The Padma Awards are one of the highest civilian honours of India announced annually on the eve of Republic Day. The Awards are given in three categories: Padma Vibhushan (for exceptional and distinguished service), Padma Bhushan (distinguished service of higher order) and Padma Shri (distinguished service). The award seeks to recognize achievements in all fields of activities or disciplines where an element of public service is involved.

The Padma Awards are conferred on the recommendations made by the Padma Awards Committee, which is constituted by the Prime Minister every year. The nomination process is open to the public. Even self-nomination can be made.

History of Padma Awards

The Government of India instituted two civilian awards-Bharat Ratna & Padma Vibhushan in 1954. The latter had three classes namely Pahela Varg, Dusra Varg and Tisra Varg. These were subsequently renamed as Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri vide Presidential Notification issued on January 8, 1955. Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award of the country. It is awarded in recognition of exceptional service/performance of the highest order in any field of human endeavour. It is treated on a different footing from Padma Award.

In the past few years, the majority Indians have noticed the kind of people who are being awarded the Padma Awards, and a positive buzz has been generated among the people. These awards were earlier seen as dominated by select, well-connected urbanites that were in the limelight. We saw people from the entertainment industry that hardly made any contribution to society; who had very little appeal beyond posh drawing rooms.

However, some of the awardees of Padma since past three years need to be Googled — these are not people with Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook profiles but are people with real grassroots work profiles, with no connection to politics, movies, sports or any such popular occupations that are often in the limelight. The awardees are an inspiration to all; their stories of struggles, their dedication, perseverance, selflessness and service script the story of New India. As many as 12 farmers were selected from nine states, 14 doctors were selected from 11 states, serving the poor and fighting diseases affecting the common man. Nine leading sportspersons from nine disciplines were selected.  From the entertainment industry four people were selected.

President of Djibouti Ismail Omar Guelleh, who had played instrumental role in enabling the rescue of thousands of Indian citizens from war-torn Yemen and anti-apartheid leader and current minister of South Africa Pravin Gordhan.

This year’s Padma awardees also include socialist leader Hukumdev Narayan Yadav, tribal leader Kariya Munda, Sikh leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, grassroots Mahadalit woman leader Bhagirathi Devi and Sikh lawyer fighting for justice for 1984 riot victims Harvinder Singh Phoolka, well known for spearheading the crusade to seek justice in the 1984 anti-Sikh genocide in New Delhi that followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi and resulted in the killing of approximately 2,733 Sikhs and displacement of over 50,000 Sikhs within 2 days.

In the Modi Government, the Padma awards have become truly broad-based, identifying people who genuinely work at the grassroot level and recognising them. This is something that even Modi’s scathing critics have observed and appreciated. Society is much larger than politics and these awards have become a representative of society, rather than enslaved by politicians as they used to be earlier.

Tulsi Gowda who hails from Honnali village, Ankola taluk Karnataka, Tulsi Gowda is an environmentalist who has planted over 30,000 saplings. She has been involved in environmental conservation and related activities for the past six decades. Gowda looks after the nurseries of the forest department. She was born in 1944 in Hakkali tribal family. She is often called the “encyclopaedia of the forest” and her tribe calls her “tree goddess” for her extensive first-hand knowledge of the trees and plants of the forest.

Krishnammal Jagannathan hailing from the state of Tamil Nadu, Krishnammal Jagannathan, fondly known as Amma, is a social worker who travels to remote rural areas bringing social, economic and political transformation through propagating the philosophy of non-violence. Born in 1926, Jagannathan has worked extensively for the upliftment of the landless and the poor. Born in a Devendrakulam family, she also participated in the freedom movement and shared the stage with Mahatma Gandhi at a very young age.

Rahibai Soma Popere popularly known as the ‘seed mother’, Rahibai Soma Popere is a Mahadeo Koli tribal farmer from Komblne village in the Akole tribal block in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district. She was unable to attend school owing to poverty, so she began working in agricultural labour and cow rearing to support her family when she was ten years old. She married Soma Popere, also uneducated, when she was 17 years old. Agriculture was the family’s sole source of income. She learned about agro biodiversity, wild food resources, and traditional culture by practice and experience, despite not having attended school.

Harekala Hajabba, a 68-year-old fruit seller from Mangalore in Karnataka, built a primary school with his earnings of Rs 150 per day. On Monday, he received India’s fourth-highest civilian award, the Padma Shri, from President Ram Nath Kovind for his efforts. Many years ago, when a foreign tourist asked him the price of an orange in English, he did not understand what had been said and felt embarrassed. He had not had the privilege of any kind of formal education. “That day I vowed to make a school,” he said. According to a report published in The Better India, Harekala Hajabba’s village Newpadapu did not have a school for many years. All the village children were deprived of their right to education. Then, in 2000, Harekala Hajabba invested all his life savings and started a school on one acre of land.

