- Out of 53 Bharat Ratna winners, five are Muslims
- 26 Muslims among 336 Padma Vibhushan winners
- Only 91 Muslims in the 1,287 Padma Bhushan winners
- There are 185 Muslims among 3,531 Padma Shri winners
- 35 Muslims among 916 Arjuna Award winners
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – The number of Muslim recipients of India’s four coveted civilian awards – Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, and Padma Shri have remained at “unsatisfactory” levels, as is the case with the Arjuna and Khel Ratna awards. A total of 343 Muslims out of 5,954 recipients received awards in six categories since 1954 or 17.56 per cent, according to data shared in a new book Muslims in India – Ground Reality Verses Fake Narratives – Achievements & Accomplishments.
Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, and Padma Shri are among India’s highest civilian honors for achievements in diverse fields, including art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, civil services, and sports. The government instituted the Padma Vibhushan and the Bharat Ratna in 1954. The Padma Vibhushan had three classes, which were renamed in 1955 to Padma Shri, the lowest of the three; Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan, the highest Padma Awards. The Padma Awards, along with the Bharat Ratna, were suspended twice.
The first time was in 1978 when Morarji Desai government contended that the awards did not conform with Article 18 (Abolition of Titles) of the Indian Constitution, which states: “No title, not being a military or academic distinction, shall be conferred by the State.” The awards were reinstated in January 1980 when Indira Gandhi returned to office. The awards were suspended again between 1992 and 1997, following litigation that questioned their constitutional validity, again citing Article 18 and were reinstated after the Supreme Court ruled that the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Awards are not ‘titles’ as defined by Article 18 of the Constitution and that they are national in character.
Bismillah Khan is among four personalities who were conferred with the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan, and Bharat Ratna India’s fourth, third, second, and first-highest civilian awards. Dr MS Swaminathan has been conferred with the Padma Shri (1962), Padma Bhushan (1972), Padma Vibhushan (1989), India’s fourth, third, and second-highest civilian awards.
Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award instituted in 1954 awarded in recognition of exceptional service/performance of the highest order in any field, has been given to 53 individuals till now, including five Muslims. Notably, no Bharat Ratna awards were conferred from 2020 to 2023. In a single year, up to three individuals can receive this award. However, the Narendra Modi government bestowed this coveted award to five people in 2024 – the year when the 18th General Elections were due – Karpoori Thakur, LK Advani, PV Narasimha Rao, Charan Singh, and MS Swaminathan.
Dr Zakir Husain became the first Muslim recipient of Bharat Ratna in 1963, a year after he became the second Vice President of India. The next Muslim winner came in 1987 – ‘Frontier Gandhi’ Abdul Ghaffar Khan, an Independence activist, a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, and an advocate of Hindu–Muslim unity in the subcontinent. In 1991, Moulana Abul Kalam Azad, the first Education Minister of India whose birthday is observed annually as National Education Day, was recognised for his contribution through this prestigious recognition.
Six years later came this recognition to Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, an aerospace and defense scientist behind India’s first satellite launch vehicle and Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme who would become the 11th President of India in 2002. In the first year of the 21st century, Bismillah Khan, a Hindustani classical shehnai player, was chosen to bring this musical instrument to the world stage.
Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian award given to individuals for “exceptional and distinguished service” had a total of 336 winners since 1954, including 26 Muslims. Till now, this award has been given to 28 posthumous recipients and 24 non-citizens. Dr Zakir Hussain was the first Muslim to be awarded the Padma Vibhushan in its very first year, along with five others. The other winner the following year was Bihar’s Fazl Ali who headed the States Reorganisation Commission formed in August 1953.
The 1960s witnessed two Muslims getting this award – Nawab Mehdi Nawaz Jung, a former Secretary to the Executive Council of the Nizam of Hyderabad, and the first commissioner of the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad who also served as Governor of Gujarat for five years from 1960, and Hafiz Mohamad Ibrahim, a former governor of Punjab and Minister of Communication and Irrigation for United Provinces from 1937 to 50.
Five Muslims got these awards in the 1970s – Sarod player and multi-instrumentalist Allauddin Khan; former prime minister of Jammu and Kashmir from 1964 to 1965 and the chief minister till his death in 1971, Ghulam Mohammed Sadiq; Ornithologist Salim Moiz Uddin Abdul Ali, the first Indian to conduct systematic bird surveys across the country; Sayyid Bashir Hussain Zaidi, a member of the first Lok Sabha and the Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University from 1956 to 1962; and Ali Yavar Jung, a former Indian Ambassador to Argentina, Egypt, Yugoslavia and Greece, France, and the US and Governor of Maharashtra from 1971 to 1976.
