| Dr. M. Vishweshwariah | 1955 | Civil Service |
| Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru | 1955 | Public Affairs |
| Dr. Bhagwan Das | 1955 | Literature and Education |
| Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant | 1958 | Public Affairs |
| Dr. Dhondo Keshav Karve | 1958 | Social Work |
| Shri. Purushottam Das Tandon | 1961 | Public Affairs |
| Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy | 1961 | Public Affairs |
| Dr. Rajendra Prasad | 1962 | Public Affairs |
| Dr. Pandurang Vaman Kane | 1963 | Social Work |
| Dr.Zakir Hussain | 1963 | Public Affairs |
| Shri. Lal Bahadur Shastri | 1966 | Public Affairs |
| Smt. Indira Gandhi | 1971 | Public Affairs |
| Shri. V.V.Giri | 1975 | Public Affairs |
| Shri. Kumaraswamy Kamraj | 1976 | Public Affairs |
| Mother Teresa | 1980 | Social Work |
| Shri. Acharaya Vinoba Bhave | 1983 | Social Work |
| Abdul Ghaffar Khan | 1987 | Social Work |
| Shri. Marudur Gopalan Ramachandran | 1988 | Public Affairs |
| Dr. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela | 1990 | Public Affairs |
| Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar | 1990 | Public Affairs |
| Sardar Vallabhai Patel | 1991 | Public Affairs |
| Shri. Rajiv Gandhi | 1991 | Public Affairs |
| Shri. Moraji Desai | 1991 | Public Affairs |
| Shri Maulana Abul Kalam Azad | 1992 | Public Affairs |
| Shri. Satyajit Ray | 1992 | Arts |
| Shri Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhai Tata | 1992 | Trade and Industry |
| Shri. Gulzari Lal Nanda | 1997 | Public Affairs |
| Smt. Aruna Asaf Ali | 1997 | Public Affairs |
| Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam | 1997 | Science and Engineering |
| Smt. M.S.Subbulakshmi | 1998 | Arts |
| Smt. Chidambaram Subramaniam | 1998 | Public Affairs |
| Pandit Ravi Shankar | 1999 | Arts |
| Loknayak Jayprakash Narayan | 1999 | Public Affairs |
| Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi | 1999 | Public Affairs |
| Prof. Amartya Sen | 1999 | Literature and Education |
| Late. Ustad Bismillah Khan | 2001 | Arts |
| Kum. Lata Mangeshkar | 2001 | Arts |
| Pandit Bhismen Gururaj Joshi | 2008 | Arts |
