In 1947, India gained its independence from years of oppressive British rule. It was the historic year for India.
The Constitution of India was adopted on January 26, 1950, and Dr. Rajendra Prasad was elected as the first constitutional head of the state, the President of India. Since 1950, India has had its 14 full-time Presidents.
In this article, you will get to know about all the Presidents of India from 1950 to 2017.
The President of the Republic of India is the head of the state of India and the Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Armed Forces.
Some Important Facts About President of India:
Indian President is also known as Rashtrapati. He is the first citizen of India as well.
Current Salary of Indian President (2017) – Rs. 500,000
President of India is appointed by the electoral college of India for the term of five years.
Rashtrapati Bhavan is the official residence of the Indian President. It is 340-rooms building located in Delhi(Rajpath) on 320-acre area.
List of all Presidents of India from 1950 to 2017
Below is the list of all the Indian Presidents (the first citizen of India) - names of Indian Presidents, their pictures and tenures at Rashtrapati Bhavan. These details are asked in static GK section of the competitive exams like SSC, Bank exams, UPSC etc.
| S.No. | Name of Presidents of India | Tenure at Rashtrapati Bhavan | Picture of Presidents of India |
| 1st President of India | Dr. Rajendra Prasad | 26th January 1950 to 13th May 1962 |  |
| 2nd President of India | Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan | 13th May 1962- 13th May 1967 |  |
| 3rd President of India | Dr. Zakir Hussain | 13th May 1967 – 3rd May 1969 (Passed away in middle of his term) |
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| 4th President of India | V.V Giri | 24th May 1969 – 24th August 1974 |  |
| 5th President of India | Dr. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed | 24th August 1974 – 11th February 1977 (Passed away in middle of his term) |
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| 6th President of India | Neelam Sanjiva Reddy | 25th July 1977 – 25th July 1982 |  |
| 7th President of India | Giani Zail Singh | 25th July 1982- 25th July 1987 |  |
| 8th President of India | R Venkataraman | 25th July 1987 – 25th July 1992 |  |
| 9th President of India | Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma | 25th July 1992 – 25th July 1997 |  |
| 10th President of India | K R Narayanan | 25th July 1997 – 25th July 2002 |  |
| 11th President of India | Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam | 25th July 2002 – 25th July 2007 |  |
| 12th President of India | Pratibha Devisingh Patil | 25th July 2007 – 25th July 2012 |  |
| 13th President of India | Dr. Pranab Mukherjee | 25th July 2012 – 25th July 2017 |  |
| 14th President of India | Ram Nath Kovind | 25th July 2017 - Present |  |
Acting Presidents of India:
After the sudden demise of Dr. Zakir Khan, Mohammad Hidayatullah was appointed as the acting President for a short tenure of 1 month 3 days ( from 20 July 1969 to 24 August 1969).
Similarly, Basappa Danappa Jatti was the acting President after the demise of Dr. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed in 1977.
The list of our Presidents may not be long, but their achievements when put together makes a very long list. Let’s delve deeper to get more detailed information about each President of India.
Shri Ram Nath Kovind - July 25, 2017 – Present (Incumbent 14th President of India)
Starting from the newly elected President, Shri Ram Nath Kovind is the 14th President of India.
Ram Nath Kovind is a Dalit Leader, who belongs to Kanpur and was born in Paraukh village in the Kanpur Dehat district, Uttar Pradesh.
He married to Smt. Savita Kovind on 30th May 1974.
He served as the 36th Governor of Bihar from August 16, 2015, to June 20, 2017 and was a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha from April 1994 to March 2006.
He was also a member of the Board of Management of the Dr B.R Ambedkar University, Lucknow, and Member of the Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata.
Checkout the Interesting and Unknown facts about Shri Ram Nath Kovind.
Dr. Pranab Mukherjee – July 25, 2012 to July 25, 2017 (13th President of India)
Dr. Pranab Mukherjee was the 13th President of India. Mukherjee was Union Finance Minister from 2009 to 2012. In his political career, he was known as the Congress party's top troubleshooter.
