Morarji Desai was an Indian independence activist and politician who served as the fourth Prime Minister of India from 1977 to 1979. Morarji Bhai Desai was the Prime Minister of India who led the country’s first non-Congress government. Before becoming Prime Minister, he was also the Deputy Prime Minister of India from 1967–1969. Morarji Desai is the only person from India to have received the highest civilian honors of both India and Pakistan, i.e. Nishan-e-Pakistan and Bharat Ratna.
Morarji Desai was born on February 29, 1896 in Bhadeli, a village in Bombay Presidency (now Gujarat, India). This means that he was a politician whose birthday comes only once every four years. His father’s name was Ranchhodji Nagarji Desai and mother’s name was Vajiyaben Desai.
Morarji Desai Biography
| 1. | Full Name | Morarji Ranchodji Desai |
| 2. | Birth | 29 February 1896 |
| 3. | Birth place | Bhadeli village, Gujarat |
| 4. | Wife | Gujaraben (1911) |
| 5. | Children | 1 son |
| 6. | Death | 10 April 1995 (Delhi) |
| 7. | Political Party | Congress, Janata Dal |
Timeline of Morarji Desai
- 1896: Morarji Desai was born on 29 February 1896 at a place called Bhadeli in Gujarat.
- 1918: In May 1918, he reached Ahmedabad as Deputy District Magistrate on probation.
- 1930: Left the job of the British government and became a soldier in the freedom struggle.
- 1931: In 1931 he became the Secretary of the Congress Committee of Gujarat State.
- 1932: Morarji had to face 2 years in jail.
- Till 1937: He was the Secretary of Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee.
- 1946: He was appointed to the Ministry of Home and Revenue, Bombay.
- 1952: He became the Chief Minister of Bombay.
- 1956: Joined the Union Cabinet as Minister of Commerce and Industry.
- 1967: Minister in-charge of Finance in Indira Gandhi’s cabinet and also Deputy Prime Minister.
- 1977: Sworn in as Prime Minister of India.
- 1979: Morarji Desai breathed his last on 28 July 1979.
- 1990: Morarji Desai was awarded Pakistan’s highest civilian honor Nishan-e-Pakistan on 19 May 1990.
- 1991: Awarded Bharat Ratna.
Interesting Facts
- He was the First Prime Minister who was from a party other than the Indian National Congress.
- Only person from India to receive the highest civilian honor of both India (Bharat Ratna) and Pakistan (Nishan-e-Pakistan).
- Morarji Desai was the first Deputy Prime Minister who later also became the Prime Minister.
List of Deputy Prime Ministers
| Deputy Prime Ministers of India | Tenure | Prime Minister |
| Sardar Patel | 1947–1950 | Jawaharlal Nehru |
| Morarji Desai | 1967–1969 | Indira Gandhi |
| Charan Singh and Jagjivan Ram (jointly) | 1979–1979 | Morarji Desai |
| Y. B. Chavan | 1979–1980 | Chaudhary Charan Singh |
| Devi Lal | 1989–1990 | V.P. Singh |
| Devi Lal | 1990–1991 | Chandra Shekhar |
| L. K. Advani | 2002–2004 | Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
List of Indian Prime Ministers
| Prime Minister’s Names | Term of Office |
| Jawahar Lal Nehru | 15 Aug 1947 to 27 May 1964 (16Y, 286D) |
| Gulzarilal Nanda | 27 May 1964 to 9 Jun (13D) |
| Lal Bahadur Shastri | 9 Jun 1964 to 11 Jan 1966 (1Y, 216D) |
| Gulzarilal Nanda | 11 Jan 1966, 24 Jan 1966 (13D) |
| Indira Gandhi | 24 Jan 1966 to 24 Mar 1977 (11Y, 59D) |
| Morarji Desai | 24 Mar 1977 to 28 Jul 1979 (2Y, 126D) |
| Charan Singh | 28 Jul 1979 to 14 Jan 1980 (170D) |
| Indira Gandhi | 14 Jan 1980 to 31 Oct 1984 (4Y, 291D) |
| Rajiv Gandhi | 31 Oct 1984 to 2 Dec 1989 (5Y, 32D) |
| V. P. Singh | 2 Dec 1989 to 10 Nov 1990 (343D) |
| Chandra Shekhar | 10 Nov 1990 to 21 Jun 1991 (223D) |
| P. V. Narasimha Rao | 21 Jun 1991 to 16 May 1996 (4Y, 330D) |
| Atal Bihari Vajpayee | 16 May 1996 to 1 Jun 1996 (16D) |
| H. D. Deve Gowda | 1 Jun 1996 to 21 April 1997 (324D) |
| Inder Kumar Gujral | 21 April 1997 to 19 Mar 1998 (332D) |
| Atal Bihari Vajpayee | 19 Mar 1998 to 22 May 2004 (6Y, 64D) |
| Manmohan Singh | 22 May 2004 to 26 May 2014 (10Y, 4D) |
| Narendra Modi | 26 May 2014 – Present |
| *Y – Years | *D – Days | |
Bharat Ratna Award List
| Year | Recipients | About |
| Bharat Ratna 1954 | C. Rajagopalachari | Activist, statesman, and lawyer |
| Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan | India’s first Vice-President and second President | |
| C. V. Raman | Physicists, mathematicians, and scientists | |
| Bharat Ratna 1955 | Bhagwan Das | Activist, philosopher, and educationist |
| M. Visvesvaraya | Civil engineer, statesman, and Diwan of Mysore | |
| Jawaharlal Nehru | Activist and author served as the Prime Minister of India | |
| Bharat Ratna 1957 | Govind Ballabh Pant | Activist and first Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh |
| Bharat Ratna 1958 | Dhondo Keshav Karve | Social reformer and educator |
| Bharat Ratna 1961 | Bidhan Chandra Roy | Physician, political leader, philanthropist, educationist, and social worker |
| Purushottam Das Tandon | Activist and speaker of the United Provinces Legislative Assembly | |
| Bharat Ratna 1962 | Rajendra Prasad | Activist, lawyer, statesman, and scholar |
| Bharat Ratna 1963 | Zakir Husain | Activist, economist, and education philosopher served as a Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University and the Governor of Bihar |
| Pandurang Vaman Kane | Indologist and Sanskrit scholar, known for his five-volume literary work | |
| Bharat Ratna 1966 | Lal Bahadur Shastri | Activist and served as the second Prime Minister of India |
| Bharat Ratna 1971 | Indira Gandhi | First women Prime Minister of India |
| Bharat Ratna 1975 | V. V. Giri | Trade Unionist |
| Bharat Ratna 1976 | K. Kamaraj | Independence activist and statesman, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu |
| Bharat Ratna 1980 | Mother Teresa | Catholic nun and the founder of the Missionaries of Charity. |
| 1983 | Vinoba Bhave | Activist, social reformer, and a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi |
| Bharat Ratna 1987 | Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan | First noncitizen, independence activist |
| Bharat Ratna 1988 | M. G. Ramachandran | Actor turned politician, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu |
| Bharat Ratna 1990 | B.R. Ambedkar | Social reformer and leader of the Dalits |
| Nelson Mandela | Leader of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in South Africa, President of South Africa | |
| Bharat Ratna 1991 | Rajiv Gandhi | Gandhi was the ninth Prime Minister of India serving from 1984 to 1989. |
| Vallabhbhai Patel | Activist and first Deputy Prime Minister of India | |
| Morarji Desai | Activist, and Prime Minister of India | |
| Bharat Ratna 1992 | Abul Kalam Azad | Activist and first Minister of education |
| J. R. D. Tata | Industrialist, philanthropist, and aviation pioneer | |
| Satyajit Ray | Director, filmmaker, writer, novelist | |
| Bharat Ratna 1997 | Gulzarilal Nanda | Activist, and interim Prime Minister of India. |
| Aruna Asaf Ali | Activist | |
| A.P.J Abdul Kalam | Aerospace and defense scientist | |
| Bharat Ratna 1998 | M. S. Subbulakshmi | Carnatic classical vocalist |
| Chidambaram Subramaniam | Activist and former Minister of Agriculture of India | |
| Bharat Ratna 1999 | Jayaprakash Narayan | Activist, and social reformer |
| Amartya Sen | Economist | |
| Gopinath Bordoloi | Activist | |
| Ravi Shankar | Musician, sitar player | |
| Bharat Ratna 2001 | Lata Mangeshkar | Singer |
| Bismillah Khan | Hindustani classical shehnai player | |
| Bharat Ratna 2009 | Bhimsen Joshi | Hindustani classical vocalist |
| Bharat Ratna 2014 | C. N. R. Rao | Chemist and professor, author |
| Sachin Tendulkar | Cricketer | |
| Bharat Ratna 2015 | Madan Mohan Malaviya | Scholar and educational reformer. |
| Atal Bihari Bajpayee | Elected nine times to the Lok Sabha, twice to the Rajya Sabha, and served as the Prime Minister of India for three terms. | |
| Bharat Ratna 2019 | Pranab Mukherjee | Indian politician, and senior leader in the Indian National Congress. |
| Nanaji Deshmukh | A social activist from India, education, health, and rural self-reliance. | |
| Bhupen Hazarika | Indian playback singer, lyricist, musician, singer, poet, and filmmaker from Assam. |
To read this article in hindi- https://hindi.ultranewstv.com/personality/morarji-desai/
