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by Boria Majumdar


  14. This was originally passed by Parliament in 1974 as a remedy for the nation’s poor showing in international sports meets. There was severe protest by sports bodies soon after and eventually the ruling was disregarded, with the result that politicians have been at the helm of sporting federations for well over a decade.

  15. Ramachandra Guha, India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy (New Delhi: Picador, 2007), p. 284.

  16. See file OU MO01 14 36, CIO CNO IND CORR, Olympic Studies Centre, IOC Museum, Lausanne. The file contains details of the ongoing dispute between the two rival blocs, including original letters and other correspondence.

  17. Ibid.

  18. ‘Hockey on an Artificial Pitch’, World Hockey, October 1975, No. 24, p. 10.

  19. Ibid.

  20. Ibid.

  21. Ibid.

  22. For details see; Steve Ruskin, ‘Reign on the Wane’, Sports Illustrated, 85 (4), 22 July 1996, pp. 170–174.

  23. Ibid.

  24. See file OU MO01 14 36, CIO CNO IND CORR, Olympic Studies Centre, IOC Museum, Lausanne.

  25. Rene Frank, president, FIH, to Lord Killanin, president, IOC, Feb 27, 1978, OU MO01 14 36, CIO CNO IND CORR 1977–78, Olympic Studies Centre,.

  26. See File IDD CHEMISE 9404 CIO CNOINDE CORR, Olympic Studies Centre. Correspondence between the IOC and the Indian Olympic Association is chronologically arranged. This file mostly contains material on issues relating to Indian hockey.

  27. Letter from Raja Bhalindra Singh to IOC President, 14 August 1974, OU MO01 14 36, CIO CNO IND CORR, Olympic Studies Centre.

  28. Letter from Raja Bhalindra Singh to IOC president, 11 October 1974, ID Chemise 6826 CIO MBR SINGH CORR OU MO 01 41 07 SINGH, Bhalindra Raja Correspondence 1947–1985, Olympic Studies Centre.

  29. Rene Frank, president, FIH, to Lord Killanin, president, IOC, 27 February 1978, OU MO01 14 36, CIO CNO IND CORR 1977–78, Olympic Studies Centre. Also see Raja Bhalindra Singh to Lord Killanin, March 10, 1978 ID Chemise 6826 CIO MBR SINGH CORR OU MO 01 41 07 SINGH, Bhalindra Raja Correspondence 1947–1985, Olympic Studies Centre.

  30. For details see Balbir Singh, The Golden Hat Trick: My Hockey Days, (New Delhi: Vikas, 1977). The book contains fascinating material on how politicized Indian hockey was in the 1970s.

  31. Balbir Singh, ‘Kuala Lumpur Has Always Been Lucky’, available online at http://www.indianhockey.com/mcol3/1_php, accessed 15 December 2005.

  32. The release reported verbatim by UNI is available in OU MO01 14 36, CIO CNO IND CORR, Olympic Studies Centre.

  33. This letter is available in file CIO FI FIH CORR OU MO 01 1433, Olympic Studies Centre.

  34. Letter sent on 25 January 1976 by the Pakistan Olympic Association to Lord Killanin, available in file CIO FI FIH CORR OU MO 01 1433, Olympic Studies Centre, IOC Museum, Lausanne.

  35. OU MO01 14 36, CIO CNO IND CORR, Olympic Studies Centre.

  36. Extracts from the minutes of the IOA General Assembly Meeting held on 2 July 1977, OU MO01 14 36, CIO CNO IND CORR, Olympic Studies Centre.

  37. Raja Bhalindra Singh to Lord Killanin, March 10, 1978 ID Chemise 6826 CIO MBR SINGH CORR OU MO 01 41 07 SINGH, Bhalindra Raja Correspondence 1947–1985, Olympic Studies Centre.

  38. Extracts from the minutes of the IOA General Assembly Meeting held on 2 July 1977, OU MO01 14 36, CIO CNO IND CORR, Olympic Studies Centre.

  39. OU MO01 14 36, CIO CNO IND CORR, Olympic Studies Centre.

  40. Ibid.

  41. Ibid.

  42. The Hindustan Times, 10 January 1978.

  43. Ibid., 14 January 1978.

  44. Ibid., 2 December 1977.

  45. Ibid.

  46. Raja Bhalindra Singh, letter to Lord Killanin, 15 Jan. 1978, OU MO01 14 36, CIO CNO IND CORR, Olympic Studies Centre.

