Ashoka Chakra (military decoration)

This article is about the military decoration. For the symbol, see Ashoka Chakra.

The Ashoka Chakra (lit. 'Wheel of Ashoka') is India's highest peacetime military decoration. It is the peacetime equivalent of the Param Vir Chakra and is awarded for the "most conspicuous bravery or some daring or pre-eminent valour or self-sacrifice". The decoration may be awarded either to military personnel or civilians by the Government of India.

Ashoka Chakra
Ashoka Chakra and its ribbon
Type	Medal
Awarded for	Most conspicuous bravery, or some act of daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice
Description	India's highest peacetime military decoration
Country	India
Presented by	Government of India
Eligibility	Officers of Indian Armed Forces, territorial army, militia and any other lawfully constituted forces Members of nursing services of the armed forces Civilians and members of police including central para-military forces and Railway Protection Force
Post-nominals	AC
Status	active
Established	1952; 73 years ago (1952)
First award	1952
Final award	2021
Total awarded posthumously	68
Total recipients	86
Precedence
Next (higher)	Bharat Ratna
Equivalent	Param Vir Chakra[a]
Next (lower)	Padma Vibhushan

The circular medal consists of Ashoka Chakra surrounded by a lotus wreath on the front. The obverse consists of "Ashoka Chakra" written in Devanagari along the upper edge on the medal and in English along the lower rim. It is suspended by a straight bar suspender from a green ribbon with a central saffron stripe.

As of 2025^[update], there have been 86 recipients of the award. Of these, 68 have been posthumous recipients, and 17 have been civilians. Havildar Bachittar Singh of the Indian Army was the first recipient of the award, in 1952. D. K. Jatar, a pilot of Air India's Kashmir Princess was the first civilian recipient of the award, in 1955. Only two women have ever been awarded the Ashok Chakra, flight attendant Neerja Bhanot in 1987 and police constable Kamlesh Kumari in 2001. Two non-Indians, cosmonauts Gennadi Strekalov and Yuri Malyshev were given the award in 1984. Babu Ram of the Jammu and Kashmir Police was the last recipient of the award in 2021.

Description

The medal was originally established on 4 January 1952 as the "Ashoka Chakra, Class I" by the President of India deemed to have been in effect from 15 August 1947.^[1] It was the highest class of the three gallantry awards established at the time.^[2] In January 1967, the award was renamed as Ashok Chakra with the other two classes renamed as Kirti Chakra and Shaurya Chakra respectively.^[1][2] The awards are given out twice a year– during the republic day and independence day.^[2] Though the Ashok Chakra is placed below the Param Vir Chakra in the order of precedence,^[2] it is considered to be the peace time equivalent of the Param Vir Chakra.^[1] The award includes a medal, and a monthly stipend of ₹2,800 (US$33).^[1][3]

Eligibility

The Ashok Chakra can be awarded to all enlisted officers of the Indian Armed Forces including the Indian Army, Indian Airforce, and Indian Navy, the Indian Territorial Army, reserve personnel, and any other legally constituted armed force. Nursing members of the armed forces are also eligible for the award. Police personnel including the Central Armed Police Forces, and the Railway Protection Force are also eligible for the award. The award can also be given to any civilian at the discretion of the Government of India.^[1][3] It is awarded for the "most conspicuous bravery or some daring or pre-eminent valour or self-sacrifice" during times other than war.^[1][3]

Design

The medal is circular with a diameter of 1.375 in (34.9 mm). It has prominent rims and is made of gold gilding. On the front side, it has a replica of the Ashok Chakra surrounded by a wreath of sacred lotus. In the reverse, the words "Ashok Chakra" are embossed in Devanagri on the top and English towards the bottom edge. These are separated by a lotus flowers on either side. The medal is suspended by a straight bar suspender from a green ribbon with a central saffron stripe. If a recipient receives subsequent such awards, more bars are added to the ribbon by which the medal is suspended.^[3]

Recipients

As of 2024^[update], the medal has been awarded to 86 awardees, of which 68 were to posthumous recipients.^[4] Havildar Bachittar Singh of the Indian Army was the first recipient of the award for his part in the Operation Polo in 1948.^[5] Flight lieutenant Suhas Biswas was the first member of the Indian Air Force to be commemorated with the award in 1953.^[6] Flight captain D. K. Jatar, who was the pilot of the bombed Air India flight 300, was the first civilian recipient of the award in 1955.^[7] Only two women have ever been awarded the Ashok Chakra, flight attendant Neerja Bhanot in 1987 and police constable Kamlesh Kumari in 2001 for their actions during the hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 and 2001 Indian Parliament attack respectively.^[8]

