Olympics-The India Story

by Boria Majumdar

  102. Rusli Lutan, ‘Indonesia and the Asian Games: Sport, Nationalism and the ‘New Order’, Fan Hong (ed.), Sport, Nationalism and Orientalism: The Asian Games, p. 12.

  103. Ibid., p. 13.

  104. Ibid., p. 16.

  105. Ibid., p. 17.

  106. S.M. Mainual Haq, Report submitted to IOA on AGF meet in Jakarta on Aug 22, 1962, published as ‘Our Delegate, Mr. S.M. Mainual Haq’s Report, on A.G.F. Conference at Djakarta’, Indian Olympic News, Vol. 1, No. 8, November 1962, p. 19.

  107. Ibid., p. 20.

  108. Ibid.

  109. Ibid., p. 21.

  110. Ibid.

  111. Ibid., p. 22.

  112. Speech by Maladi, Chief of Staff of President for GANEFO Affairs at Committee I—IV Meeting, July 19, 1963. Quoted in Rusli Latan & Fan Hong, ‘The Politicization of Sport: GANEFO—A Case Study’, Fan Hong (ed.), Sport, Nationalism and Orientalism: The Asian Games, p. 28.

  113. S.M. Mainual Haq, Report submitted to IOA on AGF meet in Jakarta on Aug 22, 1962, published as ‘Our Delegate, Mr. S.M. Mainual Haq’s Report, on A.G.F. Conference at Djakarta’, Indian Olympic News, Vol. 1, No. 8, November 1962, p. 22.

  114. Ibid.

  115. Ibid.

  116. Rusli Latan & Fan Hong, ‘The Politicization of Sport: GANEFO—A Case Study’, Fan Hong (ed.), Sport, Nationalism and Orientalism: The Asian Games, pp. 27–28.

  117. Emphasis is Sondhi’s. G.D. Sondhi letter to Avery Brundage, president, IOC, 26 December 1962. International Olympic Museum, File CIO MBR SONDH CORR OU MO1 41 O7 Sondhi, Guru Dutt Correspondence 1929–67.

  118. Rusli Latan & Fan Hong, op. cit., p.24.

  119. Ibid., pp. 25–26.

  120. ‘Sport Improves the Spirit’, Indian Olympic News,Vol. 1, No. 10, January 1963.

  121. ‘Congress of the International Amateur Athletic Federation Held at Belgrade, Official Report of Shri P.K. Mathur, our Representative’, published in Indian Olympic News, Vol. 1, No. 8, November 1962.

  122. Dr. Soebandrio, 1963. Quoted in Rusli Latan & Fan Hong, ‘The Politicization of Sport: GANEFO—A Case Study’, Fan Hong (ed.), Sport, Nationalism and Orientalism: The Asian Games , p.29.

  123. Ibid., pp. 28–29, 31.

  124. Raja Bhalindra Singh, president, IOA to Otto Mayer, chancellor, IOC, 26 August 1963 and 17 August 1963. International Olympic Museum, 114. 115. Ibid. Ibid. ID Chemise 6826 CIO MBR SINGH CORR OU MO 01 41 07 SINGH, Bhalindra Raja Correspondence 1947–1985. Also see G.D. Sondhi to Otto Mayer, 27 April 1963. International Olympic Museum, File CIO MBR SONDH CORR OU MO1 41 O7 Sondhi, Guru Dutt Correspondence 1929–67.

  125. ‘More at the Games than Sport’, Indian Olympic News, Vol. 1, No. 6, September 1962.

  126. Rusli Latan & Fan Hong, ‘The Politicization of Sport: GANEFO—A Case Study’, Fan Hong (ed.), Sport, Nationalism and Orientalism: The Asian Games, pp. 32–33.

  127. Ibid.

  CHAPTER 8

  1. Rajiv Gandhi, then prime minister of India, in ‘Foreword’, IX Asian Games Delhi 1982, Official Report Vol. 1 (New Delhi: IX Asian Games Special Organising Committee, 1985). Page number unlisted.