He was elected to the Upper House of the Parliament (Rajya Sabha) five times from 1969 and twice to the Lower House of the Parliament (Lok Sabha) from 2004.
He was a member of the Congress Working Committee, the highest policy making body of the Party for a period of 23 years.
He formed his own party, the Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress, which merged with the Congress in 1989 after reaching a consensus with Rajiv Gandhi.
After Rajiv Gandhi's assassination in 1991, Mukherjee's political career revived when Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao appointed him as Planning Commission head in 1991 and foreign minister in 1995.
Smt. Pratibha Patil – July 25, 2007 to July 25, 2012 (12th President of India)
Smt. Pratibha Patil was the first woman Indian President. She was elected as the 12th President of India.
Pratibha Devisingh Patil was born on December 19, 1934 in Nadgaon village of Jalgaon District, Maharashtra.
Before becoming the President of India, Smt. Pratibha Patil was the Governor of Rajasthan from November 8, 2004 till June 21, 2007.
In 1962, at the age of 27, she was elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for the Jalgaon constituency.
In the 1991 elections for the 10th Lok Sabha, she was elected as a Member of Parliament representing the Amravati constituency.
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam – July 25, 2002 to July 25, 2007 (11th President of India)
Abul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, better known as A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, was the 11th President of India.
He was known as the Missile Man of India for his work on the development of ballistic missile and launch vehicle technology.
He received the Bharat Ratna and inspired the younger generation to foster education and values.
He was a scientist and science administrator at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and was intimately involved in India's civilian space programme and military missile development efforts.
Shri K R Narayanan – July 25, 1997 to July 25, 2002 (10th President of India)
Kocheril Raman Narayanan was the 10th President of India. He was Born in Perumthanam, Uzhavoor village, in the princely state of Travancore.
He served as ambassador to Japan, United Kingdom, Thailand, Turkey, People's Republic of China and United States of America and was referred to by Nehru as "the best diplomat of the country".
Indira Gandhi requested K R Narayanan to enter into politics and after that he won three successive general elections to the Lok Sabha and served as a Minister of State in the Union Cabinet under former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
He was elected as the ninth Vice President in 1992 and he went on to become the President in 1997.
He was the first member of the Dalit community, to hold the post, and the only one until Ram Nath Kovind was elected in 2017.
Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma – July 25, 1992 to July 25, 1997 (9th President of India)
Shankar Dayal Sharma was the ninth President of India, serving from 1992 to 1997.
Shankar Dayal Sharma had been the eighth Vice President of India, serving under R. Venkataraman.
He was also Chief Minister (1952–1956) of Bhopal, and Cabinet Minister (1956–1967), holding the portfolios of Education, Law, Public Works, Industry and Commerce, National Resources and Separate Revenue.
During the 1940s, he was involved in the struggle for Indian independence from the British, and joined the Indian National Congress.
R Venkataraman – July 25, 1987 to July 25, 1992 (8th President of India)
R Venkataraman served as a Union minister and as the eighth President of India.
He was an activist of the Indian independence movement and participated in the Quit India Movement. He was appointed as the member of the Constituent Assembly and the provisional cabinet.
He was a freedom fighter and later he joined the Congress party and was elected four times as a member of the Lok Sabha.
After serving as the Finance Minister and Defence Minister, he had been elected as the Vice President.
Giani Zail Singh – July 25, 1982 to July 25, 1987 (7th President of India)
Giani Zail Singh was the seventh President of India serving from 1982 to 1987.
He was a politician with the Indian National Congress party, and had held several ministerial posts in the Union Cabinet, including that of Home Minister.
The time when Giani Zail Singh was elected as President of India, that time was one of the most politically controversial periods marked by Operation Blue Star. PM Indira Gandhi was assassinated and the anti- Sikh riots of 1984 that followed also marked this period.
Zail Singh was elected as a Congress Chief Minister of Punjab in 1972.
He arranged massive religious gatherings, started public functions with a traditional Sikh prayer, inaugurated a highway named after Guru Gobind Singh, and named a township after the Guru's son.
