Games 2012: India evolves as Olympic nation

There was a time when hockey was India’s only claim to fame. Since Beijing 2008, the country may have evolved as an Olympic nation, believes Jayadev Calamur.

If you want to include India’s Olympic history in an encyclopaedia, it may not consume more than a couple of pages. Yet, there’s something intriguing about India’s Olympic story.

Since 1900 when Norman Pritchard won two silver medals for the country, there have been smiles, tears, joys, heartbreaks, memories to savour and plenty of moments to regret. Kind of stories that Olympians can recount to their grandchildren.

Over the years, India may have evolved as an Olympic nation. Once a hockey superpower, India are going into the London Games with medal expectations in other fields, which certainly wasn’t the case at the Beijing Games. Today, Saina Nehwal, Leander Paes, Mary Kom, Sushil Kumar and Vijender Singh are called pride of the nation.

Yet, for every success story, there is a beginning. While India first tasted success at the 1928 Amsterdam Games, the actual story began with  Pritchard, who participated in the 1900 Games in Paris. Everything about Pritchard is a mystery, including his nationality. While the International Olympic Committee (IOC) says he won two silver medals for India in track and field events, the International Association of Athletics Federations claimed he was a British citizen.

For now, let’s suppose he was an Indian and laid the foundation for the country’s Olympic history. India didn’t participate in the Olympics for another 20 years. The reasons are not documented; it is assumed that Indian athletes were not allowed to participate or hadn’t qualified in the first place. Another speculation is that the Britons, who had settled in India, were compelled to represent the motherland.

This is where Dorabji Tata’s role has to be highlighted. The son of India’s first great industrialist, Jamsetji Tata, Dorabji was instrumental in founding the Bombay High School Athletic Association, now popularly known as the Mumbai School Sports Association or MSSA. He was also the brainchild behind the Harris-Shield Trophy, the oldest inter-school cricket tournament in India.

Dorabji identified a few Indians who, he believed, could hold their own against the European counterparts despite not having proper training facilities. He sent three runners to the 1920 Antwerp Games at his own expense. The funding was also helped by princely states, collections and the Indian government.  Little else is known about the trio that represented India at Antwerp, except Dorabji’s contribution.

In comparison, the 1924 Paris Games was better organised. This time, India sent nine of its best athletes chosen from a national tournament called the Delhi Olympics. Organising the games for India was the All India Olympic Association. Three years later, another body (the Indian Olympic Association) was formed, with Dorabji as president.

Apart from the Tatas, the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) had a role to play in India’s Olympic movement. The YMCA has always played a role in promoting sport in developing countries; its role in India was no different. No surprise that Dorabji associated himself with it. With these contributions, it was only a matter of time before India attained Olympic glory.

India’s golden years at the Olympics began at the 1928 Amsterdam Games — the country won its first gold medal in field hockey. The pioneer for India’s success was a sepoy in the Indian army named Dhyan Chand. Considered to be the greatest exponent of field hockey, Dhyan Chand was part of the team that won gold in 1928, 1932 and 1936. The third, of course, is considered to be one of the greatest games of all time.  India played Germany in the final in the presence of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich in Berlin.

India won six consecutive gold in field hockey — a record unsurpassed — before losing to Pakistan in the 1960 Games in Rome. India reclaimed the gold in 1964. Sadly, this was the beginning of India’s decline in field hockey. It was held that the country couldn’t adapt to the new Astroturf field.

Europe and Australia subsequently became hockey superpowers. India won its final Olympic gold in the 1980 Moscow Olympics — an event boycotted by the hockey superpowers who were allies of the United States fighting the Cold War with the Soviet Union. We’ll leave Indian hockey for some other space.

Let’s focus on 1952, an interesting and surprising year for India. While India was eyeing glory in hockey, an individual medal wasn’t expected at all. Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav, a wrestler from a village in Maharashtra, went to the Helsinki Olympics with no expectations, but ended up winning a bronze. Yet the country didn’t place him at exalted heights. Only his village accorded him a hero’s welcome. Jadhav’s story was rather tragic. He was ignored by the government, served as a cop, and died in extreme poverty in 1984.

Between 1980 and 1996, India was starved of medals. As if losing the clout in hockey wasn’t enough. Indian athletes, weightlifters and boxers were found several notches below the desired standard. There was no sponsorship and most participants were from the armed forces. There were two heartbreaking moments when Milkha Singh and PT Usha missed out on medals in the 1960 and 1984 Games respectively.

India didn’t have a spectacular run in Barcelona (1992). However, it was the first Olympics post liberalisation. And Indian athletes did benefit from international sponsorship. India finally broke the Olympic jinx when Leander Paes won a bronze at Atlanta 1996. Since then, India has surged ahead, with the Beijing Games being the country’s best in a long time — one gold and two bronze.

And so, the Indian caravan moves to London. A country once considered a one-medal wonder has truly come a long way. Let the surge run its course.