year-old air hostess killed while saving passengers during a hijacking in 1986, received it posthumously and is often described as its youngest recipient.

Literary awards

The Jnanpith Award, given by the Bharatiya Jnanpith trust founded in 1944 by Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain, was instituted in 1961 and first given in 1965 to the Malayalam poet G. Sankara Kurup for Odakkuzhal. It carries a bronze image of Vagdevi (Saraswati). Sumitranandan Pant was its first Hindi winner (1968), Ashapurna Devi its first woman winner (1976) and Amitav Ghosh the first writer in English to receive it (2018). The Sahitya Akademi, set up on 12 March 1954 with Jawaharlal Nehru as its first President, gives annual awards in 24 languages (the 22 languages of the Eighth Schedule plus English and Rajasthani), and its highest honour is its Fellowship. The Saraswati Samman (1991) of the K.K. Birla Foundation was first given to Harivansh Rai Bachchan.

Cinema

The Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India's highest film honour, was instituted in 1969 in honour of Dadasaheb Phalke (born 1870), maker of Raja Harishchandra (1913), and is presented with the National Film Awards. Its first recipient was the actress Devika Rani (1969), and Prithviraj Kapoor was its first posthumous recipient (1971). Bhanu Athaiya was the first Indian to win an Oscar (costume design, Gandhi, 1983), and Satyajit Ray received an honorary Oscar in 1992.

Nobel Prizes

Alfred Nobel left his fortune by a will of 1895 for prizes first given in 1901 in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace; the prize in Economic Sciences, funded by Sweden's central bank, was first given in 1969. The prizes are presented on 10 December, the anniversary of Nobel's death, the Peace Prize at Oslo and the rest at Stockholm. Indian citizens who have won are Rabindranath Tagore (Literature, 1913), C.V. Raman (Physics, 1930), Mother Teresa (Peace, 1979), Amartya Sen (Economics, 1998) and Kailash Satyarthi (Peace, 2014). Laureates of Indian origin include Har Gobind Khorana (Medicine, 1968), S. Chandrasekhar (Physics, 1983), V.S. Naipaul (Literature, 2001), Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (Chemistry, 2009) and Abhijit Banerjee (Economics, 2019), while Ronald Ross (1902) and Rudyard Kipling (1907) were born in India.

Other international honours

The Ramon Magsaysay Award, set up in the Philippines in 1957 in memory of its President Ramon Magsaysay, is often called Asia's Nobel Prize, and Vinoba Bhave was its first Indian recipient (1958). The Booker Prize (1969) is given for a novel written in English and published in the UK or Ireland; Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children (1981) was later named the Booker of Bookers. The Kalinga Prize (1952), given by UNESCO from a fund set up by Biju Patnaik, honours the popularisation of science. The Gandhi Peace Prize was instituted in 1995, Gandhi's 125th birth anniversary, and first given to Julius Nyerere of Tanzania.

Key facts

Bharat Ratna (1954): first C. Rajagopalachari, S. Radhakrishnan, C.V. Raman; first posthumous Lal Bahadur Shastri 1966; first woman Indira Gandhi 1971; first non-Indian Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan 1987; first sportsperson Sachin Tendulkar 2014.
Order of civilian awards: Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri; all instituted in 1954; not titles under Article 18 (Balaji Raghavan case, 1995).
Wartime order: Param Vir Chakra, Maha Vir Chakra, Vir Chakra; peacetime order: Ashoka Chakra, Kirti Chakra, Shaurya Chakra.
First Param Vir Chakra: Major Somnath Sharma (Badgam, 3 November 1947, posthumous); PVC designed by Savitri Khanolkar; only Air Force PVC: Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon (1971).
Jnanpith: instituted 1961, first given 1965 to G. Sankara Kurup (Malayalam, Odakkuzhal); first Hindi winner Sumitranandan Pant 1968; first woman Ashapurna Devi 1976.
Dadasaheb Phalke Award: instituted 1969 in honour of Phalke (born 1870, maker of Raja Harishchandra, 1913); first Devika Rani; first posthumous Prithviraj Kapoor (1971).
Nobel: first given 1901; Economics from 1969; presented on 10 December; Peace Prize at Oslo, others at Stockholm.
Indian citizens with a Nobel: Tagore 1913, C.V. Raman 1930, Mother Teresa 1979, Amartya Sen 1998, Kailash Satyarthi 2014.
Ramon Magsaysay Award: Philippines, 1957, Asia's Nobel, first Indian Vinoba Bhave (1958); Gandhi Peace Prize: 1995, first Julius Nyerere; Kalinga Prize: UNESCO, 1952, science popularisation.

Quick revision

Bharat Ratna and Padma awards 1954; first Bharat Ratna Rajaji, Radhakrishnan, Raman; first posthumous Shastri 1966; PVC, MVC, VrC (wartime, 1950); Ashoka, Kirti, Shaurya Chakra (peacetime, 1952, renamed 1967); first PVC Major Somnath Sharma; Jnanpith 1965 G. Sankara Kurup; Sahitya Akademi 1954, 24 languages; Phalke Award 1969 Devika Rani; Nobel 1901, Economics 1969, 10 December; Magsaysay 1957, Vinoba Bhave 1958; Booker 1969; Gandhi Peace Prize 1995 Nyerere.

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