Indian sports lose out at DU
In 1961, a lanky, 17-year-old Sudarshan Pathak enrolled at IP College for Women, in Delhi University, in the Hindi (Hons) course. For no reason in particular, she signed up for the college’s hockey team a few days into the course. The sport soon grew from being a pastime to her true calling.
Pathak, now deputy director of Physical Education at DU, represented the college at various local and national events and won numerous medals.
Forty-eight years later, as the college wraps up its Sports quota admissions, the game of hockey no longer exists at IP College for Women.
Pathak looks back at the happy ’60s. “Neither were we forced to concentrate on our studies, nor were there so many diversions. Nowadays, students have more interesting things to do then play sports,” she says.
The fact that India’s national game is fast losing out to popular sports such as cricket, volleyball and basketball at Delhi University is perhaps an illustration of a larger trend. Fifty years ago, almost all of the 70-odd colleges in DU played the sport; now barely 18 colleges have hockey on their list.
Hockey, however, is not the only game in DU that has been pushed to the periphery by more “happening” sports. Indian sports like wrestling, kho-kho and kabaddi have also witnessed a decline.
No one at the university can pinpoint the year the decline of Indian sports began but they all agree that the reason is not callousness on the part of the colleges but disinterest among students.
Jayendra Pal Singh, director of Physical Education at Hindu College, says another reason for the disappearance of games like wrestling, kho-kho and kabaddi is that they are contact sports. “This leads to infighting between different teams. Hence, many colleges removed these games from the list.”
Singh, however, also feels that all sports are on a decline in DU, with students preferring to study rather than play for colleges.
K S Naruka, director of sports in DU, on the other hand, says it is not that DU players are not good but students of universities like Punjab University and Guru Nanak Dev University have better scientific know-how for improving their game.
Hockey
* Only 18 colleges, mostly girls’ colleges, accept students in this category
* In North Campus, Daulat Ram College, GTB Khalsa College, Shri Ram College of Commerce and Kirori Mal College still offer the sport
* Khalsa College started offering the sport only last year but thanks to an outstanding performance their team is ranked first in DU
Kabaddi and kho-kho
* Daulat Ram offers kabaddi
Kho-kho is offered by Jesus and Mary College in South Campus
* According to Krishna Gupta, kabaddi sports-in-charge at DU, 10 out of the 70 colleges in DU offer kabaddi.