Arjuna Award
Civilian award for outstanding individual achievements in National Sports
Sponsored byGovt. of India
Established1961
First awarded1961
Highlights
Total awarded136

The Arjuna Award, officially known as the Arjuna Awards for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games,[1] is the sports honour of Republic of India. It is awarded annually by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. Before the introduction of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 1991–1992, the Arjuna award was the highest sporting honour of India.[2][3] As of 2020, the award comprises "a bronze statuette of Arjuna, certificate, ceremonial dress, and a cash prize of ₹15 lakh (US$19,000)."[lower-alpha 1]

Name

The award is named after Arjuna, a character from the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata of ancient India. He is one of the Pandavas, depicted as a skilled archer winning the hand of Draupadi in marriage and in the Kurukshetra War, Lord Krishna becomes his charioteer teaching him the sacred knowledge of Gita.[4] In Hindu mythology, he has been seen as a symbol of hard work, dedication and concentration.[5]

History

Instituted in 1961 to honour the outstanding sportspersons of the country,[6] the award over the years has undergone a number of expansions, reviews, and rationalizations. The award was expanded to include all the recognised disciplines in 1977, has introduced indigenous games and physically handicapped categories in 1995 and introduced a lifetime contribution category in 1995 leading to creation of a separate Dhyan Chand Award in 2002.[7][8] The latest revision in 2018 stipulates that the award is given only to the disciplines included in the events like Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, World Championship and World Cup along with Cricket, Indigenous Games, and Parasports. It also recommends giving only fifteen awards in a year, relaxing in case of excellent performance in major multi-sport events, team sports, across gender and giving away of at least one award to physically challenged category.[1]

The nominations for the award are received from all government recognised National Sports Federations, the Indian Olympic Association, the Sports Authority of India (SAI), the Sports Promotion and Control Boards, the state and the union territory governments and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna, Dhyan Chand and Dronacharya awardees of the previous years. The recipients are selected by a committee constituted by the Ministry and are honoured for their "good performance in the field of sports over a period of four years" at international level and for having shown "qualities of leadership, sportsmanship and a sense of discipline".[1]

Recipients

A total of 136 awards were presented in the 1970s – thirteen in 1970, followed by twelve in 1971, fourteen in 1972, seventeen in 1973, fourteen in 1974, nineteen in 1975, ten in 1976, ten in 1977–1978, sixteen in 1978–1979 and eleven in 1979–1980. Individuals from twenty-eight different sports were awarded, which includes fourteen from athletics, thirteen from hockey, nine each from cricket and volleyball, eight from weightlifting, seven each from badminton, basketball and kho kho, six each from boxing and swimming, five each from ball badminton, football, table tennis and wrestling, four from golf, three each from billiards, kabaddi, shooting and yachting, two each from bodybuilding, cycling, equestrian and lawn tennis, and one each from gymnastics, polo, powerlifting, snooker and squash.[9]

