| Name | Awarded | Notes |
| Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan | 1954 | Second President, First Vice President, Philosopher. |
| Chakravarti Rajagopalachari | 1954 | Last Governor-General, Freedom Fighter. |
| Sir C. V. Raman | 1954 | Nobel-prize winning Physicist |
| Bhagwan Das | 1955 | Literature, Freedom Fighter |
| Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya | 1955 | Civil Engineer |
| Jawaharlal Nehru | 1955 | First Prime Minister, Freedom Fighter, Author. |
| Govind Ballabh Pant | 1957 | Freedom Fighter, Home Minister |
| Dhondo Keshav Karve | 1958 | Educationist, Social Reformer, Awarded in his birth centenary year. |
| Dr. B. C. Roy | 1961 | Physician, Politician, Former Chief Minister of West Bengal |
| Purushottam Das Tandon | 1961 | Freedom Fighter, Educationist |
| Dr. Rajendra Prasad | 1962 | First President, Freedom Fighter, Jurist |
| Dr. Zakir Hussain | 1963 | Former President, Scholar. |
| Pandurang Vaman Kane | 1963 | Indologist and Sanskrit scholar |
| Lal Bahadur Shastri | 1966 | Posthumous, Second Prime Minister, Freedom Fighter |
| Indira Gandhi | 1971 | Former Prime Minister |
| V. V. Giri | 1975 | Former President, Trade Unionist. |
| K. Kamaraj | 1976 | Posthumous, Freedom Fighter, Chief Minister-Tamil Nadu. |
| Mother Teresa | 1980 | Nobel Laureate (Peace, 1979). |
| Acharya Vinoba Bhave | 1983 | Posthumous, Social Reformer, Freedom Fighter. |
| Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan | 1987 | First non-citizen, Freedom Fighter. |
| M. G. Ramachandran | 1988 | Posthumous, Chief Minister-Tamil Nadu, Actor. |
| B. R. Ambedkar | 1990 | Posthumous, Architect-Indian Constitution |
| Nelson Mandela | 1990 | Second non-citizen and first non-Indian, Leader of Anti-Apartheid movement. |
| Rajiv Gandhi | 1991 | Posthumous, Former Prime Minister |
| Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel | 1991 | Posthumous, Freedom Fighter, First Home Minister of India. |
| Morarji Desai | 1991 | Former Prime Minister, Freedom Fighter. |
| Maulana Abul Kalam Azad | 1992 | Posthumous, Freedom Fighter, First Education Minister of India |
| J. R. D. Tata | 1992 | Industrialist and philanthropist. |
| Satyajit Ray | 1992 | Film Director ,Oscar winner |
| A.P.J. Abdul Kalam | 1997 | Former President, Scientist. |
| Gulzarilal Nanda | 1997 | Freedom Fighter, former Prime Minister. |
| Aruna Asaf Ali | 1997 | Posthumous, Freedom Fighter. |
| M. S. Subbulakshmi | 1998 | Classical singer. |
| Chidambaram Subramaniam | 1998 | Freedom Fighter, Minister of Agriculture (Father of Green revolution). |
| Jayaprakash Narayan | 1998 | Posthumous, Freedom Fighter, Social Reformer. |
| Pandit Ravi Shankar | 1999 | Classical sitar player. |
| Amartya Sen | 1999 | Nobel Laureate (Economics, 1998), Economist. |
| Gopinath Bordoloi | 1999 | Posthumous, freedom fighter |
| Lata Mangeshkar | 2001 | Play back singer. |
| Ustad Bismillah Khan | 2001 | Classical Shehnai Maestro |
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