Padma Bhushan Award 1974

India's 1974 Padma Bhushan list of 21 awardees notably included two foreign-born, India-based scholars: Swiss art historian Alice Boner and Belgian-origin Hindi literary scholar Camille Bulcke, both honored for literature and education. Other notable recipients were writer Khushwant Singh, Telugu filmmaker B. N. Reddy, architect Habib Rahman, Hindustani classical vocalist Mogubai Kurdikar, and archaeologist Hasmukh Dhirajlal Sankalia. The year's list skewed heavily toward literature, science, and the arts, with almost no civil service or public affairs representation, unlike most other years of the decade.

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".