The Indian Hockey team is back to winning days in recent years. The Olympic Bronze Medals in the Paris and Tokyo Games as well as the Gold in the Asian Games have renewed interests in hockey. But there was a time when India was an undisputed leader in the world hockey, winning hat-trick Gold in Olympics.
The Indian Army had fostered the hockey players, honing their skills with exposure and facilities, while also ensuring their employments in the armed forces. The motherly role of the Indian army is traced with vivid accounts in the memoir of Olympics veteran Col. (Retd.) Balbir Singh.
Col. (Retd.) Balbir Singh had captained the Indian Hockey Men’s team. After retirement from playing career, he coached the Men’s and Women’s teams. He clinically examines the decline of the Indian Hockey team after winning three consecutive Gold medals in the Olympics.
To him the decline in the hockey team’s performances at the world stage came with the experiment of disturbing the leadership of the players. In his memoir, Col. (Retd.) Balbir Singh writes: “Winning the Bronze Medal in the 1968 Olympics was more reason for reflections than celebrations.”
The veteran Olympian argues that “some of the decisions of the Indian Hockey Federation, including appointment of two captains, dented the team spirit”. He laments that the Indian hockey afterwards went on a declining slope while the team is yet to reach the past glory of winning the Olympic Gold medals thrice in a row.
The book is set in the backdrop of the Saragarhi Battalion of the Indian Army. In the pre-Independence days, the Indian Army had set up cantonment in Jallandhar in Punjab near the famed village of Sansarpur. The 22 war heroes of the Battle of Saragarhi of 1897 had descendants from the village of Sansarpur.
“There is no parallel to the bravery displayed by the 22 soldiers of 36 SIKH on 12 September 1897,” he says, adding that “it may not be possible to find a place on earth that can boast of having more Olympians”.
He writes that the Battle of Saragarhi infused the fighting spirits among the future Olympians from the village of Sansarpur in Punjab who would hone their playing skills under close watch of the Indian Army and constitute a world beating team.
“The 22 brave soldiers laid down their lives but inflicted enormous losses on the Afridi militants in the Battle of Saragarhi. 36 SIKH was a close-knit unit of the military with camaraderie being the cornerstone. The supreme military strategy to fight with unity and plan and never give up against the adversity became the core elements of the Olympians from the Sansarpur village,” added Col. (Retd.) Balbir Singh.
He recalls that four Gold winning Olympians in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics hailed from the Sansarpur village which produced 14 Olympians who played hockey for India at the international stage.
He describes what went wrong in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico when India failed to qualify for the finals for the first time since the hockey was played in the Games in 1928.
Col. (Retd.) Balbir Singh quotes the statement of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi given to the news agency PTI wherein she said that “India’s defeat by Australia in the semi-finals was due to a lack of discipline and single-minded purpose”.
“India’s Iron Lady (late Indira Gandhi) had unerringly pinpointed the main reason for the downfall of Indian hockey, a malady for which the IHF (Indian Hockey Federation) has still to find a remedy. In my mind, the main reason for the defeat was the appointment of two captains, the biggest blunder committed by the IHF,” he says.
His memoirs have come out a time when the Indian Hockey team is once more finding popular support. Col. (Retd.) Balbir Singh gives an engaging account by sharing anecdotes from the world of hockey.
The military veteran also gives glimpses from the highs of the playing careers of hockey greats such as Subedar Modan Singh, whom he describes as the most feared pull-back, Bulbul Carapiet, RS Gentle, Prithipal Singh, Udham Singh, and Satti. Col. (Retd.) Balbir Singh writes that “perhaps, the most skilful Ango-Indian to have ever played for India was Bulbul Carapiet”.
The book may infuse interests among the hockey lovers. Col. (Retd.) Balbir Singh could have shed more light on ways India lost the pace with the modernisation of the game of hockey in later years.
Views expressed are personal