The Institutionalisation Of Indian Hockey :: The Sardarji’s, The Punjabi’s Take Over, The Tribes' ,The Muslims' Challenge Indian Hockey

Pic :: The Concept Of  Instituitional Hockey 

The Institutionalisation Of Indian Hockey :: The Sardarji’s and the Punjabi’s take over

It was immediately after the triumph of the Indian Hockey in 1948 at the London Olympics that the respective State Government, the Public Sector Undertaking and the National Institution under the Government of India, the railways, and the Defense Institution of India came forward to employ the Indian Hockey stalwart.

It was the Indian railways first who came forward to employ the Hockey players at the most in almost every unit that it possessed. The Railways went to the extent of employing the Intermediates who even represented their School team, in the national School games,  or those even who had represented their Universities in the University Games  or even those who were studying in the University but had represented their state at the Nationals.

Immediately came the Services and most of the Hockey players were in the roll of the Services. The Electrical and the Mechanical Engineers ( EME) Centre at Secundrabad, the Corps Of Signal at the various places at India, the Indian navy were the prime example of the same.

In the private sector the Caltex XI of Bombay, the Indian Oil Corporation, and the tats came a big way and came forward to recruit the Hockey players. It was somewhat strange to see that most of the player recruited in the Defense sector and the Oil sector were the Punjabis or the Sardarji’s. It was another Indian Institution the Police that then came forward and the Punjab Police went a long way to provide the job especially to them who were from the state of Punjab be it the Sardarji’s or the non-Sardarji’s but within the state of Punjab if he was playing Hockey and had represented his School, University or the state in the respective championship.

The National Hockey Championship were not held from 1947 to 1950 .There were many reason for the same. However the Indian Hockey team used to be selected on the basis of the performance of the players in the All India Beighton Cup held at Calcutta, the All India Aga Khan Hockey held at Bombay, the All India Scindia Gold Cup held at Gwalior or Bhopal as the case would be and ofcourse they were the championship that were held in between when the Inter railway and the Inter Services games were held.

The Sardarji Factor In Indian Hockey ::

If one looks in the mirror to read the names of the Indian Hockey player from the 1928 Olympics to the 1936 Olympics, there were only THREE Sardarji’s who played .

However ONE player who in a WRONG manner by his game spread the DISEASE of the IMPORTANCE of the Sardarji’s and that was  THE SARDARJI’S WERE SOMEWHAT THE GOD OF INFDIAN HOCKEY .

The ONE who DID NOT EVEN think of it was Balbir Singh Senior . He was the member of the Indian Hockey team in 1948, in 1952 and in 1956 when he was the Captain of the Indian Hockey team which had won the GOLD at Melbourne in 1956 defeating Pakistan by 1-0 .

Balbir Singh had scored FIVE of the SIX goal in our victory in the 1952 Olympics at the Helsinki. Inspite of it THE  “ HELMS ”  AWARD FOR THE BEST OLYMPIAN OF THE 1952 OLYMPICS WAS WON BY K D SINGH BABU who was the captain of the Indian team in 1952.

ONLY INSTANCE OF A HOCKEY PLAYER WINNING THE INDIVIDUAL BEST OLYMPIAN AWARD

This is a FACT to be noted. In the 1952 Olympics, K.D.Singh Babu DID NOT SCORE even a SINGLE GOAL in the entire Hockey Olympic matches for India. Yet he was ADJUDICATED the BEST Olympian of the 1952 Olympics . The reason was  BABU SINGLE HANDEDLY TOOK INDIA TO THE FINALS AND IT WAS HIS AS MANY AS FIVE ASSIST IN THE FINALS TO BALBIR SINGH SENIOR TO SCORE THOSE FIVE GOALS.

K.D.Singh Babu if he wanted, he could have scored GOALS at will in the 1948 and in the 1952 Olympics. He had come to the Indian team on the basis of the performance of the Indian teams tour to East Africa where he scored 94 goals to Dhyanchand scoring 72 in the SEVENTEEM games that India played on that our against the various East African team. However when Babu started playing for India, in the outside right or the inside right position he would dribble his way all along from any corner of the field and entering the striking circle , he would pass on the ball for the Centre Forward to score . He SACRIFIED all his personal wish that he carried, only to see the others succeeded and India won the game.