Two non-Indians, cosmonauts Gennadi Strekalov and Yuri Malyshev were given the award in 1984 for their Soyuz T-11 mission which also carried Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian to space.^[6] Paratrooper Sanjog Chhetri was the youngest awardee at 20 years of age, when he was killed in the counter terrorism operations in Jammu and Kashmir.^[9][10] Colonel Neelakantan Jayachandran Nair was the only recipient of both the Ashok Chakra and Kirti Chakra, the two highest peacetime honours.^[11]

Key

†	Indicates posthumous honour
^	Indicates non-Indian recipient

Ashok Chakra recipients^[4][12]

Year	Recipient	Rank[b]	Entity	Action[c]
1952	Bachittar Singh†	Havildar	Indian Army	Operation Polo
1952	Narbahadur Thapa	Naik	Indian Army	Operation Polo
1953	Suhas Biswas	Flight Lieutenant	Indian Air Force	Stricken flight landing
1955	D. K. Jatar†	Flight Captain	Air India	Kashmir Princess bombing
1956	Sundar Singh	Lance Naik	Indian Army	Kashmir conflict
1957	Jagannath Raoji Chitnis†	Lieutenant Colonel	Indian Army	Nagaland insurgency
1957	Joginder Singh†	Havildar	Indian Army	Nagaland insurgency
1957	Pollur Mutthuswamy Raman†	Second Lieutenant	Indian Army	Nagaland insurgency
1958	Eric James Tucker†	Captain	Indian Army	Nagaland insurgency
1962	Khadka Bahadur Limbu†	Subedar Major	Indian Army	Nagaland insurgency
1962	Man Bahadur Rai	Captain	Indian Army	Nagaland insurgency
1965	Chaman Lal†		Firefighter	Train fire
1965	Lajja Ram†		Civilian	Dacoit attack
1965	Purshottam†		Civilian	Dacoit attack
1965	Tej Singh†		Civilian	Dacoit attack
1967	Shankar Lal Shrivastava†	Head Constable	Madhya Pradesh Police	Dacoit attack
1968	Takhat Singh†		Civilian	Dacoit attack
1968	Dhanpat Singh		Civilian	Dacoit attack
1968	Govind Singh		Civilian	Dacoit attack
1968	Hukum Singh		Civilian	Dacoit attack
1968	Lakhan Singh		Civilian	Dacoit attack
1969	Jas Ram Singh	Captain	Indian Army	Mizo insurgency
1971	Baij Nath Singh†		Civilian	Dacoit attack
1972	Bhure Lal	Constable	Madhya Pradesh Police	Dacoit attack
1972	Ummed Singh Mahra†	Captain	Indian Army	Nagaland insurgency
1974	Gurnam Singh†	Naib Subedar	Indian Army	Mine explosion
1974	Munni Lal		Civilian	Dacoit attack
1981	Cyrus Addie Pithawalla	Second Lieutenant	Indian Army	Manipur insurgency
1984	Gennadi Strekalov^	Flight Engineer	Roscosmos	Soyuz T-11
1984	Yury Malyshev^	Colonel	Soviet Air Forces	Soyuz T-11
1985	Bhawani Datt Joshi†	Naik	Indian Army	Operation Blue Star
1985	Bhukant Mishra†	Major	Indian Army	Operation Blue Star
1985	Chhering Mutup	Lance Havildar	Indian Army	Siachen conflict
1985	Jasbir Singh Raina	Captain	Indian Army	Operation Blue Star
1985	Nirbhay Singh Sisodiya†	Naik	Indian Army	Operation Blue Star
1985	Ram Prakash Roperia†	Lieutenant	Indian Army	Operation Blue Star
1985	Rakesh Sharma	Wing Commander	Indian Air Force	Soyuz T-11
1986	Vijay Jagirdar†		Civilian	1984 anti-Sikh riots
1987	Neerja Bhanot†		Pan Am	Pan Am Flight 73 hijacking
1991	Randhir Prasad Verma†	Superintendent of Police	Bihar Police	Bank robbery
1992	Sandeep Sankhla†	Major	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
1993	Rakesh Singh Malhan†	Second Lieutenant	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
1994	Neelakantan Jayachandran Nair†	Colonel	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
1995	Harsh Uday Singh Gaur†	Lieutenant Colonel	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
1995	Rajiv Kumar Joon†	Major	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
1995	Sujjan Singh Yadav†	Subedar	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
1996	Arun Singh Jasrotia†	Captain	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
1997	Puneet Nath Datt†	Second Lieutenant	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
