Arjuna Award
Civilian award for outstanding individual achievements in National Sports
Sponsored byGovt. of India
Established1961
First awarded1961
Highlights
Total awarded113

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, 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

In 2020, a total of twenty-seven individuals were conferred with the award. Individuals from nineteen different sports were awarded, which includes three from shooting, two each from athletics, badminton, boxing, cricket, hockey and wrestling, and one each from archery, basketball, equestrian, football, golf, kabaddi, kho kho, lawn tennis, rowing, swimming, table tennis and winter sports. Three individuals were also awarded from parasports.

In 2022, a total of twenty-five individuals have been conferred with the award. Individuals from fourteen different sports were awarded, which includes three from athletics, two each from badminton, boxing, chess, shooting and wrestling, and one each from hockey, judo, kabaddi, lawn bowls, mallakhamb, table tennis, weightlifting and wushu. Four individuals were also awarded from parasports.

List of recipients

Award recipients by year[9]
Year Number of recipients
2020
27
2021
35
2022
25
2023
26
Award recipients by sport[9]
Sport Number of recipients
Archery
5
Athletics
12
Badminton
8
Basketball
1
Boxing
6
Canoeing
1
Chess
3
Cricket
5
Equestrian
3
Fencing
1
Football
1
Golf
2
Hockey
23
Judo
1
Kabaddi
5
Kho Kho
2
Lawn Bowls
2
Mallakhamba
2
Rowing
1
Shooting
9
Squash
1
Swimming
2
Table Tennis
4
Tennis
2
Weightlifting
1
Winter Sports
1
Wrestling
7
Wushu
2
Key
§ Indicates Para sports
List of Arjuna award recipients, showing the year, sport, and gender[9]
Year Recipient Sport Gender
2020 Atanu Das ArcheryMale
2020 Dutee Chand AthleticsFemale
2020 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy BadmintonMale
2020 Chirag Shetty BadmintonMale
2020 Vishesh Bhriguvanshi BasketballMale
2020 Manish Kaushik BoxingMale
2020 Lovlina Borgohain BoxingFemale
2020 Ishant Sharma CricketMale
2020 Deepti Sharma CricketFemale
2020 Sawant Ajay Anant EquestrianMale
2020 Sandesh Jhingan FootballMale
2020 Aditi Ashok GolfFemale
2020 Akashdeep Singh HockeyMale
2020 Deepika Thakur HockeyFemale
2020 Deepak Niwas Hooda KabaddiMale
2020 Sarika Kale Kho KhoFemale
2020 Dattu Baban Bhokanal RowingMale
2020 Manu Bhaker ShootingFemale
2020 Saurabh Chaudhary ShootingMale
2020 Madhurika Patkar Table TennisFemale
2020 Divij Sharan TennisMale
2020 Shiva Keshavan Winter SportsMale
2020 Divya Kakran WrestlingFemale
2020 Rahul Aware WrestlingMale
2020 Suyash Jadhav Swimming§Male
2020 Sandeep Chaudhary Athletics§Male
2020 Manish Narwal Shooting§Male
2021 Arpinder Singh AthleticsMale
2021 Simranjit Kaur BoxingFemale
2021 Shikhar Dhawan CricketMale
2021 C. A. Bhavani Devi FencingFemale
2021 Monika Malik HockeyFemale
2021 Vandana Katariya HockeyFemale
2021 Sandeep Narwal KabaddiMale
2021 Himani Uttam Parab MallakhambaFemale
2021 Abhishek Verma ShootingMale
2021 Ankita Raina TennisFemale
2021 Deepak Punia WrestlingMale
2021 Dilpreet Singh HockeyMale
2021 Harmanpreet Singh HockeyMale
2021 Rupinder Pal Singh HockeyMale
2021 Surender Kumar HockeyMale
2021 Amit Rohidas HockeyMale
2021 Birendra Lakra HockeyMale
2021 Sumit Walmiki HockeyMale
2021 Nilakanta Sharma HockeyMale