In the 1952 Olympics, even with Leslie Claudius playing at the half, Babu would fall back to the Indian territory , ie ,  “ D ” , snatch the ball from the defender or the attackers and then he would start his run to the opponent D and from there would come the EDEN-PERFECT passes for his team mates to score and they would. THE GREATEST TO BENEFIT OUT OF THE SAME WAS “ BALBIR SINGH SENIOR ”.

Balbir Singh goals after goals that he scored and the press that gave him the mileage for the same, completely WIPED all the RECORDS of Roop Singh and Dhyanchand. As it is during those days the newspaper in the era of the 1928 to 1936 did not carry too much of news on Sports for India and much of the news was highlighted on Mr Mahatma Gandhi. A single para of the news on Indian Hockey and a few lines on Dhyanchand and Roop Singh was more than enough.

After the Independence the various newspapers gave a lot of coverage to Football, cricket and above all Hockey and the man to garner all the corner’s was Balbir Singh Senior .It was assumed that HE WAS THE BEST EVER PLAYER BORN TO INDIA IN HOCKEY WHICH ACTUALLY WAS A MYTH.

I have written an article here on the blog page which reads as under-:

Reality Bites :: Indian Hockey – 1932 versus 1952 Media plays it's game to TARNISH the image of the Great Balbir Singh Sr

I would request all the readers’ world over to read that article. One would be evenly removed of all the RUBBISH and the unusual comparism that one would make about WHO ought to be CREDITED for WHAT in Indian Hockey when it BOILS down to records. Read that entire article PLEASE and WIPE OFF ANY DOUBTS THAT YOU HAVE IN YOUR MIND ABOUT THE WORLD RECORDS CREATED BY INDIAN HOCKEY AND WHO OUGHT TO BE CREDITED FOR THE SAME AND HOW DID THE MEDIA CREDIT IT TO SOMEBODY ELSE FOR IT.

Balbir Singh’s contribution would have been a great ZERO if he did not get K.D.Singh Babu, Rajagopalan, Randhir Singh Bhola there in the upfront either in 1948, or in 1952 and again in 1956. Babu left playing Hockey in 1952 after all the kind of internal bickering and politics started surfacing with the Paunjabi’s and the Non-Punjabi’s songs that the people sang and had started singing. Rajagopal left the scene in 1952 after the Helsinki Olympics but Randhir Singh Bhola was there to assist Balbir Singh, and that made all the difference.

It and  IF IT WERE NOT THE THREE PLAYERS THAT I HAVE NAMED HERE , BALBIR SINGH SENIOR WOULD NEVER HAVE BLOSSOMED AT ALL IN HOCKEY. However Roop Singh DID NOT get that leverage at any moment and always had to play under the shade of Dhyanchand. Even then see the number of goals  scored by Roop Singh. That defies the LAW and the statement. Yet the Indian media was all for balbir Singh Senior for everything and Balbir Singh’s contribution to Punjab’s success in the rangaswamy Cup, the symbol of supremacy for the national Championship of Hockey in India somehow made the Punjabi’s to feel and think that  HOCKEY IS THEIR CUP OF TEA AND IF HE WAS NOT A PUNJABI PLAYING HOCKEY, FOR PUNJAB, HE IS NOT AT ALL A HOCKEY PLAYER.

This made the difference in the mindset and the level of the thinking of the other’s who would select the team for India in the Hockey. In between the Services and the Railways started showing their prominence in Hockey and started giving a run for the success for their Hockey. Obviously these two teams also had many Punjabis or the Sardarji’s doing the trick for them. The saying was again the same- :

  IT IS THE SARDARJI’S AFTER ALL ACHIEVING THOSE SUCCESS FOR THEM IN HOCKEY AND IF IT WAS NOT A SARDAR IT WAS A PUNJABI. That  THINKING remained CONSTANT  and it did not change the concept or the mindset or the level of thinking about HOCKEY in India.  The general thought was  HOCKEY IS FOR THE SARDARJI’S AND THE PUNJABI’S AND IF IT WERE NOT ANY OF THEM HE WAS NOT AT ALL A HOCKEY PLAYER.