After remaining suspended for two years, the awards returned to life with shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan getting it in 1980. Eight years later, Mirza Hameedullah Beg, the 15th Chief Justice of India from January 1977 to February 1978, got it. A year later, Ali Akbar Khan, an Indian Hindustani classical musician, was felicitated with the award. The 1990 witnessed the ‘Missile Man of India’ Dr Abdul Kalam getting it under the Science & Engineering category.
The following year came the recognition of the famed creative painter Maqbool Fida Husain. The award remained suspended for five years from 1993 to 1997. The next Muslim to get the award in the year 2000 was Sikander Bakht, former general secretary/vice president of BJP, a former minister of external affairs, and Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha who in 2002 became governor of Kerala.
In the first year of the 21st century, the lone Muslim winner was sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. Five years later, it went to Obaid Siddiqi, a celebrated biologist whose pioneering work shed light on how taste and smell are detected. He was also the founder-director of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research National Centre for Biological Sciences.
Ebrahim Alkazi, a doyen of contemporary theater in India, won it in 2010, the year which also witnessed Zohra Mumtaz Sehgal, an Indian actress, dancer, and choreographer, winning it. In the first year of the second decade of the 21st century, it went to AR Kidwai, an Indian chemist and a former governor of Bihar, West Bengal, Haryana, and Rajasthan. Another winner that year was Azim Hasim Premji, the czar of the Indian IT Industry and chief of Wipro Group, India’s fourth-largest IT company with 2,34,054 employees by 2024.
In the last years of the second United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government headed by Dr Manmohan Singh, only one Muslim got this award – Sayed Haider Raza, a painter known for his abstract style inspired by Indian spiritualism and mythology. After the BJP-led NDA government assumed power in 2014 and until 2024, 60 Indians were given recognition under this award category, including four Muslims – renowned tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain; Islamic scholar and peace activist, Moulana Wahid Uddin Khan; Classical musician Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan; and celebrated thespian Yousuf Khan (Dilip Kumar).
India’s third highest civilian award, Padma Bhushan, also instituted in 1954, has a total of 1,287 winners including 91 Muslims, till 2024. The Padma Bhushan recipients between 1954 and 1959 stood at 94, including eight Muslims. Its first winner in 1954 was Maulana Husain Ahmad Madani who had called upon Muslims to give up politics of all kinds and participate in the nation-building post-partition. Two years later it went to Nawab Zain Yar Jung, former Chief Architect of Hyderabad State. In 1957, it was bagged by Abid Hussain, an economist and civil servant who later became a member of the Planning Commission from 1985 to 1990, and India’s ambassador to the US from 1990 to 1992. Also, the other winner that year was Ustad Mushtaq Hussain Khan, a classical vocalist.
The two winners in 1958 were ornithologist Dr Salim Ali and Ustad Allauddin Khan, a sarod player and multi-instrumentalist. Two winners in 1959 were Nawab Ali Yavar Jung, a former Ambassador to the US, and Dr Ghulam Yazdani, a lead-founder of the Archaeological Department in the Hyderabad State who played a pivotal role in unearthing vast swathes of Deccani history.
In the 1960s came a total of 200 awards recognising nine different fields. Seventeen among them were Muslims including Kazi Nazrul Islam, a Bengali poet; sarod player Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan; Islamic scholar, India’s second ambassador to Egypt and Vice Chancellor of the University of Jammu and Kashmir, Asaf Ali Asghar Fayzee; Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan; three-time Delhi mayor, Nuruddin Ahmed; former West Bengal cabinet minister Rafi Uddin Ahmed; former Governor of Odissa and Uttar Pradesh Akbar Ali Khan; Hindustani classical musician, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan; shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan; dhrupad singer Rahim-Uddin Khan Dagar, and educationists Samad Yar Khan Saghar Nizami and Haroon Khan Sherwani.
A total of 205 awards were presented between 1970 and 1979. The recipients included 10 Muslims: Syed Abdul Latif, Amir Khan, Nissar Hussain Khan, Mohammed Hayat, Syed Husain Zaheer, Maqbool Fida Hussain, Habib Rahman, Begum Akhtar, Zehra Ali Yavar Jung, and Yousuf Hussain Khan. A total of 134 awards were presented in the 1980s which included 10 Muslims. Among them were Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, Khadim Hussain Khan, Dr Syed Zahoor Qasim, Abdul Khader ‘Prem Nazir’, Obaid Siddiqi, Rais Ahmed, Sadat Abul Masud, Nasir Aminuddin Daggar, Mohammad Yunus and Dr Abid Hussain.
Nine Muslims were among 113 people who were conferred with the award in the 1990s. The list included Dr Mohammad Khalilullah, Ebrahim Alkazi, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Yousuf Khan ‘Dilip Kumar’, Ale Ahmad Suroor, Hakim Abdul Hameed, singer Talat Mahmood, Syed Abdul Malik, and legendary musician Naushad. Twenty-three Muslims were among 291 awardees in the 2000s. This includes Moulana Wahid Uddin Khan, Begum Aizaz Rasul, Ustad Zakir Hussain, actor Naseeruddin Shah, Irfan Habib, Qurratulain Hyder, Azim Premji, Syed Mir Qasim, Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan, Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan, lyricist Javed Akhtar, Syed Mohammad Sharfuddin Quadri, Syed Haider Raza, Ustad Rahim Fahimuddin Dagar, legendary singer Shamshad Begum and Dr Khalid Hameed.
