A public rally will be taken out today in Delhi to press Prime Minister of India to confer Bharat Ratna to Dhyan Chand. The copy of the Memorandum is reproduced here for the benefit of media
To
Prime Minister
Government of India
New Delhi
An appeal to expedite conferment of Bharat Ratna on the hockey legend Dhyan Chand
Respected Sir,
We, a volunteer based NGO, Hockey Citizen Group, appeal and urge to confer top civilian award Bharat Ratna to hockey legend Dhyan Chand. Government of India has already declared his birthday as Annual Sports Day when the sporting excellence award such as Arjuna and Dronacharya are given away by the President of India.
Dhyan Chand’s contribution in building our nationhood does not just lie solely on the three Olympic Gold medals India obtained in pre-colonial India due to his great game, but the idea and the impetus his very game and persona gave it to the Indian Olympic Movement itself, is more important.
Indian hockey’s first foreign tour (‘Whites Only’ New Zealand) in 1925 was such a success due to Dhyan Chand’s wizardry that the idea of Indian sport getting a medal at the Olympic caught the imagination of colonial India’s sports administrators. This is how the legacy of Indian Olympic Movement started, a legacy that saw India winning 8 Olympic Gold Medals and then many other sports stars coming into picture.
Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India, various Chief Ministers of the States, national governing body of the sports, Hockey India, have already recommended Dhyan Chand’sname for the award.
We, public of India, therefore urge your good offices to expedite conferment of Bharat Ratna posthumously to Dhyan Chand so that his role in national building gets its due recognition and is presented on this year’s Republic Day.
This Memorandum is submitted after a public rally we organized today in Delhi in which many Olympians took part.
With warm regards and expecting favourable decision
Yours sincerely
K. Arumugam
Author, Historian
Founder and CEO, Hockey Citizen Group