Industrialist Anand Mahindra, who received the Padma Bhushan on Monday, 8^th November 2021, felt “undeserving” of the civilian honour. Anand Mahindra was conferred Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian honour, for the year 2020 in the category of trade and industry. He posted on Twitter “This Govt has made a long-overdue, transformational shift in the texture of the Padma Awards recipients. Now, the focus is largely on individuals making seminal contributions to the improvement of society at grassroots levels. I truly felt undeserving to be amongst their ranks.”

PM Modi has often asserted that his government has opened up the Padma award selection process and recognised the services of people from humble backgrounds. He says that India has many talented people, who are doing exceptional work at the grassroots. Often, we don’t see or hear much of them. PM Modi has announced that if the citizens know such inspiring people, they can nominate them for the #PeoplesPadma.

Music has no language it relies solely on feelings. I had been to Thrissur, Kerala last week; we hired a cab for site seeing. Our driver Mr. Sabi Cheriyath is a big Yesudas fan…he played only Yesudas songs. We don’t understand Malayali language, but, that hardly mattered. Yesudas’s voice is heavenly, all songs which Sabi played, were superb. No wonder, Yesudas is considered amongst one of the world’s ten greatest singers of all time.

It is said there was no song that Yesudas could not do justice to – be it fast paced numbers, melodies, semi-classicals, pure classicals, Carnatic music, Ghazals, anything. He has sung most of the songs that classify under ‘evergreen classics’ to this day. Malayalis don’t wholly accept the modern music; they respect the classical music even today. Yesudas was fortunate enough to have entered the music scene at a time when some of the best composers existed: he sang for Salil Chowdhary, Raveendran, Devrajan, Johnson, Khayyam and Ravindra Jain and many other leading composers. Most of his songs were heavily based on classical music and his velvety voice literally melted hearts of people. Every song he sang was huge hits. He won all the yearly music awards year after year. As a person, he is humility personified.

I liked his songs from 60s, 70s and 80s – the period when Yesudas was at his professional zenith. This is the time when the most beautiful and melodious songs were composed in Malayalam music and so it’s only natural that people associate him to all those songs that they have grown up loving and holding close to their heart.

We grew up in Pune in one of the housing societies (chawl systems) where our neighbors were Nambiar, Swami, Shashidharan, Pillai, Menon, Panikcker, Iyer, Sheshadris and few more. Our next door neighbors were Menons. Mr. Menon whom we fondly called mama (uncle) had a incredible sense of music; he used to play the LPs of movies such as Chemmeen, Murappennu, Kuppivala, Adimakal, Bhargavi Nilayam etc. We grew up listening to lovely songs most of which were sung by Yesudas. Menon mama used to play the heavenly songs early in the morning at 6 am and they were played till 8 am when he left for his work. I therefore have a kind of subconscious reverence for Yesudas’s voice. As a kid, I have heard older men whistling and singing Yesudas songs in our neighborhood. Hence, after so many years when I heard Yesudas songs I felt nostalgic.     

Yesudas is blessed with a voice which is out of this world; it is in true sense celestial. Our driver Sabi told me that he remains the most-loved Malayali. It is through his voice the Malayalis have loved, celebrated and grieved. And there are thousands of songs of him. He has sung so many great melodies that it is difficult to make a list of even a Top 100. Yes, it is so difficult to choose which songs should go in Top 100 chart.

Playback singer K S Chithra feels that she is lucky because she has been able to sing umpteen songs with legendary singer Yesudas. She considers it as a great musical experience with Yesudas, spanning over four and a half decades. Chitra says that Yesudas follows a strict food regimen and eating habits. All singers should learn from him. She considerers him her role model; it seems Yesudas says that a singer should take care of his body like he takes care of his voice. Our body is God’s gift; we should take care of it.

Kattassery Joseph Yesudas, born 10 January 1940 has turned 80 this year! Yesudas has recorded over 30,000 songs and has won scores of accolades including the coveted Padma Shri (1975), Padma Bhushan (2002), Padma Vibhushan (2017) and eight National Awards for Best Playback Singer. He is the only singer who has been accorded the title Asthana Gayakan (official singer) of Kerala State.

I give here below some of his romantic Malyali songs which I like till date.