List of recipients

Award recipients by year[9]
Year Number of recipients
1970
13
1971
12
1972
14
1973
17
1974
14
1975
19
1976
10
1977–1978
10
1978–1979
16
1979–1980
11
Award recipients by sport[9]
Sport Number of recipients
Athletics
14
Badminton
7
Ball Badminton
5
Basketball
7
Billiards
3
Bodybuilding
2
Boxing
6
Cricket
9
Cycling
2
Equestrian
2
Football
5
Golf
4
Gymnastics
1
Hockey
13
Kabaddi
3
Kho kho
7
Lawn Tennis
2
Polo
1
Powerlifting
1
Shooting
3
Snooker
1
Squash
1
Swimming
6
Table Tennis
5
Volleyball
9
Weightlifting
8
Wrestling
5
Yachting
3
Key
§ Indicates Para sports
List of Arjuna award recipients, showing the year, sport, and gender[9]
Year Recipient Sport Gender
1970 S. J. Contractor YachtingMale
1970 Arun Kumar Dass WeightliftingMale
1970 Michael Ferreira BilliardsMale
1970 Mohinder Singh Gill AthleticsMale
1970 Gudalore Jagannath Table TennisMale
1970 Sudesh Kumar WrestlingMale
1970 Gulam Abbas Moontasir BasketballMale
1970 Syed Nayeemuddin FootballMale
1970 Sudhir B. Parab Kho khoMale
1970 J. Pitchayya Ball BadmintonMale
1970 Dilip Sardesai CricketMale
1970 Ajit Pal Singh HockeyMale
1970 Damayanti Tambay BadmintonFemale
1971 Achala Suberao Devra Kho khoMale
1971 Kaity Farookh Khodaiji Table TennisFemale
1971 Sobha Morthy BadmintonFemale
1971 Krishnamurthy Perumal HockeyMale
1971 Shyamlal Salwan WeightliftingMale
1971 Edward Sequeira AthleticsMale
1971 Bhanwar Singh SwimmingMale
1971 Bhim Singh ShootingMale
1971 C. P. Singh FootballMale
1971 M. M. Singh BasketballMale
1971 Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan CricketMale
1971 Muniswamy Venu BoxingMale
1972 B. S. Chandrashekhar CricketMale
1972 Vijay Singh Chauhan AthleticsMale
1972 Udayan Chinubhai ShootingMale
1972 Anjani N. Desai GolfFemale
1972 Michael Kindo HockeyMale
1972 Anil Kumar Mandal WeightliftingMale
1972 Satish Kumar Mohan BilliardsMale
1972 Chandraya Narayanan BoxingMale
1972 Prem Nath WrestlingMale
1972 Prakash Padukone BadmintonMale
1972 S. M. Shetty KabaddiMale
1972 Balwant Singh VolleyballMale
1972 Eknath Solkar CricketMale
1972 Jayamma Srinivasan Ball BadmintonFemale
1973 Niraj Ramkrishna Bajaj Table TennisMale
1973 M. P. Ganesh HockeyMale
1973 Bhola Nath Guin KabaddiMale
1973 Afsar Hussain YachtingMale
1973 A. Kareem Ball BadmintonMale
1973 Surendra Kumar Kataria BasketballMale
1973 Dafadar Md. Khan EquestrianMale
1973 Dhanvir Khatau SwimmingMale
1973 O. Mascarenhas HockeyFemale
1973 B. H. Parikh Kho khoFemale
1973 Magan Singh Rajvi FootballMale
1973 G. Mulilini Reddy VolleyballFemale
1973 Shyam Shroff BilliardsMale
1973 Jagroop Singh WrestlingMale
1973 Mehtab Singh BoxingMale
1973 Sriram Singh AthleticsMale
1973 Vikramjit Singh GolfMale
1974 Vijay Amritraj Lawn TennisMale
1974 Manjari Bhargava Swimming[lower-alpha 2]Female
1974 Anjan Bhattacharjee Cricket§Male
1974 Raman Ghosh BadmintonMale
1974 Ajinder Kaur HockeyFemale
1974 Ashok Kumar HockeyMale
1974 Anil Kumar Punj BasketballMale
1974 Shivnath Singh Rajput AthleticsMale
1974 M. Syamsunder Rao VolleyballMale
1974 Avinash B. Sarang Swimming[lower-alpha 3]Male
1974 N. C. Sarolkar Kho khoFemale
1974 Satpal Singh WrestlingMale
1974 S. Vellaiswamy WeightliftingMale
1974 T. C. Yohannan AthleticsMale
1975 Devinder Ahuja BadmintonMale
1975 V. Anusuya Bai AthleticsFemale
1975 Hari Chand AthleticsMale
1975 Mantu Debnath GymnasticsMale
1975 Smita Desai SwimmingFemale
1975 K. C. Elamma VolleyballFemale
1975 Sunil Gavaskar CricketMale
1975 B. P. Govinda HockeyMale
1975 Shreerang J. Inamdar Kho khoMale
1975 L. A. Iqbal Ball BadmintonMale
1975 S. K. Jamshed GolfMale
1975 Usha Vasant Nagarkar Kho khoFemale
1975 M. S. Rana SwimmingMale
1975 Rupa Saini HockeyFemale
1975 Amar Singh CyclingMale
1975 Dalbir Singh WeightliftingMale
1975 Hanuman Singh BasketballMale
1975 Ranvir Singh VolleyballMale
1975 V. P. Singh PoloMale
1976 K. Balamuruganandam WeightliftingMale
1976 Bahadur Singh Chouhan AthleticsMale
1976 A. Sam Christ Das Ball BadmintonMale
1976 S. R. Dharwadkar Kho khoMale
1976 Jimmy George VolleyballMale
1976 Ami Ghia BadmintonFemale
1976 Shantha Rangaswamy CricketFemale
1976 Shailaja Salokhe Table TennisFemale
1976 H. S. Sodhi EquestrianMale
1976 Geeta Zutshi AthleticsFemale
1977–1978 Leslie Fernandez HockeyFemale
1977–1978 Satish Kumar Athletics§Male
1977–1978 A. Ramana Rao VolleyballMale
1977–1978 Sita Rawlley GolfFemale
1977–1978 M. T. Selvan WeightliftingMale
1977–1978 Harcharan Singh HockeyMale
1977–1978 Kanwal Thakar Singh BadmintonFemale
1977–1978 Birender Singh Thapa BoxingMale
1977–1978 T. Vijayaraghava BasketballMale
1977–1978 Gundappa Viswanath CricketMale
1978–1979 Suresh Babu AthleticsMale
1978–1979 Shubrata Dutta PowerliftingMale
1978–1979 Gurdev Singh Gill FootballMale
1978–1979 Angel Mary Joseph AthleticsFemale
1978–1979 Ekambaram Karunakaran WeightliftingMale
1978–1979 Shernaz Kermani Paraplegics§[lower-alpha 4]Female
1978–1979 S. P. Khatavkar KabaddiFemale
1978–1979 Kutty Krishnan VolleyballMale
1978–1979 C. C. Machaiah BoxingMale
1978–1979 Minati Mahapatra CyclingFemale
1978–1979 Nirupama Mankad Lawn TennisFemale
1978–1979 S. K. Mongia YachtingMale
1978–1979 Monotosh Roy BodybuildingMale
1978–1979 Arvind Savur SnookerMale
1978–1979 Rajinder Singh WrestlingMale
1978–1979 Randhir Singh ShootingMale
1979–1980 Prasun Banerjee FootballMale
1979–1980 Vasudevan Baskaran HockeyMale
1979–1980 Kapil Dev CricketMale
1979–1980 Ramaswamy Gnanasekaran AthleticsMale
1979–1980 Rajkumar Manchanda SquashMale
1979–1980 Suresh Kumar Mishra VolleyballMale
1979–1980 Rekha B. Mundhphan HockeyFemale
1979–1980 Sunil Kumar Patra BodybuildingMale
1979–1980 Om Prakash BasketballMale
1979–1980 Indu Puri Table TennisFemale
1979–1980 Bakshish Singh BoxingMale