In the 2010s, a total of 218 individuals were conferred with the award. The list included 14 Muslims including musician Mohammed Zahur Khayyam, writer Fareed Zakaria, actress Waheeda Rehman, film actor Aamir Khan, actress Shabana Azmi, musician AR Rahman, civil servant Moosa Raza, artist Abdul Rashid Khan, Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh, singer Begum Parveen Sultana, and sportswoman Sania Mirza.
Between 2020 and 2023, a total of 51 individuals got the award including six Muslims: Shia Muslim preacher Moulana Kalbe Sadiq, former Union minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ustad Rashid Khan, and Justice Fathima Beevi.
Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian award that recognises distinguished service in any field, had a total of 3,531 winners including 185 Muslims. A study showed that the total number of Padma Awards given to Muslims under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)-I was 534. In the NDA II regime since 2014 under Narendra Modi, the government has given a total of 424 awards (till 2018), and only 15 Muslims were included in the list – their share down to 3.5 per cent.
Khel Ratna, officially Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award and formerly Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, is the highest sporting award that has been won by a total of 58 personalities, including only one Muslim – Sania Mirza was awarded this award in 2015.
Arjuna Award, the second-highest sporting recognition for outstanding performance in sports and games, has been given to a total of 916 people, 35 of whom were Muslims. In the 1960s, there were Muslims among its 95 winners: Cricketers Salim Durani and Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, football star Yousuf Khan and Mir Khasim Ali in Table Tennis.
Five Muslims again were winners in the 1970s out of a total of 136 – Gulam Abbas Moontasir (Basketball), Syed Nayeem Uddin (Football), Dafadar Mohammed Khan (Equestrian), Afsar Hussain (Yachting), and Abdul Kareem (Ball Badminton). In the 1980s, 11 Muslims were among 147 winners. They were Mohammed Habib (Football), Syed Kirmani (Cricket), Syed Modi (Badminton), Mohammed Shahid (Hockey), Sabir Ali (Athletics), Zafar Iqbal (Hockey), Ghulam Mohammed Khan (Equestrian), Mohammed Amin Naik (Rowing), Mohammad Azharuddin (Cricket), Abdul Basith (Volleyball), and Yasin Merchant (Billiards & Snooker).
In the 1990s, four Muslims were among 147 sportspersons who bagged this award – Ali Sher (Golf), Morad Ali Khan (Shooting), Asif Ismail (Lawn Tennis), and Mohammed Riaz (Hockey). Between 200 and 2009, a total of 151 sportspersons won this award which included eight Muslims – Akhtar Ali (Lawn Tennis), Jalaluddin Rizvi (Hockey), Kasam Khan (Rowing), Mohammed Ali Qamar (Boxing), Anwar Sultan (Shooting), Akram Shah (Judo), Sania Mirza (Lawn Tennis), and Farman Basha (Powerlifting).
Four Muslims were among 178 winners between 2010 and 2019 – Zaheer Khan (Cricket), Saba Anjum Karim (Hockey), Mohammed Anas (Athletics), and Fouad Mirza (Equestrian). Between 2020 and 2023, as many as 113 sports personalities won this award including four Muslims – Nikhat Zareen (Boxing), Mohammad Hussam Uddin (Boxing), Mohammed Shami (Cricket), and Nasreen Shaikh (Kho Kho).
Dronacharya Award for Outstanding Coaches in Sports and Games, given annually since 1985, has been given to 105 people till 2023. No awards were given in 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, and 2008. Five Muslims won this award. Syed Naeem Uddin (Football) won in1990, Ilyas Babar (Athletics) in 1994, SM Arif (Badminton) in 2000, Ismail Baig (Rowing) in 2005, and Mohammed Ali Qamar (Boxing) in 2022. Only one Muslim is on the list of 46 winners of the Lifetime Award from various disciplines. In 2015, Nihar Ameen won in the swimming domain.
Hilal Ahmed, a Political Islam scholar and Associate Professor at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, wrote in The Print, in January 2019: “The Padma Awards have become a crucial symbol to legitimise Muslim contribution in India over the years. Padma Awards reflect the state’s imagination of Indian society. It shows that all political parties do recognise Muslims as an inseparable constituent of the nation.” There is “a consensus that the idea of India cannot be imagined without Muslims,” he said, adding: “The Padma Awards should not be overstretched to the debate on Muslim representation. The selected Muslim individuals, technically, are not identified based on their religious identity, nor do they represent the interests of Muslims.”
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