Venkat Raman
Auckland, January 27, 2024
Famous Bharata Natyam dancers Vyjayanthimala Bali and Padma Subrahmanyam were among the achievers chosen for Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian award announced by the Government of India on Republic Day every day.
Former Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu and Telugu film star Konidela Chiranjeevi are also listed in this Award category. Sociologist and social entrepreneur the late Bindeshwar Pathak is being awarded Padma Vibhushan posthumously.
Among the celebrities of the entertainment world who have been listed under the Padma Bhushan (the third-highest civilian honour) category are Mithun Chakraborty, Pyarelal Sharma (of the Laxmikant Pyarelal fame) and Usha Uthup. Tamil actor and Founder-Leader of the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu (who passed away on December 28, 2023) will be honoured posthumously.
Vyjayanthimala (90) was one of Indian cinema’s finest actors and dancers and a recipient of several accolades including five Filmfare Awards and two Bengal Film Journalists Association Awards. She began her film career with ‘Vaazhkai,’ a 1949 Tamil film, followed by ‘Jeevitham,’ a Telugu film a year later. She became a national star with ‘Bahar,’ ‘Nagin,’ ‘Devdas,’ ‘Naya Daur,’ ‘Sangam’ and many other Hindi movies, even as she rose in popularity in South Indian language films.
Her contributions as a Bharata Natyam dancer and as a Parliamentarian are widely acknowledged. She was elected to Lok Sabha from the Chennai South Constituency (1984-1991) and later served as a Member of the Rajya Sabha (the Upper House of Parliament) from 1993 to 1999.
Padma Subrahmanyam (80) is one of the foremost Bharata Natyam dancers in the world. She is also famous as a research scholar, choreographer, teacher, Indologist and author. She has won more than 100 awards in her impressive dancing career. Several films and documentaries have been made in her honour in Japan, Australia and Russia.
She is widely known for establishing the dance form of Bharata Nrithyam.
Ms Subrahmanyam has designed 108 sculptures of Lord Nataraja and Goddess Parvathi in black granite for the Nataraja Temple in Satara, Maharashtra as ordained by Jagadguru Shri Chandrasekarendra Saraswati Maha Swamigal of Kanchipuram. She has delivered lectures at various universities in Southeast Asia on India’s global cultural links.
Bharat Ratna
The government of India has chosen former Bihar Chief Minister Karpoori Thakur as Bharat Ratna (Jewel of India), the highest civilian honour to be awarded posthumously.
Known as the Champion of the Poor, Mr Thakur worked hard to improve the lot of what is called, ‘The Most Backward Classes’ in Bihar and promote education in his State.
Instituted on January 2, 1954, Bharat Ratna is conferred by India’s federal government to people in recognition of their exceptional service or performance of the highest order “without distinction of race, occupation, position or sex.”
The Award was originally restricted to achievements in arts, literature, science and public services but expanded in December 2011 to include “any field of human endeavour.”
The recommendation for the Bharat Ratna is made by the Prime Minister to the President with a maximum of five nominees per year. There have been years when no one was chosen for this Award.
Recipients of Bharat Ratna are presented with a Certificate signed by the President and a Peepal leaf-shaped medallion. There is no monetary grant associated with this Award but Bharat Ratna recipients rank seventh in the Indian Order of Precedence, led by the President and followed by Vice-President, Prime Minister, Governors of States, Former Presidents, Deputy Prime Minister (currently none), Chief Justice and many others.
The last Governor-General of India Chakravarthy Rajagopalachari, the First Vice-President of Independent India Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Nobel Laureate and Physicist Dr C V Raman were the first recipients in 1954.
So far, 49 dignitaries have been honoured. Although usually conferred on Indian citizens, there have thus far been three exceptions: Mother Teresa (who was a naturalised citizen of India), Abdul Gaffar Khan (born in undivided India and later a Pakistani citizen) and Nelson Mandela (President of South Africa).
About the Padma Awards
NDTV reports that the Padma Awards are conferred on the recommendations made by the Padma Awards Committee, constituted by the Prime Minister every year.
“The Padma Awards Committee is headed by the Cabinet Secretary and includes the Home Secretary, Secretary to the President, and four to six eminent persons as members. The recommendations of the Committee are submitted to the Prime Minister and the President of India for approval,” the channel said.
Padma Awards commence with Padma Shri and then scale to Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan. There are 132 Padma Awardees this year, including two duo cases (in a duo case, the award is counted as one). The list comprises five Padma Vibhushan, 17 Padma Bhushan and 110 Padma Shri Awards. Thirty of the awardees are women, and the list also includes eight persons from the categories of Foreign Non-Resident Indian (NRI), Person of Indian Origin (PIO), Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI), and nine posthumous awardees.