Based on this thought which was a DONKEY-DROP of a thought, there were many Punjabis and Sardarji’s who found a place in the Indian Squad from 1952 and it went on and on further. The WORST TO SUFFER WERE THE CHRISTIANS AND THE ANGLO INDIANS.

From 1928 to 1936 when India won THREE CONSECUTIVE GOLD in Hockey there wewre about 75% of the players who were either the Christians or the Anglo-Indians. However from 1948 to 1956 when India after Independence won THREE CONSECUTIVE HOCKEY GOLD to become the FIRST ever COUNTRY to achieve the HATTRICK of winning the Olympic Hockey , there were only 13 players from 1948 to 1956 in terms of the CHRISTIANS-ANGLO INDIANS playing in the side for India. The RATIO was 9:1:3 which means that in the 1948 Olympics there were as many as NINE players in the side that were the Christians-Anglo Indian which fell to 1 in 1952 and then three in 1956. In 1956 there were as many as 13 Sardarji/Punjabi’s in the side. The team was led by Balbir Singh Senior. In 1952 there were as many as seven Sardarji’s/Punjabi’s that played in the Finals against Holland. It  WAS THE LYNCHPIN K.D.SINGH BABU WHO MADE THAT VICTORY A ONE-MAN-SHOW YET THE ENTIRE HONOUR WENT TO BALBIR SINGH SENIOR FOR THE SAME. In 1948 there were as many as SEVEN players as compared to NINE Anglo-Indian who were the Sardarji’s and the Punjabi’s who were playing for India in the Olympic Hockey team .  In 1960 there were only THREE Anglo-Indians as compared to seven Punjabi’s/Sardarji’s that were playing in the First elevn in the Indioan Hockey team at the Rome Olympics.

 LESLIE CLAUDIUS WAS LEADING THE INDIAN TEAM AND HE IS THE FIRST ANGLO-INDIAN OR A CHRISTIAN WHO LED INDIA IN THE OLYMPICS AT HOCKEY.

It is NOT and it was NOT that the Indian team did NOT have better players than these Sardarji’s and the Punjabi’s to play for them. It was the MINDSET of the Indians and the National selectors that selected many a average Indian who were either the Sardarji or the Punjabi’s that found a place in the squad.This ultimately started showing in the performance and the wordt to come was in the Rome Olympics were India simply struggled against a very fighting fit Australia in the Quarter-Finals where a EXTRA-TIME goal by Raghbir Singh Bhola gave India a very unimpressive 1-0 victory and again in the semis against Great Britain, a early lucky goal  by Udham Singh Khullar gave India a 1-0 victory over Great Britain.

This was read so uniquely by Pakistan that in the finals against India in Rome, Pakistan completely BOMBARDED the Indian goal and finished it off by taking an early goal through Naseer Ahmed Bunda in the 10^th minute and thereafter the Indian simply were  NOT GOOD ENOUGH at all to counter Pakistan. What was needed was the SPEED to completely MINCE the Pakistani and NONE OF THE SARDARJI pr the PUNJABIS had that to do . In the last minute a OPEN GOAL was missed by Raghbir Singh Bhola who for the ske of the gallery show  went on to take a reverse flick where even a simple push would have done the trick and Pakistan won the Gold.