  2. Buta Singh, chairman, Special Organising Committee IX Asian Games, in ‘Sport Loses its Greatest Patron’, IX Asian Games Delhi 1982, Official Report Vol. 1 (New Delhi: IX Asian Games Special Organising Committee, 1985).

  3. Boria Majumdar, ‘A Legacy Deeply Mired in Contradiction: World Cup 2007 in Retrospect’, in Nalin Mehta, Dominic Malcolm, Jon Gemmell (eds.), Cricket and the New Dawn: Race, Nations and Identity, forthcoming special issue of Sport in Society.

  4. See for instance, ‘House Prices Go for Gold in Olympic Host Cities’, http://209.85.175.104/search?q=cache:0wY9s11OI_AJ:www.hbosplc.com/economy/includes/18–10-4Olympichostcities.doc+sydney+olympic+property+prices&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=in&client=firefox-a accessed 18 September 2007.

  5. Sumit Mitra, Anita Kaul, ‘The Tedium is the Message’, India Today, 31 May 1982, p. 16.

  6. See Nalin Mehta, India on Television: How TV News Changed the Ways We Think and Act (New Delhi: HarperCollins, 2008, forthcoming).

  7. Robin Jeffrey, ‘The Mahatma Didn’t Like Movies and Why it Matters: Indian Broadcasting Policy, 1920s—90s’, Global Media and Communication, Vol. 2, No. 2 (August 2006), pp. 204–24.

  8. See for instance, Arvind Rajagopal, Politics After Television: Religious Nationalism and the Reshaping of the Indian Public (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001); Purnima Mankekar, Screening Culture, Viewing Politics: An Ethnography of Television, Womanhood, and Nation in Postcolonial India (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999); G.C. Awasthy, Broadcasting in India (Bombay, Allied, 1965); Christiane Brosius & Melissa Butcher (eds.) Image Journeys: Audio-Visual Media and Cultural Change in India (New Delhi: Sage, 1999); Monroe E. Price & Stefaan G. Verhulst (eds.), Broadcasting Reform in India: Media Law from a Global Perspective (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998).

  9. Sevanti Ninan, Through the Magic Window: Television and Change in India (New Delhi: Penguin, 1995), pp. 20–21.

  10. William Mazzarella, Shoveling Smoke: Advertising and Globalization in Contemporary India (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003), pp. 73, 98.

  11. In this context, see Robin Jeffrey, ‘Monitoring Newspapers and Understanding the Indian State’, Asian Survey, Vol. 34, No. 8 (August 1994), pp. 71–75 .

  12. These estimates are based on capitalized billings of more than 100 major advertising agencies. Helen Anchan, ‘Advertising Scene: 1965–90’, Press and Advertisers Yearbook, 1989–90, p. 77.

  13. Nalin Mehta, ‘Indianising Television: News, Politics and Globalisation’, Ph.D thesis, La Trobe University, Melbourne, pp. 1–2, 33.

  14. Buta Singh, chairman, Special Organising Committee IX Asian Games, ‘Sport Loses its Greatest Patron’, in IX Asian Games Delhi 1982, Official Report Vol. 1 (New Delhi: IX Asian Games Special Organising Committee, 1985).

  15. Buta Singh at the time of his appointment as chairman of the Special Organising Committee of the IX Asian Games was minister of state for shipping and transport. IX Asian Games Delhi 1982, Official Report Vol. 1 (New Delhi: IX Asian Games Special Organising Committee, 1985), p. 203.

  16. Indira Gandhi quoted in Ramachandra Guha, India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy (Picador India: 2007), p. 550.

  17. Ibid., pp. 550–51.

  18. Ibid., pp. 549–50.

  19. Raja Bhalindra Singh to Juan Antonio Samaranch, 15 September 1981, No. IOA/48/16, International Olympic Museum, Lausanne, CIO MBR Singh CORR OU MO 01 4107 SINGH, Bhalindra Singh Correspondence 1947–85.

  20. See International Olympic Museum, Lausanne,CIO CNO IND BUREX OU MO O1 14 36 INE BUREAU EXECUTIF 1975–1984 and CNO D’INDE BUREAU EXECUTIF 1985–1988

  21. IX Asian Games Delhi 1982, Official Report Vol. 1 (New Delhi: IX Asian Games Special Organising Committee, 1985), pp. 287.

