Padma Bhushan Award 1968

Shehnai maestro Bismillah Khan and future Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, then an army general, headlined 1968's 28 Padma Bhushan recipients. Statistician C. R. Rao and physicist M. G. K. Menon represented science, while writer K. Shivaram Karanth and journalist Manikonda Chalapathi Rau featured in literature. Social worker Mary Clubwala Jadhav was also honored. Literature and education dominated the list numerically, but its most enduring legacies were Khan's music and Manekshaw's military career, which peaked years later during the 1971 war.

The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service of a high order, without distinction of race, occupation, position or sex".