  47. OU MO01 14 36, CIO CNO IND CORR, Olympic Studies Centre.

  48. Injunction issued by the Madras Court on 18 Jan. 1978, OU MO01 14 36, CIO CNO IND CORR, Olympic Studies Centre.

  49. Letter from Ramaswamy to Rene Frank, 21 Jan. 1978, OU MO01 14 36, CIO CNO IND CORR, Olympic Studies Centre.

  50. Ibid.

  51. OU MO01 14 36, CIO CNO IND CORR 1977–78, Olympic Studies Centre.

  52. Ibid.

  53. Ibid.

  54. Ibid.

  55. Letter from General Mehra to Rene Frank, 16 March 1978, OU MO01 14 36, CIO CNO IND CORR, Olympic Studies Centre.

  56. The letter was published in the Hindustan Times, 9 June 1978.

  57. The media were unanimous that Frank had overstepped his limits. Most reports expressed concern about the future of Indian hockey and lamented the gradual decline of a sport with a glorious tradition.

  58. Bobby Talyarkhan, ‘When Rene gets too Frank’, OU MO01 14 36, CIO CNO IND CORR 1977–78, Olympic Studies Centre.

  59. Air Chief Marshall O.P. Mehra, president, IOA, to Rene G. Frank, president, IHF, 24 June 1978. OU MO01 14 36, CIO CNO IND CORR 1977–78, Olympic Studies Centre.

  60. Ibid.

  61. OU MO01 14 36, CIO CNO IND CORR 1977–78, Olympic Studies Centre.

  62. Ibid.

  63. Lord Killanin, president, IOC to Rene Frank, president, IHF, OU MO01 14 36, CIO CNO IND CORR 1977–78, Olympic Studies Centre.

  64. Boria and Kausik Bandyopadhyay, Goalless: The Story of a Unique Footballing Nation, (New Delhi: Penguin Viking, 2006), Chapter 4.

  65. The letter is available in OU MO01 14 36, CIO CNO IND CORR 1977–78, Olympic Studies Centre.

  66. Ibid.

  67. Ibid.

  68. OU MO01 14 36, CIO CNO IND CORR 1977–78, Olympic Studies Centre.

  69. ‘They Don’t Give a Damn’, Dhanraj Pillay interview with Shantanu Guha Ray, 16 June 2007, http://www.tehelka.com/story_main31.asp?filename=hub160607They_dont.asp

  CHAPTER 7

  1. Anthony De Mello, Portrait of Indian Sport (London: P.R. Macmillan, 1959), p. 291.

  2. In December 2007 the UN had 192 member-states, the IOC 205 member states. See http://www.olympic.org/uk/organisation/noc/index_uk.asp, accessed 1 December 2007 and http://www.un.org/members/list.shtml, accessed 1 December 2007.

  3. T.A. Keenleyside, ‘Nationalist Indian Attitudes Towards Asia: A Troublesome Legacy for Post-Independence Indian Foreign Policy’, Pacific Affairs, Vol. 55, No. 2, Summer 1982, p. 210.

  4. Tagore quoted in Ibid., p. 211. See Rabindranath Tagore, Nationalism (London: Macmillan, 1918), pp. 58–59, 67–68.

  5. See for instance the writings of Okakura Kakuzo, in particular his The Ideals of the East with Special Reference to the Art of Japan (London: John Murray, 1903).

  6. Birendra Prasad, Indian Nationalism and Asia, 1900–1947 (Delhi: B.R. Publishing, 1979), pp. 41–47.

  7. Jawaharlal Nehru in The Discovery of India, quoted by K.R. Narayanan, Acceptance Speech by President of the Republic of India, at the Convocation Function at Tribhuvan University (22 May 2000), http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:wmEKC_y8EaMJ:www.south-asia.com/Embassy-India/convocation.htm + asian+relations + conference+1947 + delhi&hl= en&c t = clnk&cd = 8&gl = in&client = firefox-a, accessed 12 November 2007).

  8. T.A. Keenleyside, ‘Nationalist Indian Attitudes Towards Asia: A Troublesome Legacy for Post-Independence Indian Foreign Policy’, Pacific Affairs, Vol. 55, No. 2, Summer 1982, p. 216.

