Armed Forces An anchorage for sporting fraternity of India
By Colonel Satish Singh Lalotra
‘The battle of waterloo was won on the playfields of Eton’—Duke of Wellington.
The manifestations of sublime qualities of human behaviour are often visible when the stakes are way too high on way to realization of certain cherished goals as enshrined in the’ pyramidical hierarchy of needs’ theory and espoused by the world famous management guru, Abraham Maslow. It primarily explains human motivation based on the pursuit of different levels of needs. The theory states that humans are motivated to fulfill their needs in a hierarchal order. This order begins with the most basic needs before moving on to more advanced needs. The five (5) fold needs starting from the basic ones finally end up at the topmost rung of this imaginary ladder called as ‘Self -actualization’ need. The arena of sports too fall under the ambit of the top most needs viz to fulfill one’s self-actualization in terms of proving self-worth in his own eyes as also the world at large which is highly opinionated and deals with you according to the yardstick of success or failure on ground . Indian armed forces is one such singular organization which under its wide umbrella of activities has reserved ample of resources both tangible and intangible to give a heft to the sporting events as found obtaining in the changing world of sports from time to time.
The armed forces of the country are a natural repository of wide talent of human resource that has under its command a young bubbling pool of men and women who require constant mentoring in terms of their exhibition of qualities of human endurance including both physical and mental as well as moral courage. Most sports and games require similar leadership skills and character qualities that are seen in military battles and empirically too they have been an intrinsic part of soldiering. General Patton represented the US in the modern pentathlon at the 1912 Olympics. Mega Sporting events like the Olympics are a show window too for the conducting country to enhance its collective hierarchical need theory in terms of ‘Self-actualization’. The above was in full display during the winter Olympics of 2021 conducted at Beijing when one of the torch bearers was the Chinese regimental commander (brigade commander equivalent in our case) who was injured in the Galwan valley clash with our troops . This displayed the grit and determination of the Chinese as a nation to the world at large. In our case most modern sports and games were introduced by the British Indian army and continue to remain an essential part of the armed force’s culture and leadership development. As a result, the armed forces also dominated most competitive sports in the country which are true even today to a larger extent.
Defence services have always been the standard bearers of sports since independence and even before. Who can forget the simple but iconic Major Dhyan Chand the legendry hockey player, one of the greatest in the world of extraordinary ball control ,and ball scoring feats plus the earner of 3 Olympic gold medals in 1928,1932 and 1936 Berlin Olympics. His stick charisma extended beyond these victories ,as India won the field hockey event in 7 out of 8 Olympics from 1928 to 1964. Legend has it that during the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Hitler then riding a crest of ‘Aryan superiority’ was flummoxed when he saw the home team( German team) blown to smithereens in its defence of relentless attacks by the Indian team led by a possessed Dhyan chand. His birthday on 29 August, is celebrated every year as National Sports Day in India. Befitting the role of an iconic serviceman, the Government of the day conferred third highest civilian award the ‘Padma Bhushan’ on him in 1956. India’s highest sporting award honour,’ Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award is named after him. No less was the streak of excellence left on the field and tracks by the legendry ‘Flying Sikh’ Miklha Singh across the world by the sheer dint of his grit and uncommon physical and mental prowess that earned him the moniker ‘Flying sikh’ bestowed by none other than the president of our arch enemy country Pakistan,Field marshal Ayub Khan during the goodwill games at Lahore in 1960 where he defeated the ace Pakistani sprinter ‘Abdul Khaliq’ also known as ‘Parinda-e- Asia.
In the recent years also a diverse set of services players representing a plethora of games have been at the forefront of flying the services flag high with aplomb. From the legendry army officer cum Olympic medalist shooting athlete to a member parliament Colonel Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore has been wearing far too many hats to everybody’s envy. The Tokyo Olympic of 2020 had our javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra cast a mesmerizing effect in the world of javelin throw clocking a handsome 87.58 meters to bag a gold medal closely followed by the Czechoslovakian thrower Jakub Vadlejch . The list is long and winding with an equal number of service players acquitting themselves with glory at the common wealth and Asian games in the years that followed since independence. The three services and many regiments /corps also maintained hockey, football and volleyball teams that swept away most private tournaments right from independence. In 1953 ,the football team of young cadets of the NDA was runner-up to the famed ‘Mohun Bagan ‘ in the Durand cup which was also won twice by the Army XI ,Madras regimental center etc. Military incidentally was still an attractive career and talent hunt cum scouting brought in the best available talent both as officers and soldiers in the years following the independence. As stated above that was the golden era of the armed forces that produced world class sportsmen like Major Dhyan Chand, Colonel Haripal Kaushik, VRc, Colonel Balbir Singh, Brig H.J.S. Chimni and Pan Singh Tomar. Incidentally Brig H.J.S. Chimini of the 1975 world cup hockey fame was in the later years my brigade commander too at Joshimath in the early 90s carrying with his stride the same pride and gusto that he exuded on the play field. The lanky six footer was not only an excellent hockey player but was equally deft in swirling the basketball as per his nimble moves outsmarting the younger lot on the court. On one of his official visits to Pithoragarh to our unit he took out time from his busy schedule and showed everybody on the basketball court of what mettle he was made of.
Armed forces have been able to create world class sports infrastructure at five nodes-sailing at Mumbai, rowing at college of military engineering, Pune, equestrian at Raemount veterinary corps, Meerut, shooting at army marksmanship unit(AMU) in Mhow and Army Sports Institute (ASI) at Pune which caters for 7 disciplines in all. AMU and ASI nodes have boys sports companies that identify young talents aged 8 to 15 years and provide both education and coaching as well as prepare them to join the army.
Leadership is provided by best of the officer sportsmen to these boys companies which later on produce results commensurate to the aspirations as expected out of them. With vast swathes of our country full of tribal areas inhabited with hardy population, these are the perfect feeder stations for recruitment into our armed forces where they can produce wonders with their innate speciality in areas like archery, rowing, cross country running , football etc. Need is to identify them out at an early stage and turn them out into another Pan Singh Tomar. Since action in a sports arena and battle field are almost same requiring oodles of physical and mental fitness against one’s opponent to have an upper hand it is but natural that due cognizance is taken at the national level to build a reservoir of such youth who can act as vanguard both in the armed forces as well as in the civil society as such.
(The writer is a retired army officer )
