| Sri A. L. Dias - 1976 |
| Prof. Mrityunjoy Bandyopadhyay - 1977 |
| Prof. Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyay - 1978 |
| Sri Tushar Kanti Ghosh - 1979 |
| Dr. Bhabatsh Dutta - 1980 |
| Dr. Amartya Sen - 1981 |
| Dr. Pratul Guha - 1982 |
| Dr. Debipada Bhattacharya - 1983 |
| Sri Mulk Raj Anand - 1984 |
| Prof. Ramaranjan Mukhopadhyay - 1985 |
| H.E.S. Nurul HAsan - 1986 |
| Dr. Ashin Dasgupta - 1987 |
| Dr. Raja Ramanna - 1988 |
| Dr. Andre Lewin - 1989 |
| Prof. (Mrs) Ashima Chatterjee - 1990 |
| Dr. B. D. Nag Chowdhury - 1991 |
| Prof. Amlan Dutta - 1992 |
| Sri Mrinal Sen - 1993 |
| Sri U. R. Ananthamurthy - 1994 |
| Sri K. V. Raghunatha Reddy - 1995 |
| Dr. Tapan Ray Chaudhury - 1996 |
| Prof. Jacques Derrida - 1997 |
| Mr. Alain Grund - 1998 |
| Samsur Rahaman - 1999 |
| Chintamoni Kar - 2000 |
| Peree Viciens - 2001 |
| Rita Rahaman - 2002 |
| Luis Toledo Sande - 2003 |
| Raul Zurita - 2004 |
| Mr. Daneal Pennac - 2005 |
| Dr. Maria Fernando Santigo - 2006 |
| Thomas Keneally - 2007 |