  22. Ramachandra Guha, India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy (Picador India: 2007), pp. 519–21.

  23. Juan Antonio Samaranch quoted in IX Asian Games Delhi 1982, Official Report Vol. 1 (New Delhi: IX Asian Games Special Organising Committee, 1985), pp. 287–88.

  24. Government of India, Ministry of Education and Social Welfare (Dept of Education), Confidential Circular No. F 11–4/74YS1 (2), Sub: Improvement of the Standard of Sports and Games in Country—Conditions for Financial and Other Assistance to National Sports Federations/Associations etc. Issued to the Indian Olympic Association, National Sports Federations on 9 April, 1974. Attached as annexure to personal letter from S. Kimalal, C.C. Mivashunti, H. Mubutu, A..C. Kituzi, M.V. Matoves and B. Ddreme to Lord Killanin, president, IOC, 20 January 1976. See International Olympic Museum, Lausanne, International Olympic Museum, CIO CNO IND GENER OU MO 01 14 36 INDE Correspondance Generale 1950–1981.

  25. Indira Gandhi, message by prime minister, 27 June 1976, published in Indian Tracks to Success: ITDC Souvenir for IOA, 1976 Montreal Games (New Delhi: ITDC, 1976).

  26.
Personal letter from Ashwini Kumar, secretary-general, IX Asian Games Committee, to Lord Killanin, president IOC, 19 April 1980. International Olympic Museum, Lausanne, CIO MBR KUMAR CORR OU MO 01 41 07 KUMAR, Ashwini Correspondence 1973–1983.

  27. Personal Letter from Ashwini Kumar, DG BSF and Secretary, IOA to Lord Killanin, president, IOC, Sep. 15, 1975, International Olympic Museum, Lausanne, CIO MBR KUMAR CORR OU MO 01 41 07 KUMAR, Ashwini Correspondence 1973–1983.

  28. Personal letter from Ashwini Kumar, DG BSF and secretary, IOA to Lord Killanin, president, IOC, 15 September 1975, International Olympic Museum, Lausanne, CIO MBR KUMAR CORR OU MO 01 41 07 KUMAR, Ashwini Correspondence 1973–1983.

  29. Emphasis in original. Personal letter from S. Kimalal, C.C. Mivashunti, H. Mubutu, A.C. Kituzi, M.V. Matoves and B. Ddreme to Lord Killanin, president, IOC, 20 January 1976, International Olympic Museum, CIO CNO IND GENER OU MO 01 14 36 INDE Correspondance Generale 1950–1981

  30. Anonymous letter from Lahore to Lord Killanin, president, IOC, 25 January 1976, International Olympic Museum, CIO CNO IND GENER OU MO 01 14 36 INDE Correspondance Generale 1950–1981.

  31. Anonymous letter from Lahore to Lord Killanin, president, IOC, 25 January 1976, International Olympic Museum, CIO CNO IND GENER OU MO 01 14 36 INDE Correspondance Generale 1950–1981.

  32. Personal Letter from Ashwini Kumar, secretary-general, IX Asian Games Committee, to Lord Killanin, president, IOC, 19 April 1980. International Olympic Museum, Lausanne, CIO MBR KUMAR CORR OU MO 01 41 07 KUMAR, Ashwini Correspondence 1973–1983.

  33. Personal letter from Ashwini Kumar, secretary-general, IX Asian Games Committee, to Lord Killanin, president, IOC, 19 April 1980. International Olympic Museum, Lausanne, CIO MBR KUMAR CORR OU MO 01 41 07 KUMAR, Ashwini Correspondence 1973–1983.

  34. Buta Singh, ‘Report on the Functions of the Chief Coordinators Office, Before and During the IX Asian Games’, IX Asian Games Delhi 1982, Official Report Vol. II (New Delhi: IX Asian Games Special Organising Committee, 1985), p. 7.