  9. Ibid., p. 217.

  10. Sen Gupta, mayor of Calcutta quoted in Ibid.

  11. Sukarno in GANEFO: Its Principles, Purposes and Organisation (Jakarta: The Permanent Secretariat of the GANEFO Federation, 1965), p. 21. Quoted in Rusli Lutan and Fan Hong, ‘The Politicization of Sport: GANEFO—A Case Study’, Fan Hong (ed.), Sport, Nationalism and Orientalism: The Asian Games (London: Routledge, 2007), p. 31.

  12. Sukarno’s speech at opening of GANEFO Congress, 26 November 1963. Quoted in Rusli Lutan and Fan Hong, ‘The Politicization of Sport: GANEFO—A Case Study’, Fan Hong (ed.), Sport, Nationalism and Orientalism: The Asian Games, p. 27.

  13. Fan Hong, ‘Prologue: The Origins of the Asian Games: Power and Politics�
��, Fan Hong (ed.), Sport, Nationalism and Orientalism: The Asian Games, p. xvii

  14. Anthony De Mello, Portrait of Indian Sport (London: P.R. Macmillan, 1959), p. 295.

  15. ‘The Far Eastern Championship Games 1913–1934’, Table 1, compiled by Huan Xiong in Fan Hong (ed.), Sport, Nationalism and Orientalism: The Asian Games, pp. 116–17.

  16. The FECG were held in Manila (1913), Shanghai (1915), Tokyo (1917), Manila (1919), Shanghai (1921), Osaka (1923), Manila (1925), Shanghai (1927), Tokyo (1930) and Manila (1934). Anthony De Mello, Portrait of Indian Sport (London: P.R. Macmillan, 1959), pp. 295–98

  17. Fan Hong, ‘Prologue: The Origins of the Asian Games: Power and Politics’, Fan Hong (ed.), Sport, Nationalism and Orientalism: The Asian Games , pp. xiii—xxiv.

  18. Ibid., p. xiii.

  19. Fan Hong, Footbinding, Feminism and Freedom: The Liberation of Women’s Bodies in Modern China (London: Cass, 1997), p. 36.

  20. Fan Hong, ‘Prologue: The Origins of the Asian Games: Power and Politics’, Fan Hong (ed.), Sport, Nationalism and Orientalism: The Asian Games, p. xvi

  21. Andrew D. Morris, Marrow of the Nation: A History of Sport and Physical Culture in Republican China (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2004), p. 23.

  22. Fan Hong, op. cit., p. xvii.

  23. Anthony De Mello, Portrait of Indian Sport (London: P.R. Macmillan, 1959), pp. 294–99.

  24. Qing ji, quoted in Fan Hong, op. cit., pp. xx—xxi.

  25. Ibid., pp. xxi—xxii

  26. Anthony De Mello, Portrait of Indian Sport (London: P.R. Macmillan, 1959), pp. 299–300.

  27. Constitution of the Westen Asiatic Games Federation, annexure to personal letter from G.D. Sondhi to Baron De Coubertin, 31 May 1934, International Olympic Museum, File CIO MBR SONDH CORR OU MO1 41 O7 Sondhi, Guru Dutt Correspondence 1929–67.

  28. IOA Note to IOC, History of Other Asian Games Organisations, n.d. International Olympic Museum, File Correspondance du CNO de l’Inde (IND) 1924–1963.

  29. G.D. Sondhi profile, International Olympic Museum, File CIO MBR SONDH CORR OU MO1 41 O7 Sondhi, Guru Dutt Correspondence 1929–67.

  30. Mithlesh K. Sisodia, ‘India and the Asian Games: From Infancy to Maturity’, Fan Hong (ed.), Sport, Nationalism and Orientalism: The Asian Games, op. cit., p. 2.

  31. Personal letter from G.D. Sondhi to Baron De Coubertin, 10 January 1934. International Olympic Museum, File CIO MBR SONDH CORR OU MO1 41 O7 Sondhi, Guru Dutt Correspondence 1929–67.

  32. As late as January 1934, Sondhi was hoping for a yes from Persia to join his Federation, without much success. Ibid.

  33. Personal letter from G.D. Sondhi to Baron De Coubertin, 11 March 1934. International Olympic Museum, File CIO MBR SONDH CORR OU MO1 41 O7 Sondhi, Guru Dutt Correspondence 1929–67.

  34. Personal letter from G.D. Sondhi to Baron De Coubertin, 10 January 1934. International Olympic Museum, File CIO MBR SONDH CORR OU MO1 41 O7 Sondhi, Guru Dutt Correspondence 1929–67.