Many say many a THINGS about that Finals, but the TRUTH is- INDIA HAD NO ANSWER TO THE RAMPAGING AND A WELL –OILED PAKISTANI FORWARDS WHO PLAYED LIKE A WELL OILED AND A WELL GREASED MACHINE. The goal which was scored by Naseer Ahmed Bunda was a WORLD CLASS in which within a BLINK he beat Jhamanlal Sharma who simply could not contain that electrifying run by Bunda and Bunda cut the entire defense like a HOT RED KNIFE that cuts the BUTTER by running through the butter. In that match the Pakistani’s were simply simply PRECISE, FAST, ACCURATE and COMPACT with their defense completely bottling the NOT-SO-FAST-MOVING Indian forwards. They deserved the victory by every inch. They completely BLOCKED the Indians in the mid-field and did not allow then any space. It was only a falter in the dying minutes that gave India a OPEN-GOAL to equalize but that HERO-ACT of a SHAMMI KAPOOR that Bhola went on to do and THAT WAS THAT. India’s supremacy in Hockey for the FIRST time took a BLOW and a NOSE-DIVE.

The Audis, ie the AUSSIES,  FIRST, the BRITISH in the semis and the Pakistani’s in the FINALS at ROME mutedly and ultimately,  and EVENLY proved that these SARDARJI’S and the PUNJABI’S did posses the STRENGTH, the PHYSICAL one but HOCKEY had changed to INTELLIGENT, SPEED and the FAST rear guarding COUNTERS and the INDIANS were NO MATCH either to the Pakistani’s or the FOREIGNERS in terms of the Aussies and the British. The Indian team in the Rome Olympics just DID not show any SPEED in the entire tourney at all either to counter or to attack. The Speed of the Pakistani’s and the Aussies were simply a DELIGHT to watch and THAT IS THE TRUTH .

 IT WAS HERE THAT PAKISTAN STARTED OBSERVING THE CHANGES THAT WERE FAST COMING IN THE GAMES AND THE INDIANS WERE STILL LOOMING LARGE ON THEIR SUCCESS FROM THE 1928 TO 1956 AND WERE PLAYING THAT A KIND OF THE GAME WHICH WAS PLAYED IN THE ERA BETWEEN 1928 TO 1956. Pakistan was simply changing and bringing about the NEW ELEMENT into the game with FIRST-TIME-PASS, NO-HANGING-WITH-THE-BALL, CREATE-THE-GAPS and PLUNDER THE GAPS TO ATTCCK VIGOUROUSLY  . In Rome Pakistan definitely was a SIDE to WATCH and their show in the Finals against India was evidently a EYE OPENER that Pakistan had taken it’s hockey INTERNALLY and EXTERNALLY to an UNPRECEDENTED HIEGHT to which India was falling well behind and back.

Hockey Was Changing In It’s ELEMENT , But India was ROOTED to it’s OLD-BELIEF

After the 1956 Olympics, it was the Asian games FIRST at Manila, Philippines in 1958 where the Hockey as a game was introduced in the Asian Games. In the finals, OH !! , incantly and infact,  this Hockey match in the  Asian Games in 1958 was played on a ROUND-ROBIN league basis and in the last encounter, India and Pakistan played a 0-0 draw, but the GOLD was HANDED to Pakistan as they had scored more number of goals as compared to India. Pakistan in that Games evidently had the better excahnges and their players were far more speedier and thrustful as compared to the Indians. Their defence led by Brigadier Atif simply did not allow any liberties to the Indians at all during that match and NEVER did India pose any challenge to them in that match/games. Yet India kept it eye closed.

SHOCK-was to INVITE India in the 1960 Olympics which it did and the Indian team was again brutalized in the 1962 games at Djakarta in the Asian games Finals where Pakistan beat India by 2-0 . Pakistan evidently had left India much and far behind in terms of the fitness of the players and the element of SPEED, SKILL, STAMINA and STRENGTH. The kind of a penalty corner hits that they would take would put many an Indians trying to stop them during those corner hits into frenzy.

Pakistan thereafter produced many WORLD-CLASS penalty corner specialist and the names of Tanveer dar,  Munnawar Zaman, Manzoor –Ul_Hassan, not to forget Brigadier Atif and Air Marshal Noor Khan who played for them completely PROVED their class and retold the WORLD about the COMPLETE HAGE in the ELEMENT of HOCKEY that they were bringing into the game.  INDIA STILL WAS OBBESSED WITH THE SARDARJI’S AND THE PUNJABIS.