1997	Shanti Swaroop Rana†	Lieutenant Colonel	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
2000	Sudhir Kumar Walia†	Major	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
2001	Jagdish Prasad Yadav†		Rajya Sabha secretariat	2001 Indian Parliament attack
2001	Matbar Singh Negi†		Rajya Sabha secretariat	2001 Indian Parliament attack
2001	Kamlesh Kumari Yadav†	Constable	Central Reserve Police Force	2001 Indian Parliament attack
2002	Surinder Singh†	Subedar	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
2002	Rambeer Singh Tomar†	Naik	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
2003	Suresh Chand Yadav†	Subedar Major	National Security Guard	Akshardham Temple attack
2004	Sanjog Chhetri†	Paratrooper	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
2004	Triveni Singh†	Lieutenant	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
2007	Chuni Lal†	Naib Subedar	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
2007	Radhakrishnan Nair Harshan†	Captain	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
2007	Vasanth Venugopal†	Colonel	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
2008	Dinesh Raghu Raman†	Major	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
2009	Ashok Kamte†	Additional Commissioner	Maharashtra Police	2008 Mumbai attacks
2009	Bahadur Singh Bohra†	Havildar	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
2009	Gajender Singh Bisht†	Havildar	National Security Guard	2008 Mumbai attacks
2009	Hemant Karkare†	Joint Commissioner	Maharashtra Police	2008 Mumbai attacks
2009	Jojan Thomas†	Colonel	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
2009	Mohan Chand Sharma†	Inspector	Delhi Police	Batla House encounter
2009	Pramod Kumar Satapathy†	Assistant Commandant of Police	Odisha Police	Naxalite–Maoist insurgency
2009	R. P. Diengdoh†	Deputy Superintendent	Meghalaya Police	Meghalaya Insurgency
2009	Sandeep Unnikrishnan†	Major	National Security Guard	2008 Mumbai attacks
2009	Tukaram Omble†	Assistant Sub-Inspector	Maharashtra Police	2008 Mumbai attacks
2009	Vijay Salaskar†	Inspector	Maharashtra Police	2008 Mumbai attacks
2010	D. Sreeram Kumar	Major	Indian Army	Manipur insurgency
2010	Mohit Sharma†	Major	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
2010	Rajesh Kumar†	Havildar	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
2011	Laishram Jyotin Singh†	Major	Indian Army	February 2010 Kabul attack
2012	Navdeep Singh†	Lieutenant	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
2014	Mukund Varadarajan†	Major	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
2014	Neeraj Kumar Singh†	Naik	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
2014	K. Prasad Babu†	Sub-Inspector	Andhra Pradesh Police	Naxalite–Maoist insurgency
2016	Mohan Nath Goswami†	Lance Naik	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
2017	Hangpan Dada†	Havildar	Indian Army	Kashmir insurgency
2018	Jyoti Prakash Nirala†	Corporal	Indian Air Force	Kashmir insurgency
2019	Nazir Ahmad Wani†	Lance Naik	Territorial Army	Kashmir insurgency
2021	Babu Ram†	Assistant Sub-Inspector	Jammu and Kashmir Police	Kashmir insurgency

Summary

Award recipients by year Year Number of recipients 1952–1959 09 1960–1969 13 1970–1979 05 1980–1989 12 1990–1999 10 2000–2009 24 2010–2019 12 2020–2029 01	Award recipients by service Field Number of recipients Indian Army 52 Indian Air Force 03 Civilians 17 Police 12 Non-Indians 02

See also

• List of highest military decorations by country

Notes

1. Though the Ashoka Chakra is placed below the Param Vir Chakra in the precedence, it is considered as a peacetime equivalent of Param Vir Chakra.
2. Refers to the rank held by the recipient at the time of award.
3. Refers to the conflict or event for which the Ashoka Chakra was awarded.