  35. The athletics and hockey events took place on 23 March 1934 while the swimming and diving events were held in Patiala on March 25–26. Anthony De Mello, Portrait of Indian Sport (London: P.R. Macmillan, 1959), p. 294.

  36. There is some confusion about the host city for the second WAG. While the IOA’s official note to the IOC names Palestine, Sondhi wrote to De Coubertin saying that Kabul had been chosen as the next venue. It seems Kabul was first chosen and the decision was changed later. Personal letter from G.D. Sondhi to Baron De Coubertin, 11 March 1934. International Olympic Museum, File CIO MBR SONDH CORR OU MO1 41 O7 Sondhi, Guru Dutt Correspondence 1929–67.

  37. IOA Note to IOC, History of Other Asian Games Organisations, n.d. International Olympic Museum, File Correspondance du CNO de l’Inde (IND) 1924–1963

  38. Emphasis is ours. Anthony De Mello, Portrait of Indian Sport (London: P.R. Macmillan, 1959), pp. 284–285.

  39. Ibid., p. 287.

  40. First Asian Relations Conference was held in Delhi in March—April, 1947. For details see Maurice T. Price, Review of Asian Relations: Being Report of the Proceedings and Documentation of the First Asian Relations Conference, New Delhi, March-April, 1947, in Social Forces, Vol. 28, No. 3 (March 1950), pp. 349–50.

  41. As told by K.R. Narayanan, who later became India’s first Dalit President, and had served with Nehru as an IFS officer. K.R. Narayanan, Acceptance Speech by President of the Republic of India, at the Convocation Function at Tribhuvan University (22 May 2000), http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:wmEKC_y8EaMJ:www.south-asia.com/Embassy-India/convocation.htm + asian + relations + conference+ 1947 + delhi&hl=en&ct = clnk&cd = 8&gl = in&client = firefox-a, accessed 12 November 2007.

  42. Jawaharlal Nehru quoted in Ibid.

  43. T.A. Keenleyside, ‘Nationalist Indian Attitudes Towards Asia: A Troublesome Legacy for Post-Independence Indian Foreign Policy’, Pacific Affairs, Vol. 55, No. 2, Summer 1982, p. 212.

  44. IOA Note to IOC, The First Asian Games Championships Will be Held in March 1951 at New Delhi, n.d. International Olympic Museum, File Correspondance du CNO de l’Inde (IND) 1924–1963

  45. Ibid.

  46. T.A. Keenleyside, ‘Nationalist Indian Attitudes Towards Asia: A Troublesome Legacy for Post-Independence Indian Foreign Policy’, Pacific Affairs, Vol. 55, No. 2, Summer 1982, p. 224.

  47. IOA Note to IOC, The First Asian Games Championships Will be Held in March 1951 at New Delhi, n.d. International Olympic Museum, File Correspondance du CNO de l’Inde (IND) 1924–1963.

  48. Anthony De Mello, Portrait of Indian Sport (London: P.R. Macmillan, 1959), p. 300.

  49. IOA Note to IOC, The First Asian Games Championships Will be Held in March 1951 at New Delhi, n.d. International Olympic Museum, File Correspondance du CNO de l’Inde (IND) 1924–1963.

  50. Ibid.

  51. Ibid.

  52. Ibid.

  53. Ibid.

  54. Afghanistan, Burma, India, Pakistan and the Philippines became the first members of the AGF. The representatives of Ceylon, Nepal and Siam signed, subject to ratification by their respective National Sports Associations or their governments. Ibid.

  55. Anthony De Mello, Portrait of Indian Sport (London: P.R. Macmillan, 1959), p. 304.

  56. T.A. Keenleyside, ‘Nationalist Indian Attitudes Towards Asia: A Troublesome Legacy for Post-Independence Indian Foreign Policy’, Pacific Affairs, Vol. 55, No. 2, Summer 1982, pp. 228–29.

  57. Ibid., p. 229.

  58. Mohanlal Gautam, ‘India’s Foreign policy: The Congress View’, India Quarterly, No. 7 (April-June 1951), p. 110.

  59. T.A. Keenleyside, ‘Nationalist Indian Attitudes Towards Asia: A Troublesome Legacy for Post-Independence Indian Foreign Policy’, Pacific Affairs, Vol. 55, No. 2, Summer 1982, pp. 223–24.

