HOCKEY was invented in the valleys of Persia and Egypt. But as these two civilizations began to expand the sport, like many other factors in many other walks of life, began to be pitch forked in the terrains of the undivided India.
Beni Hasan, a tiny village known for its ancient cliff tombs, buried deep in Egypt’s Nile Valley gave us the first tangible evidence for hockey being played as long back as 2000 BC, a good 1000 years before the Greeks claimed the presence of the Ancient Olympics. But when the game founded in the Egyptian civilization made its mark in the Games founded by the Greek civilization, it was the men from another great civilization – the Indus Valley – who became the kings.
The wizardry, dexterity and versatility of the men from the Indian sub-continent met with such high standards of artistry which inspired a Dutch sports scribe to write: “The Indians play and their stick is in turn their spoon and their knife. It also serves them as a waiting tray… Up whistles the ball, and they catch it on the outside of their stick and there it lies, as if it were tucked away in a lady’s workbasket and they run away with it at express train speed… and a charwoman has gone mad, galloping after a vacuum cleaner, would look just like that, but for the legs.”
Therefore, when the clock chimed the midnight of Aug 14, 1947 there came a new force on the horizon of world hockey called Pakistan. It was akin to the sweetest cake in the world being cut into two, and as time would stand testimony, with both the parts remaining as sweet as they were before the Partition.
Yes. The Great Partition, that sparked arguably the second-largest holocaust in the history of mankind, after Adolf Hitler’s maniacal killings a little after India had won the 1936 Olympic gold at Berlin, was in a manner of speaking a great boon to world hockey, at least in the contemporary context.
India, after long last, had found a challenger to their hitherto undisputed, undisputable throne. And lo behold from people who very little ago were a part and parcel of their own contingent.
So when Olympics returned to the scheme of things, after the bloodbath of the Second World War, most eyes in the sporting world were trained on the clash of the Sub-Continental Giants. One Dutch newspaper even termed the first ever Indo-Pak hockey clash, even as the Indian media was busy talking of the India’s Independence, “CLASH OF BROTHERS ACROSS THE BORDER”.
1948 London: When the ‘Master’ was enslaved
GREAT Britain had won the gold medal when hockey was played in the Olympics on the first two occasions – 1908 London and 1920 Antwerp – had withdrawn when India made their hockey debut in 1928 Amsterdam. But after the India’s Independence, the British had no qualms about playing their former ‘slaves’. Only to realise who the real ‘Masters of Stickwork Sorcery’ were.
Partition had left India rather depleted with talent, with many of the Muslims traveling across to Pakistan and a majority of the Anglo-Indian community too leaving the country. And therefore unlike in the past two Olympics, India a brand new nation in the geographical map of the world fielded a brand new team for the London Olympics. Only spark off a brand new legion of super stars.
Call it youthful arrogance or prophetical pronunciation, the seeds for success of this team were sown way back when captain of the team Kishen Lal was a youngster. As a schoolboy in Mhow, Kishen a quicksilver on the right-flank, had admonished a sweet vendor for allowing flies to settle down on his wares. “Who do you think you are? A son of a nawab or a raja? Do you dine with kings?” the vendor. To which Kishen responded ” Don’t be too smart. One day I’ll dine with the King of England.”
Now, I’m not too sure if Kishen was proud of dining with King George VI from the House of Windsor after leading India to their fourth successive Olympic gold, or it should have been the other way around.
“Leading the Indian team to a victory over the British that too on their home ground was one of the most satisfying moments of my life,” Kishen told former HAL medio AS Veeraraghavan later.
India began their route-march with 8-0 rout of Austria and followed it up by mauling Argentina 9-1. A 2-0 win against Spain before the odd goal in three success over the Dutch pitted India against the British in the final.
The British, who had beaten the other side of India – Pakistan – in the semifinal knew what was in store for them in the final. Balbir Singh, the Dhyan Chand of the new genre, put India 2-0 ahead before the British get a breather, and in the second session Pat Jansen and Trilochan Singh ensured the British were humiliated enough.
What a coincident that India should win their fourth gold with four-zero result!
The Indian team at London
Kishen Lal (C-Rlys), Kunwar Digvijay Singh ‘Babu’ (UP), Leslie Claudius, Keshav Dutt, Gerry Glacken, Patrick Jansen, Ja