By: Aruni Mukherjee
October 10, 2004

‘We are a poor country, we do not need to worry about distractions such as sport, there are far more important societal issues that remain to be addressed more urgently.’ Such has the official tone remained in post-independent India when our public servants are asked about the dismal performance of the country in international arenas. It is questionable whether these ‘far more important’ issues, mostly developmental, have been addressed in the 50 years that commenced after the excuse of British exploitation was lifted. However, let us remain solely concerned with the sporting paradigm. A poor country cannot do well in international sport- such logic is both ludicrous as well as hurting national pride. When countries which can be classified as poorest of the poor of the world like Ethiopia bring home no less than 7 medals from Athens 2004 including 2 gold medals, it remains to be asked those politicians and bureaucrats whether they consider India to be worse off than this poverty stricken country, since we could only manage 3 medals in the last 3 Olympic games.  

The IOA officials rub their hands with glee at the thought of hosting the 2010 Commonwealth Games, albeit the danger hanging that it might turn out to be a shoddy display when we compare the pompous splendour of other international events’ hosts, like Sydney 2000, Manchester 2002 and Athens 2004. We might even plan to host the Olympics sometime in the near future. Yet for all the excitements, the potential embarrassment of failure to perform well at the Games seems quite realistic. Greece, not an Olympic heavyweight by any standards, bagged 16 medals this year along with 6 gold medals. It is the zeal to perform well at a domestically organised international event of the stature of the Summer Olympics which is missing in India. We just want to clap at others, but never aspire to be clapped for.  

Well, some might argue that we do rather well in Asian Games and Commonwealth Games and indeed, by sheer number of medals won, we generally do better than we fare at the Olympics. But my argument remains elsewhere. Haven’t countries, with lesser resources than India, and often finding themselves at odds with much worse social evils, managed to build up a much better sporting infrastructure which salvages at least some of their national pride on the global arena? The answer surely is in the affirmative, and should cause embarrassment to us Indians.  

In my opinion, blaming the IOA is only identifying the tip of the iceberg. The roots of this perpetual national worry, as it should become, lie elsewhere. With the marked success of the ‘Make Indians Effeminate’ campaign of our erstwhile colonial masters, sport has been reduced in post-colonial India as merely an extra-curricular activity. As I mentioned in one of my previous articles, the Bengali saying Porashona kore je, gaari ghora chore she (Only those who study see success in life) has taken hold very deeply in our society. There is some credibility to this line, since opportunities for materially satisfying careers in the sporting arena, barring cricket to an extent, are few if any. Moreover, the academic (read, book worming) burden in our education system is such that sport has hardly any time to be constructively included in the edifice, apart from being a casual add-on.  

For every industry to develop, the state must lay the basic infrastructure. There are various ways in which the government can take the initiative and join hands with society as a whole to develop a significant part of the talents of India’s great human resources- 

1. Begin at the roots of the system. Children are like hot metal, the impressions made during childhood last a lifetime. The structure of the syllabus in the schools should be altered, to give more choices to students to enable them to specialise at an earlier age and consequently leaving more time to pursue sports as more of a genuine interest regularly pursued rather than merely a rare treat.  

2. Charitable foundations must be given incentives like free land to relocate residential schools outside of the congested metropolis, so that sufficient facilities for a variety of sports can be made available to the children from a young age. Even state schools in the rural areas must be encouraged to collaborate with these independent organisations to improve their own facilities. Public stadiums, athletics centres in cities must be made more accessible for urban schools, so that children there do not miss out on these facilities.  

3. For children demonstrating a special talent in a certain sport, specialised training schools must be established in cities on which children from the rural areas can converge. World class, if necessary foreign, coaches, facilities must be made available here. Again, this should not be solely a public venture- like the Tata Football Academy in Jamshedpur, entrepreneurs, charitable organisations and individuals will come forth to support this endeavour.  

4. More sporting interaction between the districts, cities, states, regions and even international exposure from a very young age. Behind many of our faltering performances at the international stage lie weak nerves and inferiority complex of our athletes that stems from a lack of proper interaction with their international counterparts. The reason for our markedly improved performance in international events over the past few years is increased international exposure and access to better facilities that have been made available to a pitiably few athletes. A practice such as this from an early age can make a world of difference.  

Now, apologists on behalf of the administration would argue that such a Herculean effort required amassing huge resources, which the state lacks. My answer to them would be that the state doesn’t need to take up the burden all by itself- it simply isn’t feasible. As mentioned earlier, we should simply lay the basic infrastructure for a market to operate. For example, if such good sporting facilities are made available at the schools, there will be demand for coaches in these sports- which consequently will lead more students pursuing a career in the field and which will entail training schools for coaches springing up. Also, improved performance by an athlete should prompt sponsors to come in, solving some more of the financial worries of the IOA regarding sending athletes overseas, proper kit, etc. This has been seen before with the Indian cricket team and more recently, Vijay Mallya’s backing of East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, the top football clubs in India and Sahara coming forward to support the Indian hockey team. As reforms in the Indian economy continue and the arm of the state is reduced from the ‘commanding heights of the economy’ to focus on more important public services, education being the foremost, resources should be made more readily available in budgetary sessions for this purpose.  

Increasingly, sporting success is being considered an important ingredient for a country’s prestige on the global stage. My argument, however is that developing a mass-based sporting industry in India is not something which is ‘desired’, but something which is imperative to India’s development. In one stroke it would attack the problem of surplus labour, thus unemployment, infrastructure development, withering of the effectiveness of the education system, physical standards and most importantly to me, harness the inherent individuality of each Indian- to allow him/her to pursue what he/she is passionate about- away from the traditional courses leading to generations of Indians looking like exact replica of one another.  

In 2004, India sent 75 athletes to Athens and returned with 1 medal. Will we manage to send 500 athletes and return with 75 medals in 2020? Yes, if we adopt the mantra – ‘It’s our children, stupid!’

Aruni Mukherjee