  35. IX Asian Games Delhi 1982, Official Report Vol. 1, op. cit. p. 23.

  36. Ibid., pp. 200–13.

  37. See Ramachandra Guha, India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy (Picador India: 2007), p. 549.

  38. Buta Singh, ‘Ever Onward’, in Melville De Mellow (ed.), IX Asian Games Delhi 1982, Official Report Vol. 1, op. cit.

  39. Vidyacharan Shukla, president, IOA to Juan Antonio Samaranch, president, IOC, 12 April 1985. International Olympic Museum, Lausanne, CIO CNO IND CORR O MO 01 14 36 INDE Correspondance 1983–86.

  40. This was the version of one senior IOA official who was privy to the discussions between Rajiv Gandhi and VC. Shukla on the 1992 Olympic bid. He was speaking on condition of anonymity. Personal conversation in Lausanne, March 2006.

  41. IX Asian Games Delhi 1982, Official Report Vol. 1, op. cit., p. 27.

  42. Ibid., unlisted page number.

  43. Ibid., p. 60.

  44. Ibid., p. 55.

  45. Ibid.

  46. IX Asian Games Delhi 1982, Official Report Vol. II (New Delhi: IX Asian Games Special Organising Committee, 1985), p. 16.

  47. IX Asian Games Delhi 1982, Official Report Vol. 1 (New Delhi: IX Asian Games Special Organising Committee, 1985), p. 55.

  48. IX Asian Games Delhi 1982, Official Report Vol. II (New Delhi: IX Asian Games Special Organising Committee, 1985), p. 16.

  49. Ibid., p.19. Also see IX Asian Games Delhi 1982, Official Report Vol. 1 (New Delhi: IX Asian Games Special Organising Committee, 1985), p. 55.

  50. IX Asian Games Delhi 1982, Official Report Vol. 1 (New Delhi: IX Asian Games Special Organising Committee, 1985), p. 55.

  51. Buta Singh, ‘Report on the Functions of the Chief Coordinators Office, Before and During the IX Asian Games’, IX Asian Games Delhi 1982, Official Report Vol. II (New Delhi: IX Asian Games Special Organising Committee, 1985), p. 9.

  52. IX Asian Games Delhi 1982, Official Report Vol. II (New Delhi: IX Asian Games Special Organising Committee, 1985), pp. 17–1 8.

  53. Ibid., p. 18

  54. Ibid., pp. 161–62.

  55. Ibid., p. 157.

  56. Ibid., p. 348.

  57. Ibid., p. 26.

  58. IX Asian Games Delhi 1982, Official Report Vol. 1 (New Delhi: IX Asian Games Special Organising Committee, 1985), p. 33.

  59. As told to authors by a senior NCC official.

  60. Ibid., pp. 67–68.

  61. Ibid., p. 27.

  62. IX Asian Games Delhi 1982, Official Report Vol. II (New Delhi: IX Asian Games Special Organising Committee, 1985), p. 48.

  63. Sumit Mitra, Anita Kaul, ‘The Tedium is the Message’, India Today, 31 May 1982, p. 16.

  64. Ibid., pp. 16–17.

  65. G.C. Awasthy, Broadcasting in India (Bombay, Allied, 1965), p. 11.

  66. Sevanti Ninan, Through the Magic Window: Television and Change in India (New Delhi: Penguin, 1995), pp. 18–19.

  67. Ibid.

  68. Bhaskar Ghose, Doordarshan Days (New Delhi: Penguin Viking, 2005), p. 22.

  69. S.R. Joshi, Asia Speaks Out: The Indian Television Landscape, Report No. SRG-96–047 (Ahmedabad: Development and Educational Communication Unit, Indian Space Research Organisation, April 1996), p. 2.

  70. Bhaskar Ghose, Doordarshan Days (New Delhi: Penguin Viking, 2005), p. 22.

  71. Doordarshan figures quoted in S.C. Bhatt, Satellite Invasion of India (New Delhi: Gyan Publishing, 1994), Appendix VII, p. 281.

  72. Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India (Calcutta: Signet, 1948, first published 1945), p. 469.