2021 Hardik Singh HockeyMale
2021 Vivek Sagar Prasad HockeyMale
2021 Gurjant Singh HockeyMale
2021 Mandeep Singh HockeyMale
2021 Shamsher Singh HockeyMale
2021 Lalit Kumar Upadhyay HockeyMale
2021 Varun Kumar HockeyMale
2021 Simranjeet Singh HockeyMale
2021 Yogesh Kathuniya Athletics§Male
2021 Nishad Kumar Athletics§Male
2021 Praveen Kumar Athletics§Male
2021 Suhas Lalinakere Yathiraj Badminton§Male
2021 Singhraj Adhana Shooting§Male
2021 Bhavina Patel Table Tennis§Female
2021 Harvinder Singh Archery§Male
2021 Sharad Kumar Athletics§Male
2022 Seema Punia AthleticsFemale
2022 Eldhose Paul AthleticsMale
2022 Avinash Sable AthleticsMale
2022 Lakshya Sen BadmintonMale
2022 Prannoy H. S. BadmintonMale
2022 Amit Panghal BoxingMale
2022 Nikhat Zareen BoxingFemale
2022 Bhakti Kulkarni ChessFemale
2022 R Praggnanandhaa ChessMale
2022 Deep Grace Ekka HockeyFemale
2022 Shushila Devi Likmabam JudoFemale
2022 Sakshi Kumari KabaddiFemale
2022 Nayanmoni Saikia Lawn BowlsFemale
2022 Sagar Kailas Ovhalkar MallakhambaMale
2022 Elavenil Valarivan ShootingFemale
2022 Om Prakash Mitharwal ShootingMale
2022 Sreeja Akula Table TennisFemale
2022 Vikas Thakur WeightliftingMale
2022 Anshu Malik WrestlingFemale
2022 Sarita Mor WrestlingFemale
2022 Praveen Kumar WushuMale
2022 Manasi Girishchandra Joshi Badminton§Female
2022 Tarun Dhillon Badminton§Male
2022 Swapnil Sanjay Patil Swimming§Male
2022 Jerlin Anika Badminton§Female
2023 Ojas Pravin Deotale ArcheryMale
2023 Aditi Swami ArcheryFemale
2023 Murali Sreeshankar AthleticsMale
2023 Parul Chaudhary AthleticsFemale
2023 Mohammad Hussamuddin BoxingMale
2023 R Vaishali ChessFemale
2023 Mohammed Shami CricketMale
2023 Anush Agarwalla EquestrianMale
2023 Divyakriti Singh EquestrianFemale
2023 Diksha Dagar GolfFemale
2023 Krishan Pathak HockeyMale
2023 Sushila Chanu HockeyFemale
2023 Pawan Sehrawat KabaddiMale
2023 Ritu Negi KabaddiFemale
2023 Nasreen Shaikh Kho KhoFemale
2023 Pinki Singh Lawn BowlsFemale
2023 Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar ShootingMale
2023 Esha Singh ShootingFemale
2023 Harinder Pal Sandhu SquashMale
2023 Ayhika Mukherjee Table TennisFemale
2023 Sunil Kumar WrestlingMale
2023 Antim Panghal WrestlingFemale
2023 Naorem Roshibina Devi WushuFemale
2023 Sheetal Devi Archery§Female
2023 Ajay Kumar Reddy Cricket§Male
2023 Prachi Yadav Canoeing§Female

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 2] It was revised to one time cash prize of ₹5,000 (US$63) in 1986,[lower-alpha 3] to ₹20,000 (US$250) in 1987,[lower-alpha 4] to ₹50,000 (US$630) in 1993,[lower-alpha 5] to ₹1.5 lakh (US$1,900) in 1998,[lower-alpha 6] to ₹3 lakh (US$3,800) in 2001,[lower-alpha 7] to ₹5 lakh (US$6,300) in 2009,[lower-alpha 8] and to ₹15 lakh (US$19,000) in 2020.[lower-alpha 9]
  2. "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.
  3. "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.
  4. "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.
  5. "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.
  6. "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.
  7. "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.
  8. "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.
  9. "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
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