V Krishnaswamy

Piecing together history of any sport — save that of cricket to some extent — in India is an arduous task within sports writing. Perhaps that is the reason why many, even those interested, like yours truly, have avoided taking on such a task. That apart, updating and even maintaining sports records — let alone sports history and literature — is so unrewarding a task that few would like to spend time on it. That, perhaps again is the reason why sports writers have preferred ‘Diaries’, biographies or ghosted autobiographies.

In such a setting, Boria Majumdar’s books have been path-breaking. He has both the love of sport which marks out serious sports journalists and the meticulousness of an academic, which he is by profession. Olympics: The India Story, written with Nalin Mehta, a former TV journalist, is of great importance for Indian sport.

Sport apart, Majumdar and Mehta have tried to bring in linkages between sport and ‘landmarks’ like India’s contribution to the establishment of Asian Games (remember this is a book about Olympics), the advent of TV, the conduct of Asian Games in 1982 and much else like the politics of Indian hockey and sport itself. Sports fans may at times get weary of such discussions and revelations, and their connection with sport, but the fact is it is not just Olympics, but Olympism that the authors seek to write about.

Indian sport will never just be a story of those glorious moments in hockey or the scattered achievements of near-misses on the track or more recently the stories of Leander Paes, K Malleswari and Rajyavardhan Rathore (India’s medalists at the last three Games) but it is the politics and the games behind the scenes, which make for bigger revelations.

Achievements need to be understood in a context. Athletes regardless of their discipline, often had to overcome hurdles at home before competing abroad on a bigger platform. And the authors have done well to bring these out by connecting them with history and the surrounding social events.

Despite my long association with athletics among Olympic sports, my favourite bits in this book have a hockey connection, but they are both beyond mere hockey.
The first is on India’s entry into hockey in 1928, when Jaipal led the team to Amsterdam. “Sent to Oxford by missionaries, Jaipal successfully led a team comprising of Indians studying at British Universities to Belgium and Spain and had earned a great reputation as a hockey player in the UK, as is evident from his numerous profiles published in World Hockey magazine. When the team for Amsterdam was announced, it included Jaipal, SM Yusef and the Nawab of Pataudi Senior, who were already in Britain.

Thirteen players sailed from Bombay, nine of them Anglo-Indians, to lead India’s challenge at the 1928 Olympics. However, before sailing for London, there was a last-minute alarm when it was revealed that because of insufficient funds only 11 of the 13 selected players could undertake the tour. The shortfall, contemporary reports revealed, was Rs 15,000 … In the end, it was largely owing to the munificence of the sports-loving public of Bengal, who organised public collections to make up the funding shortfall, that the two players were able to make the trip.”

Jaipal, a probationer for the Indian Civil Services while at Oxford, later became known as a prominent parliamentarian and Adivasi leader.

The other bit is about the 1936 Games in Berlin. The authors mention that Indians, with Dhyan Chand carrying the flag, were arguably the most dazzling contingent in their light blue turban and golden outfit, resembling a marriage procession, as one of the players later remarked. “But this was no ordinary marriage procession. Its members were about to make a huge political statement by becoming one of the two contingents to refuse saluting Hitler,” the book recalls.

This work may well set the tone for more serious writing on Indian sport and what makes it so special. It is a relief to note that there are writers who can think beyond medals, but also about the stories of sportspersons.
The reviewer is a sports writer …