Highest Civilian Honours of Countries: Awards and Facts

The correct answer is D, Padma Bhushan. The Indian civilian honours run in a fixed order of precedence: the Bharat Ratna first, then Padma Vibhushan, then Padma Bhushan and then Padma Shri. Counting from the top, Padma Bhushan is therefore the third highest, and it is given for distinguished service of a high order in any field. Option A, Padma Vibhushan, is the second highest, awarded for exceptional and distinguished service, and is the option most often chosen by candidates who forget to count the Bharat Ratna. Option B, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, is the highest honour in Indian cinema and is given by the government for lifetime contribution to film; it is outside the civilian order of precedence altogether. Option C, the Arjuna Award, belongs to sport and recognises consistently outstanding performance over several years, so it too is a field award rather than a general civilian honour.

The correct answer is B, 1954. Both the Bharat Ratna and the Padma series were instituted on the second of January 1954, during the presidency of Dr Rajendra Prasad, and the first Bharat Ratna awards went that year to C. Rajagopalachari, C. V. Raman and S. Radhakrishnan. Option A, 1950, is the year the Constitution came into force and is offered because candidates assume the honours began with the Republic; they came four years later. Option C, 1955, is a near miss that is deliberately placed here, because in January 1955 the Padma award, which had first been created as one decoration with three classes, was reorganised into the three separate awards of Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. Option D, 1947, is the year of independence and predates the awards entirely. Read whether a question asks for the institution of the awards or for the renaming of the Padma classes.

The correct answer is B, France. The Legion of Honour was instituted by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 to reward civil and military merit, and it remains the highest decoration of France, awarded in five classes of which the Grand Cross is the highest. It is also the oldest of the major national honours that papers ask about, which is why the same fact is sometimes asked as which is the oldest civilian honour. Option A, Germany, confers the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, instituted in 1951 and popularly called the Bundesverdienstkreuz. Option C, Italy, has the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, also created in 1951 after the monarchy ended. Option D, Spain, has the Order of the Golden Fleece as its senior order and the Order of Charles the third as a leading civil order, so none of these three can be the answer.

The correct answer is C, Pakistan. Nishan-e-Pakistan, which means the order of Pakistan, is the highest civilian decoration conferred by that country and is usually given to heads of state and to those who have rendered outstanding service to Pakistan; the word nishan denotes the highest class in its system of awards, above hilal, sitara and tamgha. Option A, Bangladesh, confers the Independence Award, known as the Swadhinata Puraskar, as its highest state honour. Option B, Afghanistan, has among its highest civilian honours the Amir Amanullah Khan Award, named after the ruler who won its independence in foreign affairs. Option D, Maldives, confers Nishan Izzuddeen, formally the Order of the Distinguished Rule of Izzuddeen; the shared word nishan is exactly why the Maldivian award is placed as a distractor in this question.

The correct answer is D, the United States of America. The Presidential Medal of Freedom was established in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy, replacing an earlier Medal of Freedom of 1945, and it is awarded for especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural and other significant public or private endeavours. The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest honour conferred by the Congress itself, and the two are often confused. Option A, Canada, has the Order of Canada, created in 1967 in its centennial year. Option B, the United Kingdom, has the Order of the Garter, founded in 1348, as its senior order of chivalry, and the George Cross of 1940 as its highest civilian gallantry decoration. Option C, Australia, has the Order of Australia, established in 1975 to replace the British honours system there.

The correct answer is B, three. The rules of the Bharat Ratna provide that not more than three awards may be made in a particular year, and there is no obligation to make any award at all in a given year, which is why several years have passed with none. The award may also be conferred posthumously, a provision used for the first time for Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1966. Option A, two, is a plausible sounding but wrong figure and is the commonest distractor. Option C, five, is confused with the annual ceiling on some other decorations and has no basis in the Bharat Ratna rules. Option D is wrong because a ceiling does exist, and it exists precisely to keep the honour rare; the Padma awards, by contrast, are announced in larger numbers every year on the eve of Republic Day, and that difference in scale is what the question is really testing.

The correct answer is C, Sachin Tendulkar. Until December 2011 the Bharat Ratna could be given only for exceptional service in art, literature and science or for public service of the highest order, and sport was outside its scope. The criteria were then widened to any field of human endeavour, and in 2014 Sachin Tendulkar became the first sportsperson to receive the honour; he was also the youngest recipient. Option A, Major Dhyan Chand, is the hockey player after whom the highest award for lifetime achievement in sport is named, and his name is repeatedly proposed for the Bharat Ratna, which is why it is the strongest distractor here. Option B, Milkha Singh, the athlete of the 1960 Rome Olympics, received the Padma Shri and not the Bharat Ratna. Option D, Vishwanathan Anand, the chess grandmaster, received the Padma Vibhushan, which is the second highest civilian honour but not the first.

The correct answer is B, Japan. The Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum is the senior order of Japan, and the chrysanthemum is the emblem of the imperial house, which is why the flower gives the order its name and why the Japanese throne is called the Chrysanthemum Throne. The order is conferred on Japanese of the highest distinction and on foreign heads of state. Option A, China, does not use this order; its senior state honours carry names such as the Order of the Republic and the Friendship Medal for foreigners. Option C, South Korea, confers the Order of Merit for National Foundation and the Grand Order of Mugunghwa, the last named after the rose of Sharon, its national flower, which makes it an attractive wrong answer for a flower named order. Option D, Thailand, has the Order of the Nine Gems and the Order of Chula Chom Klao among its highest decorations.

The correct answer is A, Sri Lanka. Sri Lankabhimanya, which means the pride of Sri Lanka, is the highest national honour of that country and is awarded for exceptional and outstanding service to the nation; the name itself carries the clue, since the country is named in the award. Option B, Nepal, maintains its own series of orders and decorations conferred by the head of state, none of which carries this name. Option C, Myanmar, has state honours of its own, again with no award of this name. Option D, Bhutan, confers the Order of the Druk Gyalpo, the order of the dragon king, as its highest civilian decoration, and it is the strongest distractor here because it is also a South Asian neighbour whose highest honour is commonly asked in the same set of questions. When an award carries a country name within it, read the option list for that name first.

The correct answer is B, Param Vir Chakra. The Param Vir Chakra is the highest wartime gallantry decoration of the Indian armed forces, given for the most conspicuous bravery in the presence of the enemy, and its peacetime equivalent is the Ashoka Chakra; neither belongs to the civilian order of precedence. Option A, Padma Shri, is the fourth in the civilian order and is given for distinguished service in any field. Option C, Padma Vibhushan, is the second in that order, for exceptional and distinguished service. Option D, Bharat Ratna, is the highest civilian honour of the country. All three of these were instituted in January 1954 and are announced or conferred as civilian decorations, while the gallantry awards were instituted separately in 1950 with effect from the fifteenth of August 1947. Questions of this kind are testing whether a candidate can separate the two chains of honours.