| Year | Winner | Birth-Death | Occupation | State |
| 1954 | C. Rajagopalachari | 1878–1972 | Last Governor-General, Freedom Fighter | Tamil Nadu |
| 1954 | C. V. Raman | 1888–1970 | Nobel-prize winning Physicist | Tamil Nadu |
| 1954 | Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan | 1888–1975 | Second President, First Vice President, Philosopher | Tamil Nadu |
| 1955 | Bhagwan Das | 1869–1958 | Literature, Freedom Fighter | Uttar Pradesh |
| 1955 | Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya | 1861–1962 | Civil Engineer, Dam Architect, Diwan of Princely state of Mysore | Karnataka |
| 1955 | Jawaharlal Nehru | 1889–1964 | First Prime Minister, Freedom Fighter, Author | Uttar Pradesh |
| 1957 | Govind Ballabh Pant | 1887–1961 | Freedom Fighter, Home Minister | Uttarakhand |
| 1958 | Dhondo Keshav Karve | 1858–1962 | Educationist, Social Reformer, Awarded in his birth centenary year | Maharashtra |
| 1961 | Purushottam Das Tandon | 1882–1962 | Freedom Fighter, Educationist | Uttar Pradesh |
| 1961 | Bidhan Chandra Roy | 1882–1962 | Physician, Politician, Former Chief Minister of West Bengal | West Bengal |
| 1962 | Rajendra Prasad | 1884–1963 | First President, Freedom Fighter, Jurist | Bihar |
| 1963 | Pandurang Vaman Kane | 1880–1972 | Indologist and Sanskrit scholar | Maharashtra |
| 1963 | Zakir Hussain | 1897–1969 | Former President, Scholar | Andhra Pradesh |
| 1966 | Lal Bahadur Shastri | 1904–1966 | Posthumous, Second Prime Minister, Freedom Fighter | Uttar Pradesh |
| 1971 | Indira Gandhi | 1917–1984 | Former Prime Minister | Uttar Pradesh |
| 1975 | V. V. Giri | 1894–1980 | Former President, Trade Unionist | Orissa |
| 1976 | K. Kamaraj | 1903–1975 | Posthumous, Freedom Fighter, Chief Minister-Tamil Nadu | Tamil Nadu |
| 1980 | Mother Teresa | 1910–1997 | Nobel Laureate (Peace, 1979) | West Bengal |
| 1983 | Vinoba Bhave | 1895–1982 | Posthumous, Social Reformer, Freedom Fighter | Maharashtra |
| 1987 | Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan | 1890–1988 | First non-citizen, Freedom Fighter | Pakistan |
| 1988 | M. G. Ramachandran | 1917–1987 | Posthumous, Chief Minister-Tamil Nadu, Actor | Tamil Nadu |
| 1990 | B. R. Ambedkar | 1891–1956 | Posthumous, Architect-Indian Constitution,Social Reformer, Economist and Scholar | Maharashtra |
| 1990 | Nelson Mandela | 1918– | Second non-citizen and first non-Indian, Leader of Anti-Apartheid movement | South Africa |
| 1991 | Rajiv Gandhi | 1944–1991 | Posthumous, Former Prime Minister | New Delhi |
| 1991 | Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel | 1875–1950 | Posthumous, Freedom Fighter, First Home Minister of India | Gujarat |
| 1991 | Morarji Desai | 1896–1995 | Former Prime Minister, Freedom Fighter | Gujarat |
| 1992 | Abul Kalam Azad | 1888–1958 | Posthumous, Freedom Fighter, First Education Minister of India | West Bengal |
| 1992 | J. R. D. Tata | 1904–1993 | Industrialist and philanthropist | Maharashtra |
| 1992 | Satyajit Ray | 1922–1992 | Film director | West Bengal |
| 1997 | A. P. J. Abdul Kalam | 1931– | Former President, scientist | Tamil Nadu |
| 1997 | Gulzarilal Nanda | 1898–1998 | Freedom Fighter, former Prime Minister. | Punjab |
| 1997 | Aruna Asaf Ali | 1908–1996 | Posthumous, Freedom Fighter | West Bengal |
| 1998 | M. S. Subbulakshmi | 1916–2004 | Carnatic music vocalist | Tamil Nadu |
| 1998 | Chidambaram Subramaniam | 1910–2000 | Freedom Fighter, Minister of Agriculture (Father of Green revolution) | Tamil Nadu |
| 1998 | Jayaprakash Narayan | 1902–1979 | Posthumous, Freedom Fighter, Social Reformer | Bihar |
| 1999 | Ravi Shankar | 1920– | Sitar player | Uttar Pradesh |
| 1999 | Amartya Sen | 1933– | Nobel-prize winning Economist | West Bengal |
| 1999 | Gopinath Bordoloi | 1890–1950 | Posthumous, Freedom fighter, Chief Minister | Assam |
| 2001 | Lata Mangeshkar | 1929– | Singer | Maharashtra |
| 2001 | Bismillah Khan | 1916–2006 | Classical musician, shehnai maestro | Bihar |
| 2008 | Bhimsen Joshi | 1922– | Hindustani Classical vocalist | Karnataka |