Shri Neelam Sanjiva Reddy – July 25, 1977 to July 25, 1982 (6th President of India)
Shri Neelam Sanjiva Reddy was the sixth President of India serving from 1977 to 1982.
He was a member of the Indian National Congress. He served as a Union Minister under Prime Ministers Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi.
He was the first CM of Andhra Pradesh state. He also had served as the Speaker of Lok Sabha. In 1975, he joined the Janata Party and by 1977 was elected President of India.
From April 1949 to April 1951, he was the Minister for Prohibition, Housing and Forests of the Madras State.
Dr. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed - August 24, 1974 to February 11, 1977 (5th President of India)
Dr. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was the fifth President of India from 1974 to 1977,and also the 2nd President of India to die in office.
His term was possibly the most controversial since this was when a state of emergency had been declared across the country.
He is known to have issued the proclamation of emergency by signing the papers at midnight after a meeting with Indira Gandhi the same day.
In 1942, he was arrested in the Quit India movement and sentenced to three and a half years' imprisonment.
He was elected on Congress ticket to the Assam Legislative Assembly on two terms (1957–1962) and (1962–1967) from Jania constituency.
V.V Giri – August 24, 1969 to August 24, 1974 (4th President of India)
Varahagiri Venkata Giri was the fourth President of India. As President, he was the only person to be elected as an independent candidate.
Between 1947 – 1951, Giri served as India's first High Commissioner to Ceylon.
In the General Elections of 1951, he was elected to the 1st Lok Sabha from Pathapatnam Lok Sabha Constituency in the Madras State.
He had also been the Governor of Uttar Pradesh (1956 to 1960), Governor of Kerala (1960 to 1965) and the Governor of Karnataka (1967 to 1969) before serving as the Vice President and then the President.
Dr. Zakir Hussain - May 13, 1967 to May 3, 1969 (3rd President of India)
Zakir Hussain was the third President of India from 13 May 1967 until his death on 3 May 1969.
Zakir Husain was the India’s first Muslim President, also the first to die in office.
He has the shortest period as the President of India. He previously served as Governor of Bihar from 1957 to 1962 and as Vice President of India from 1962 to 1967.
He was the vice Chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University and the co-founder of the Jamia Millia Islamia University of Delhi.
He was also awarded with the Bharat Ratna in 1963.
Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan – May 13, 1962 to May 13, 1967 (2nd President of India)
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was an Indian philosopher and statesman, who was the first Vice President of India (1952–1962) and the second President of India from 1962 to 1967.
He was awarded with knighthood in 1931, the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in India, in 1954, and honorary membership of the British Royal Order of Merit in 1963.
When India became independent in 1947, Radhakrishnan represented India at UNESCO (1946–52) and was later Ambassador of India to the Soviet Union, from 1949 to 1952.
Dr. Rajendra Prasad - January 26, 1950 to May 13, 1962 (1st President of India)
Dr. Rajendra Prasad was the first President of India. He was elected President by the electoral college of the first Parliament of India and its state legislatures.
Dr. Rajendra Prasad joined the Indian National Congress during the Indian independence movement and became a major leader from the region of Bihar.
Dr. Prasad was imprisoned by British authorities during the Salt Satyagraha of 1931 and the Quit India movement of 1942.
In 1957, Prasad was re-elected as the head of state of India. He, thus, became the only Indian President to have served two terms.
This brings us to the end of the list of Indian Presidents. This honorary position is held by many noblemen in India, who had immense achievements during their glorious tenures. It seems like the position has a pure ceremonial role, but these great men who held the position of Indian Presidents, were greatest minds indeed.
Big power comes with big responsibilities & hence the President of India has to maintain the dignity of his position all the times. Every country has its own history & must know facts. By learning these facts about our Presidents, we know about the rise & fall times of India and we know better about the great people, who contributed to make our country world's largest democracy.
Hope this article provided you enough information regarding Presidents of India. If you still have any queries, you can comment in the comment section given below.
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