I’m putting the ROLL-OF-HONOUR of the All India Jawaharlal Nehru Cup here -:

SENIOR NEHRU HOCKEY TOURNAMENT
Year	Winners	Runners up
1964	Northern Railway	South Eastern Railway
1965	Sikh R.C. Meerut	Bombay XI
1966	IHF (Blue) IHF (Red)	Joint Winners
1967	Indian Navy Northern Railway	Joint Winners
1968	Indian Airlines All India Police	Joint Winners
1969	Corps of Signals	Northern Railway
1970	All India Police	Northern railway
1971	Indian Airlines	Great Britain

 

One could see the names of the winners as well as the Runners-up. Teams like Bombay XI, Sikh Regimental Centre, Northern Railways , Corps Of Signals, All India Police and Indian Airlines had emerged from 1964 to 1972 .In 1971 the Indian Airlines led by Inam-Ur-Rehman beat the BRITAIN OLYMPIC XI by 2-0 with B.P.Govinda scoring both the goals in the finals, then .

Basically I'm placing and putting the record of the Nehru Cup from 1964 to 1971 because from 1964 after we won that Olympic Gold at Tokyo, HOCKEY there at the WORLD was changing and the reflection was flashing or showing in the mirror and it was also that the Indian Hockey was changing from the communities that believed that Punjab was the epicentre and the fulcrum of Hockey at india, but the Indian Administrator running the game WOULD-NOT-CHANGE and that was because of OBSTINISM that was running in the VEIN as the BLOOD of Indian Hockey. 

In other words, A LOT OF TRIBAL PLAYERS, A LOT FROM THE SOUTH , AND A LOT FROM THE EAST AND CENTRAL INDIA HAD EMERGED TO SHOW ACTUTALLY WHAT WAS THE CHANGE THAT WAS ERUPTING INTO THE GAME AND HOW THE NON SARDARJI’S AND THE PUNJABI’S WERE SLOWLY PUSHED TO THE OUT OF THE FIELD IN TERMS OF POPULARITY IN HOCKEY BESIDE PUTIING THEM OUT OF THE HONOUR but the little Punjabi’s or the Sardarji’s playing for that side or the team was making a HELLUVA difference.

The SURPRISE was the Indian Airlines Team of 1968.Led by Inam-Ur-Rehman which had NO PUNJABI’S or the SARDARJI’S playing for them and possessing majority of the players from Bhopal and South Of India, the Indian Airlines SINGLE HANDEDLY led and played by Inam-Ur_Rehman and assisted by Shahid Noor upfront and Mehboob Khan gave many a LESSON of HOCKEY to the  ALL INDIA POLICE, Jullundur led by Harmeek Singh , not only in terms of the what we would call it WRISTY-MAGICAL Hockey with the FLAVOUR of the ASIAN STYLE but it also showed it’s calss about the QUALITY of the players that indian Airlines had fielded. None of the players playing for Indian Airlines then in 1968 were on the PAY-ROLL of the Indian Airlines. They were PROMISED of a JOB in the Indian Airlines then. Once they won it, between 1968 to 1972 Indian Airlines had Misbah-Ul-Haq at the goal, Monappa in the deep defense,  Perumal Krishnamurthy at the left half position, Mehboob Khan at the Cente half , Ashok Kumar , Shahid Noor, B.P.Govinda and Inam-Ur-Rehman upfront and in 1971 after winning the Senior Nehru Cup, in 1971,  Indian Airlines then participated in the ALL-WORLD-AIRLINES – CUP in Hamburg at west Germany where they  won the Championship.It did not end there . After that Finals, on an request from the German Hockey association, the Airlines team played a exhibition match to beat the Olympic Hockey  team of West Germany by 2-1 in which Shahid Noor and Ashok Kumar scored for India.

Thereafter a visiting west Germany Olympic Hockey team came to India and beat the Indian National Hockey team by 1-0 in the ONLY Hockey Test that they played here at India. They again had lost to India in the 1971 World Cup by 0-1 at Barcelona in the 1^st World Cup but in 1972 tey  WON THEIR FIRST EVER OLYMPIC GOLD BEATING PAKISTAN BY 1-0 IN THE FINALS. In Munich in 1972 in the Group encounter, Germany had beaten Pakistan by 1-0 as well .  STILL THE HANGOVER OF THE SARDARJI’S AND THE PUNJABI’S WERE NOT EVAPORATING FROM THE MIND OF THE INDIANS AND THE INDIAN SELECTORS.

