Jawaharlal Nehru Prize for Peace and International Understanding

Jawaharlal Nehru Prize for Peace and International Understanding

This award was established in 1965 as a tribute to the memory of India’s first Prime Minister and his lifelong dedication to the cause of world peace and international understanding.  It is administered by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) to people "for their outstanding contribution to the promotion of international understanding, goodwill and friendship among people of the world". The award includes a plaque, citation and Rs.25 lakh as prize money. 

The following people have received this award

Year                 Recipient                                              Country

1965                 U Thant                                                Burma

1966                 Martin Luther King, Jr. (posthumous)      United States

1967                 Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan                       Pakistan

1968                 Yehudi Menuhin                         United States

1969                 Mother Teresa                                      India

1970                 Kenneth Kaunda                                   Zambia

1971                 Josip Broz Tito                                     Yugoslavia

1972                 André Malraux                                      France

1973                 Julius Nyerere                                      Tanzania

1974                 Raul Prebisch                                       Argentina

1975                 Jonas Salk                                            United States

1976                 Giuseppe Tucci                                    Italy

1977                 Tulsi Meherji Shrestha                            Nepal

1978                 Nichidatsu Fujii                                     Japan

1979                 Nelson Mandela                                   South Africa

1980                 Barbara Ward                                       United Kingdom

1981                 Alva Myrdal & Gunnar Myrdal                Sweden

1982                 Leopold Sedar Senghor                        Senegal

1983                 Bruno Kreisky                                       Austria

1984                 Indira Gandhi (posthumous)               India

1985                 Olof Palme (posthumous)                     Sweden

1987                 Javier Pérez de Cuéllar                         Peru

1988                 Yasser Arafat                                       Palestine

1989                 Robert Mugabe                                    Zimbabwe

1990                 Helmut Kohl                                         Germany

1991                 Aruna Asaf Ali                                      India

1992                 Maurice Strong                                     Canada

1993                 Aung San Suu Kyi                                 Burma

1994                 Mahathir Mohamad                               Malaysia

1995                 Hosni Mubarak                                     Egypt

2003                 Goh Chok Tong                                    Singapore

2004                 Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said (yet to be presented)     Oman

2005                 Wangari Maathai                                   Kenya

2006                 Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva                        Brazil

2007                 Olafur Ragnar Grimsson                       Iceland

2009                 Angela Merkel                                      Germany

No prize was awarded in 1986 and 1995 to 2003.

Mr. Mubarak was given the 1995 award in 2011 as attempts to arrange for his bilateral visit did not materialise on three occasions. Curiously, Mubarak was overthrown and had to quit because of mass public uprising against him and his regime in Egypt. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was conferred the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding for his unique role in providing stability and progress to his country, in upholding the Arab cause, in promoting peace and understanding in the region.