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SPORTS
Eternal India
encyclopedia
(sub-junior) and Anil Uneccha (junior) won gold medals for India in
the international juvenile judo championships in Cairo in 1987. The
first national judo championship was held in Madras in 1966.
L.K. Daga among men was awarded the first 'Dan Black Belt'
for proficiency in contest in 1968, while Zarina Ramesh claimed the
award for women in 1981.
India's best performance was winning 15 gold medals and two
silvers in the South Asian Judo championship in 1989. India also
won four bronze medals in its debut appearance in the 1986 Seoul
Asian Games.
KABADDI
Dubbed as the game of slaves by Adolf Hitler in 1936, reference
to this totally indigenous game, which is steeped in Indian culture
and traditions, can be found in the Indian epic
Mahabharata.
Legend
has it that kabaddi evolved as a part of the “Malla Yudha” or
wrestling tradition before developing into an independent game.
Inculcating the basic yoga principle of “Pranayama” or breath
control, it is believed that the game of kabaddi found a lot of favour
with Lord Krishna, who thoroughly enjoyed the game played be-
tween the Pandavas and Kauravas. The battle between the Pan-
dava warrior Abhimanyu and the seven Kauravas also has a trace of
kabaddi - Abhimanyu bravely penetrated the seven-tiered Kau-
rava camp but lost out and died because he could not retrace his
steps.
Involving the skills of many games/sports like wrestling, gym-
nastics, karate and other martial arts, kabaddi also played a histori-
cal role during India’s struggle for freedom from the British rule. A
kabaddi match preceded by “Ganesha Pooja” served as a platform
for people to meet and interact without being subject to surveillance
by the authorities. This was used as an effective tool for attracting
and mobilising the Indian youth to fight against the British rule.
Patronised by the Marathas and the Peshawas, the game of
kabaddi was in fact demonstrated before Adolf Hitler and the Ger-
mans during the 1936 Berlin Olympics by a team of players from the
Hanuman Vyayam Prasarak Mandal (HVPM), Amaravathi,
wherein Dr. S.K.Kane delivered a lecture on the “System of Indian
Physical Culture”. Dr. Kane’s speech and the description given
therein of the game is the first historical document of the game
published in the Olympic Congress Report of the year 1937.
A second international demonstration of the game was organ-
ised by HVPM at the Olympic student and youth camp, Munich in
1972 and also during the Olympic Games. Played in different parts
of India under different versions, viz., Hu - tu - tu, Chedu Gudu,
Gudu Gudu, Do Do, etc., kabaddi is among the very few sports
where a player has to literally hold his breath while repeating the
‘chant’ during play. The game envisaged as the torch bearer of
Indian culture carries the underlying message of ‘physically fit,
mentally alert and morally correct.’
Though Maharashtra is considered the ‘Mecca’ of kabaddi be-
cause of its immense popularity in that state, a national level
kabaddi tournament is reported to have been conducted in Banga-
lore in 1946.
Recognised by the Indian Oympic Association as a sport in
1938, the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India was formed in 1950
with Mr. S.S. Dhawan as the first general secretary and the first
national championship for men held in Madras in 1952. The first
national championship for women was held in 1955 at Calcutta. The
first national junior championship for boys was held in 1974 at As-
ansol and for girls in 1976 at Amaravathi. The first national sub-
junior championships for boys and girls were introduced at Bhilai in
1983. The first zonal championship was conducted in 1977 and the
Federation cup for men and women introduced in 1981 at Coimba-
tore. Kabaddi in post-independent India, however, owes a lot to the
former Union Defence Minister, Sharad Pawar, who was the presi-
dent of the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India; as also Asian
Amateur Kabaddi Federation, which was formed in May 1978.
Sharad Pawar and his dedicated band worked hard not only for
popularising the game in India, but also for making kabaddi a game
of international repute. So much so, kabaddi has become a part of
the Asian Games movement. In the 1990 Asian Games held at
Beijing, India won the gold medal.
Finding a mention in famous Kannada poet Pampa’s
“Bharata”, kabaddi has now become popular in Bangladesh, Ne-
pal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Singapore, where Indian coaches have
been deputed to spread the game. Bangladesh, in fact, has declared
kabaddi as a national game.
Professor Sunder Ram, an exponent of the game, visited Japan
and Sri Lanka in 1979 followed by trips abroad by two men’s and
women’s teams in 1981, which visited Singapore, Bangkok, Hong
Kong, Manila and Japan. The idea behind the tours was to popular-
ise the game in the above countries through demonstrations.
The rules for the game were initially formulated by the Akhila
Maharashtra Sharirika Shikshana Mandali in 1928.
Apart from Sharad Pawar, T. Rajagopalachari, A.K. Saha,
Omkar Prasad and Shankar Rao Salvi dedicated their lives for the
growth of the game at the national level, while at the state levels