Who was the first Indian recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award?

The correct answer is B, Vinoba Bhave. Acharya Vinoba Bhave won the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1958, in the category of community leadership, and was the first Indian to receive it. The award was created in 1957 in memory of Ramon Magsaysay, the President of the Philippines who died in an air crash that year, and it is often called Asia’s Nobel Prize. Vinoba Bhave was honoured for the Bhoodan movement he began at Pochampally in 1951, walking from village to village to persuade landowners to give land to the landless. Option A is wrong because the cartoonist R. K. Laxman received the award much later, in 1984. Option C is wrong because Jawaharlal Nehru never received it. Option D is wrong because Mahatma Gandhi died in 1948, nine years before the award was instituted. Exam tip: Magsaysay Award began 1957, first Indian Vinoba Bhave 1958, Mother Teresa 1962.