Explanatory notes

  1. ↑ The cash prize was introduced in the year 1977–1978 as a scholarship of ₹200 (US$2.50) a month for 2 years.[lower-alpha 5] It was revised to one time cash prize of ₹5,000 (US$63) in 1986,[lower-alpha 6] to ₹20,000 (US$250) in 1987,[lower-alpha 7] to ₹50,000 (US$630) in 1993,[lower-alpha 8] to ₹1.5 lakh (US$1,900) in 1998,[lower-alpha 9] to ₹3 lakh (US$3,800) in 2001,[lower-alpha 10] to ₹5 lakh (US$6,300) in 2009,[lower-alpha 11] and to ₹15 lakh (US$19,000) in 2020.[lower-alpha 12]
  2. ↑ Diving
  3. ↑ Long-distance swimming
  4. ↑ Wheelchair, Javelin throw, Swimming & Table Tennis
  5. "Two years Scholarship for winners" (PDF) (Press release). Press Information Bureau, India. 27 October 1978. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 December 2020. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  6. "Arjuna Award for 1986 to 13 Sports persons" (PDF) (Press release). Press Information Bureau, India. 12 January 1988. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 December 2020. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  7. "Value of cash prize enhanced" (PDF) (Press release). Press Information Bureau, India. 30 May 1989. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 December 2020. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  8. "Arjuna awards, Dronachrya awards for 1998 Presented" (PDF) (Press release). Press Information Bureau, India. 22 July 1993. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 December 2020. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  9. "Value of cash prize enhanced" (Press release). Press Information Bureau, India. 1 September 1998. Archived from the original on 29 December 2020. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  10. "Arjuna Awards scheme Revised" (Press release). Press Information Bureau, India. 3 April 2002. Archived from the original on 29 December 2020. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  11. "Several initiatives undertaken for transformation of sports" (Press release). Press Information Bureau, India. 22 December 2009. Archived from the original on 1 October 2020. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  12. "Enhancement of cash amount of Sports Awards 2020" (PDF). Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (India). 27 August 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 December 2020. Retrieved 22 September 2020.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Revised Scheme of Arjuna Award" (PDF). Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (India). 7 September 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 December 2020. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  2. ↑ Chhetri, Vivek (30 May 2015). "Team spirit at its peak for Arjuna". Telegraph India. Archived from the original on 1 October 2020. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  3. ↑ "Vishwanathan Anand gets Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award" (PDF) (Press release). Press Information Bureau, India. 18 August 1992. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 December 2020. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  4. ↑ Davis, Richard H. (26 October 2014). The Bhagavad Gita. ISBN 978-0-691-13996-8.
  5. ↑ "Sports Ministry unveils new look Sports Awards" (Press release). Press Information Bureau, India. 26 August 2009. Archived from the original on 28 November 2020. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  6. ↑ Bhardwaj, D. K. "India in Sports: Some Fabulous Achievements". Press Information Bureau, India. Archived from the original on 13 August 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
  7. ↑ "Cash awards for Arjuna winners" (PDF) (Press release). Press Information Bureau, India. 12 October 1977. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 December 2020. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  8. ↑ "Arjuna Awards further expanded" (PDF) (Press release). Press Information Bureau, India. 24 May 1995. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 December 2020. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "List of Arjuna Awardees (1961-2018)" (PDF). Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (India). Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 July 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
    • "Arjuna Award Winners 1961-1973" (PDF) (Press release). Press Information Bureau, India. 10 August 1974. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 December 2020. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
    • "Arjuna Awards-1974" (PDF) (Press release). Press Information Bureau, India. 10 December 1975. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 December 2020. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
    • "Arjuna Award for 19" (PDF) (Press release). Press Information Bureau, India. 30 April 1977. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 December 2020. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
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