  60. Jawaharlal Nehru quoted in Ibid., p. 224.

  61. Nehru’s line was sent in a personal congratulatory message to the eventual chief organizer, Anthony De Mello, who adopted it as the Games motto. Anthony De Mello, Portrait of Indian Sport (London: P.R. Macmillan, 1989), p. 290.

  62. Anthony De Mello, Portrait of Indian Sport (London: P.R. Macmillan, 1959), p. 306.

  63. The Government of India agreed to pay Pakistan its share on the third day of Gandhi’s protest march on 15 January 1948.

  64. Anthony De Mello, Portrait of Indian Sport (London: P.R. Macmillan, 1959) Ibid., pp. 287, 306.

  65. Ibid., p. 306.

  66. Ibid., p. 307

  67. Ibid., p. 311.

  68. Boria Majumdar, Twenty Two Yards to Freedom (New Delhi: Penguin Viking, 2004), p. 97.

  69. Anthony De Mello, Portrait of Indian Sport (London: P.R. Macmillan, 1959), p. 308.

  70. Mithlesh K. Sisodia, ‘India and the Asian Games: From Infancy to Maturity’, Fan Hong (ed.), Sport, Nationalism and Orientalism: The Asian Games, pp. 3–5.

  71. Anthony De Mello, Portrait of Indian Sport, p. 307.

  72. Ibid., p. 309.

  73. Ibid., p. 313.

  74. G.D. Sondhi, ‘A
thletic Development of Asia’, Paper Read at Symposium conducted by the Philippines Amateur Athletic Federation, on the occasion of its Golden Jubilee Celebrations, 1–3 December 1961. International Olympic Museum, IDD Chemise 9404 CIO CNO INDE CORR, Correspondence India 1924–1963.

  75. Emphasis is ours. De Mello’s note to Nehru quoted in Anthony De Mello, Portrait of Indian Sport (London: P.R. Macmillan, 1959), p. 291.

  76. Ibid., p.312.

  77. Ibid., p. 306.

  78. Ibid., p. 307.

  79. Ibid., pp. 307–08

  80. ‘Our Playfields-II: National Stadium’, Indian Olympic Association Bulletin, Vol. 2, January—March 1960, p. 34.

  81. Anthony De Mello, Portrait of Indian Sport, p. 308.

  82. Ibid., p. 291.

  83. Ibid., p. 312.

  84. ‘Our Playfields-II: National Stadium’, Indian Olympic Association Bulletin, Vol. 2, January-March 1960, p. 34.

  85. Ibid.

  86. Ibid.

  87. Anthony De Mello, Portrait of Indian Sport, pp. 285–86.

  88. Quoted in Mithlesh K. Sisodia, ‘India and the Asian Games: From Infancy to Maturity’, Fan Hong (ed.), Sport, Nationalism and Orientalism: The Asian Games (London: Routledge, 2007), p. 4. i

  89. Anthony De Mello, Portrait of Indian Sport (London: P.R. Macmillan, 1959), p. 291.

  90. David Levinson and Karen Chrstensen (eds.), Encyclopedia of World Sports from Ancient Times to the Present (Santa Barbara, CA, ABC-CLIO), Vol. I, pp. 56–59 .

  91. Anthony De Mello, Portrait of Indian Sport, p. 289.

  92. Ibid., pp. 291–92.

  93. Ibid., p. 286.

  94. Hugh Sweeney, ‘A Peep in to the Past’, Indian Olympic News, Vol. 1, No. 5, 15 August 1962.

  95. Anthony De Mello, Portrait of Indian Sport, p. 290.

  96. Werner Levi, Free India in Asia (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1952), p. 39.

  97. Quoted in the Statesman, 17 June 1950.

  98. Anthony De Mello, Portrait of Indian Sport, p. 289

  99. The IX Asian Games Delhi 1982, Official Report, Vol. 1 (New Delhi: Thompson Press, 1982), p. 202.

  100. Anthony De Mello, Portrait of Indian Sport, p. 313

  101. This certainly is the view of K.R. Narayanan, who served with Nehru as an IFS officer. Narayanan, Acceptance Speech by President of the Republic of India, at the Convocation Function at Tribhuvan University (May 22, 2000), http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:wmEKC_y8EaMJ:www.south-asia.com Embassy-India/convocation.htm+asian+relations+conference+19 47+ delhi&hl= en&ct = clnk&cd = 8&gl = in&client = firefox-a, accessed 12 November 2007.

 

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