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 order of precedence. Bharat Ratna roughly translates as 'Gem of India'. It was established by the President of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad in 2nd January, 1954.

     The original statutes of January 1954 did not make allowance for posthumous awards, though this provision was added in the January 1955 statute. Subsequently, there have been ten posthumous awards, including the award to Subhash Chandra Bose in 1992, which was later withdrawn due to a legal technicality, the only case of an award being withdrawn.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 (1980); and two to non-Indians Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1987) and Nelson Mandela (1990).

     Bharat Ratna medallion is an image of the Sun along with the words "Bharat Ratna", inscribed in Devanagari script, on a peepul leaf.

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