Dhyan Chand : Getting His Due At Home

The news that the Union Ministry of Sports intends to recommend conferment of Bharat Ratna on Dhyan Chand is finally recognizing a colossal, giving him his due.  However, Bharat Ratna to Dhyan Chand acquired a context only after there were loud suggestions last year that Sachin Tendulkar be decorated with this highest award.  And much as we may be enamoured with cricket, it is yet saddening that we are generally not as animated about achievements other than those of cricketers.  The excitement of an occasional medal performance at the Olympics is just ephemeral.  

Dhyan Chand’s contribution to hockey in the sub continent was in no way less than Bradman’s to the Australian cricket.  The latter, while watching a hockey match in 1935 at Adelaide, paid high tribute to Dhyan Chand as he remarked :   He scores goals like runs in Cricket.  Europe, however, paid him the highest tribute.  In Holland, the authorities broke his hockey stick to check if there was a magnet inside.  Adolf Hitler offered him the German citizenship and the rank of a Colonel.  Residents of Vienna honoured him by setting up a statue of him with four hands and four sticks, symbolizing his control and mastery over the ball.  Dhyan Chand symbolized a rare native assertion in colonial India, without being adversarial to the English.  A tube station was been named after him in London, in the run up to the Summer Olympics. 

After the gold at 1980 Olympics at Moscow, which was boycotted by some of the major hockey playing nations, India has not made to semis either at the Olympics or at the World Cup. In fact, we are consistently a second rung team, thrashed by Australia, Germany and Holland routinely. Foreign coaches have not been able to resurrect the team.  Truth is that our hockey glory is a matter of history with Dhyan Chand being the greatest exponent of that history.  A Bharat Ratna will be honouring the both – the history and its hero.