  73. David Page & William Crawley, Satellites Over South Asia: Broadcasting, Culture and the Public Interest (New Delhi: Sage, 2001), pp. 53–56 .

  74. Figures from National Sample Survey, Fourteenth Round: July 1958-June 1959, No. 109, Tables with Notes on Indian Villages (New Delhi: Cabinet Secretariat, 1966), p. 16. Quoted in Jeffrey, ‘The Mahatma Didn’t Like Movies and Why it Matters’, pp. 209–10.

  75. Radio and Television: Report of the Committee on Broadcasting and Information Media (New Delhi: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, 1966), p. 199.

  76. P.C. Chatterjee, Broadcasting in India (New Delhi: Sage, 1991, 2nd ed.) pp. 52–53 .

  77. David Page & William Crawley, Satellites Over South Asia: Broadcasting, Culture and the Public Interest (New Delhi: Sage, 2001), pp. 54–56.

  78. Sevanti Ninan, Through the Magic Window: Television and Change in India (New Delhi: Penguin, 1995), p. 20.

  79. With the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) in 1975–76, India became the first country in the world to use a direct broadcast satellite to reach remote villages directly with educational information. Under SITE, an American satellite was used to transmit four hours of educational programming a day to 2,338 villages spread across six Indian states—Rajasthan, Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The primary objective was to help family planning, improve agricultural practices and contribute towards national integration. A NASA satellite was used for transmission. ISRO handled all hardware ground systems for transmission/reception of signals and All India Radio had primary responsibility for production of all the TV programmes. Bella Mody, ‘Programming for SITE’, Journal of Communication, Vol. 29, No. 4 (1979), pp. 91–92.

  80. K.S. Duggal, What Ails Indian Broadcasting (New Delhi: Marwah Publications, 1980), p. 126.

  81. Amartya Sen, for instance, has noted the narrow instrumentalities of the Mahalanobis model, its exclusion of alternative choices and the political rationale behind investment decisions. Quoted in Sunil Khilnani, The Idea of India (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1997, first published 1997), p. 86. In this context, Vivek Chibber has convincingly noted that it was not the idea of state-led intervention that was flawed—it worked in Korea—but the strategy of import-substitution industrialization, as opposed to export-led industrialization. See Vivek Chibber, Locked in Place: State-Building and Late Industrialization in India
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003). Lord Meghnad Desai has argued that the Indian model was under-developed state capitalism, not socialism. But he praises the Nehru era policies, arguing that these served their purpose and should have been re-assessed, not frozen in stone by the Indira Gandhi regime. Lord Meghnad Desai, ‘Capitalism, Socialism and the Indian Economy’ in Kalyan Bannerji & Tarjani Vakil (eds.), India: Joining the World Economy (New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill, 1995), pp. 183–200.

  82. The traditional Soviet method of controlling media relied on centralization, Communist Party control of outlets and saturation. Ellen Mickiewicz, Changing Channels: Television and the Struggle for Power in Russia (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. 25–29.

  83. This draws on the hermeneutic tradition to emphasize that individuals are not passive recipients of media messages but interpret them in their own ways. John B. Thompson summed up this argument to develop his notion of mediated communication. See John B. Thompson, The Media and Modernity: A Social Theory of the Media (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995), pp. 25–42.

  84. David Page & William Crawley, Satellites Over South Asia: Broadcasting, Culture and the Public Interest (New Delhi: Sage, 2001), pp. 54–66 .

  85. Sevanti Ninan, Through the Magic Window: Television and Change in India (New Delhi: Penguin, 1995), pp. 28–29.

  86. Bhaskar Ghose, Doordarshan Days (New Delhi: Penguin Viking, 2005), p. 28.

  87. Emphasis is mine. IX Asian Games Delhi 1982, Official Report Vol. II (New Delhi: IX Asian Games Special Organising Committee, 1985), p. 187.

  88. IX Asian Games Delhi 1982, p. 285.

  89. Ibid.

  90. Ibid., p. 301.

  91. Bhaskar Ghose, Doordarshan Days (New Delhi: Penguin Viking, 2005), p. 28.