Former Bihar Chief Minister Karpoori Thakur will be posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. He was a socialist leader and freedom fighter, who was twice chief minister of Bihar and prior to that, the state's education minister and deputy chief minister.
Meanwhile, let's take a look at all the recipients of Bharat Ratna till date:
1. Karpoori Thakur (politician) – Bihar (2023)
2. Nanaji Deshmukh (social activist) – Maharashtra (2019)
3. Bhupen Hazarika (playback singer, lyricist, musician, poet, and film-maker) – Assam (2019)
4. Pranab Mukherjee (politician) – West Bengal (2019)
5. Atal Bihari Vajpayee (politician) – Madhya Pradesh (2015)
6. Madan Mohan Malaviya (Scholar and educational reformer) – Uttar Pradesh (2015)
7. Sachin Tendulkar (cricketer) – Maharashtra (2014)
8. CNR Rao (chemist and professor) – Karnataka (2014)
9. Bhimsen Joshi (Hindustani classical vocalist) – Karnataka (2009)
10. Bismillah Khan (Hindustani classical shehnai player) – Uttar Pradesh (2001)
11. Lata Mangeshkar (playback singer) – Maharashtra (2001)
12. Ravi Shankar (sitar player) – Uttar Pradesh (1999)
13. Gopinath Bordoloi (Independence activist) – Assam (1999)
14. Amartya Sen (economist) – West Bengal (1999)
15. Jayaprakash Narayan (Independence activist, social reformer) – Bihar (1999)
16.Chidambaram Subramaniam (Independence activist) – Tamil Nadu (1998)
17. MS Subbulakshmi (Carnatic classical vocalist) – Tamil Nadu (1998)
18. APJ Abdul Kalam (Aerospace and defence scientist) – Tamil Nadu (1997)
19. Aruna Asaf Ali (Independence activist) – West Bengal (1997)
20. Gulzarilal Nanda (Independence activist) – Punjab (1997)
21. Satyajit Ray (Filmmaker) – West Bengal (1992)
22. JRD Tata (Industrialist) – Maharashtra (1992)
23. Abdul Kalam Azad (Independence activist) – West Bengal (1992)
24. Morarji Desai (Independence activist) – Gujarat (1991)
25. Sadar Vallabhbhai Patel (Independence activist) – Gujarat (1991)
26. Rajiv Gandhi (politician) – Uttar Pradesh (1991)
27. Nelson Mandela (anti-apartheid activist) – South Africa (1990)
28. BR Ambedkar (Social reformer) – Maharashtra (1990)
29. MG Ramachandran (actor turned politician) – Tamil Nadu (1998)
30. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Independence activist) – Pakistan (1987)
31. Vinoba Bhave (Independence activist, social reformer) – Maharashtra (1983)
32. Mother Teresa (Catholic nun) – West Bengal (1980)
33. K Kamaraj (politician) – Tamil Nadu (1976)
34. VV Giri (Independence activist) – Odisha (1975)
35. Indira Gandhi (politician) – Uttar Pradesh (1971)
36. Lal Bahadur Shastri (Independence activist) – Uttar Pradesh (1966)
37. Pandurang Vaman Kane (Indologist and Sanskrit scholar) – Maharashtra (1963)
38. Zakir Husain (Independence activist and education philosopher) – Andhra Pradesh (1963)
39. Rajendra Prasad (Independence activist, lawyer, statesman, and scholar) – Bihar (1962)
40. Purushottam Das Tandon (Independence activist) – Uttar Pradesh (1961)
41. Bidhan Chandra Roy (physician, political leader, philanthropist, educationist, and social worker) – West Bengal (1961)
42. Dhondo Keshav Karve (Social reformer and educator) – Maharashtra (1958)
43. Govind Ballabh Pant (Independence activist) – Uttarakhand (1957)
44. Jawahar Lal Nehru (Independence activist and author) – Uttar Pradesh (1955)
45. M Visvesvaraya (Civil engineer, statesman, and Diwan of Mysore) – Karnataka (1955)
46. Bhagwan Das (Independence activist, philosopher, and educationist) – Uttar Pradesh (1955)
47. CV Raman (physicist) – Tamil Nadu (1955)
48. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (philosopher and politician) – Tamil Nadu (1954)
49. C Rajagopalachari (statesman, writer, lawyer, and independence activist) – Tamil Nadu (1954)