Here is the full list of Padma Awards 2024 Recipients:
Padma Vibhushan 1. Vyjayanthimala Bali 2. Konidela Chiranjeevi 3. M Venkaiah Naidu 4. Bindeshwar Pathak (Posthumous) 5. Padma Subrahmanyam
Padma Bhushan 1. M Fathima Beevi (Posthumous) 2. Hormusji N Cama 3. Mithun Chakraborty 4. Sitaram Jindal 5. Young Liu 6. Ashwin Balachand Mehta 7. Satyabrata Mookerjee (Posthumous) 8. Ram Naik 9. Tejas Madhusudan Patel 10. Olanchery Rajagopal 11. Dattatray Ambadas Mayaloo Alias Rajdutt 12. Todan Rinpoche (Posthumous) 13. Pyarelal Sharma 14. Chandreshwar Prasad Thakur 15. Usha Uthup 16. Vijayakanth 17. Kundan Vyas
Padma Shri 1. Khalil Ahamad 2. Badrappan M 3. Kaluram Bamaniya 4. Rezwana Choudhury Bannya 5. Naseem Bano 6. Ramlal Bareth 7. Gita Roy Barman 8. Parbati Baruah 9. Sarbeswar Basumatary 10. Som Datt Dattu 11. Takdira Begum 12. Sathyanarayana Beleri 13. Drona Bhuyan 14. Ashok Kumar Chakma 15. Rohan Manchanda Bapanna 16. Smriti Rekha Chama 17. Narayan Chakraborty 18. A Velu Ananda Chari 19. Ram Chet Choudhary 20. K Chellammal 21. Joshna Chinnappa 22. Charlotte Chopin 23. Raghuveer Choudhary 24. Joe D’Cruz 25. Ghulam Nabi Dar 26. Chitta Ranjan Debbarma 27. Uday Vishwanath Deshpande 28. Prema Dhanraj 29. Radha Krishan Dhiman 30. Manohar Krishana Dale 31. Pierre Sylvain Fillozat 32. Mahabir Singh Guddu 33. Anupama Hoskere 34. Yazdi Maneksha Italia 35. Rajaram Jain 36.
Janakilal 37. Ratan Kahar 38. Yashwant Singh Kathoch 39. Zahir I Kazi 40. Gaurav Khanna 41. Surendra Kishore 42. Dasari Kondappa 43. Sridhar Makam Krishnamurthy 44. Yanung Jamoh Lego 45. Jordan Lepcha 46. Satendra Singh Lohia 47. Binod Maharana 48. Purnima Mahato 49. Uma Maheshwari D 50. Dukhu Majhi 51. Ram Kumar Mallick 52. Hemchand Manjhi 53. Chandrashekhar Mahadeorao Meshram 54. Surendra Mohan Mishra (Posthumous) 55. Ali Mohammed & Shri Ghani Mohammed (Duo) 56. Kalpana Morparia 57. Chami Murmu 58. Sasindran Muthuvel 59. G Nachiyar 60. Kiran Nadar 61. Pakaravur Chithran Namboodiripad (Posthumous) 62. Narayanan E P 63. Shailesh Nayak 64. Harish Nayak (Posthumous) 65. Fred Negrit 66. Hari Om 67. Bhagabat Padhan 68. Sanatan Rudra Pal 69. Shankar Baba Pundlikrao Papalkar 70. Radhe Shyam Pareek 71. Dayal Mavjibhai Parmar 72. Binod Kumar Pasayat 73. Silbi Passah 74. Shanti Devi Paswan & Shri Shivan Paswan (Duo) 75. Sanjay Anant Patil 76. Muni Narayana Prasad 77. K S Rajanna 78. Chandrashekar Channapatna Rajannachar 79. Bhagwatilal Rajpurohit 80. Romalo Ram 81. Navjivan Rastogi 82. Nirmal Rishi 83. Pran Sabharwal 84. Gaddam Sammaiah 85. Sangthankima 86. Machihan Sasa 87. Omprakash Sharma 88. Eklabya Sharma 89. Ram Chander Sihag 90. Harbinder Singh 91. Gurvinder Singh 92. Godawari Singh 93. Ravi Prakash Singh 94. Seshampatti T Sivalingam 95. Somanna 96. Kethavath Somlal 97. Shashi Soni 98. Urmila Srivastava 99. Nepal Chandra Sutradhar (Posthumous) 100. Gopinath Swain 101. Laxman Bhatt Tailang 102. Maya Tandon 103. Aswathi Thirunal Gouri Lakshmi Bayi Thampuratty 104. Jagdish Labhshanker Trivedi 105. Sano Vamuzo 106. Balakrishnan Sadanam Puthiya Veetil 107. Kurella Vittalacharya 108. Kiran Vyas 109. Jageshwar Yadav 110. Babu am Yadav