The success in the Nehru Cup by the various Indian team either from the Institutions or from the clubs, would field many and most of them who were either the Muslims or the Tribes. However the SOCIO-ETHO-CUMMUNO trait and the CULTURE that they followed were unacceptable to the Indians who were the selectors and who were running these games in the country. The REFINED culture and the ETHICS of the Punjabi’s and the Sardarji’s were and was considered enough as an EDUCATION and EDUCATED players from that communities as compared to the TRIBES and the MUSLIMS. Their NON-ACCEPTANCE in tems of the HABITS, DIALECTS, TALKS and BEHAVIOUR were considered to be something NOT ACCEPTABLE TO THE SOCIETY and were considered to be UNCULTURED and these players were constantly ignored. Here and there we saw some Tribes like Toppo in the 1966 Asian games, Topno and Micheal Kindo in the Asian games thereafter or a M.P.Kusha, or a Sylvanius Dung-Dung or a Gopal Bhengra at times but even after performing so consistently in the higher echelon of Indian Hockey we would not see many of the Muslims or the Tribal Hockey players donning the Indian colour. It was Zafar Iqbal and the GREATEST of them all MOHAMMED SHAHID who broke that “ HOODOO ”, therafter .

 In 1976 a school by the name of  ALL INDIA SUBSIDISED KHUNTI HIGHER SECONDARY SCHOOL , from Khunti, then Bihar, now Jharkahnd, did send a ELECTRICAL SHOCK of 440KW, to the entire nation, BEATING a NATIONAL SCHOOL  HOCKEY, TEAM from West Germany by 1-0 in the finals of the Junior Nehru Cup Hockey . That West German team threw up players like Blocher and Fisher who were playing for West Germany in the 1984 Hockey team in the finals of the Olympics, but that Khunti team which was TERMED as a WONDER by the West German Coach Horst Wein a WORLD FAMOUS HOCKEY COACH, then, did NOT see any TRIBAL player from that team to EVER represent India and play Hockey for India. That suffices the DEEDS and the manner that the Indian hockey was moving forward and ahead.

Pic :: The West Germany National School Hockey Team, 1976 , which had lost to Khunti School Team in the finals of Junior Jawaharlal Nehru Cup at New Delhi 

Inspite of the fact that Hockey was institutionalized and  despite the facts that there and they were the NON-PUNJABI’S or the SARDARJI’S who were cornering the glory, the THINK-TANK of Indian Hockey still was NOT ready to believe that  HOCKEY WAS NO MORE THE FATHER’S PROPERTY OF THE ………………….“” SARDARJI’S ”” OR THE “” PUNJABI’S ”” ……………………

Well this would continue as I pen down here for the day

Well , that is it and That sums it all for the day but I would continue this further in my next write-up .

Regards and Thanks

Pics

Shyamal Bhattacharjee 

Mr Shyamal Bhattacharjee, the author was born at West Chirimiri Colliery at District Surguja, Chattisgarh on July 6th 1959 He received his early education at Carmel Convent School Bishrampur and later at Christ Church Boys' Higher Secondary School at Jabalpur. He later joined Hislop College at Nagpur and completed his graduation in Science and he also added a degree in    B A thereafter. He joined the HITAVADA, a leading dailies of Central India at Nagpur as a      Sub-Editor ( Sports ) but gave up to complete his MBA in 1984 He thereafter added a Diploma In Export Management. He has authored THREE books namely Notable Quotes and Noble Thought published by Pustak Mahal in 2001 Indian Cricket : Faces That Changed It  published by Manas Publications in 2009 and Essential Of Office Management published by NBCA, Kolkatta  in 2012. He has a experience of about 35 years in Marketing .

Signature Of Shyamal Bhattacharjee 

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