Khashaba Dadasahab Jadhav

Indians use sports for political mileage, commercial gains, for social recognition but we hardly ever acknowledge the real value of sports and the contribution of sportspersons. As sports education is almost totally absent, the culture of sports stands diluted in our society.

 

A stunning example is the life and career of Khashaba Jadhav. In a country where an Olympic medal in the individual category is as rare as a yeti, this poor villager from Maharashtra saw to it that the Indian national anthem was sung at the medal distribution ceremony at Helsinki Olympics in 1952.

 

Khashaba Jadhav won the bronze medal in the bantamweight category of free-style wrestling in 1952 at Helsinki Olympic Games. Between Norman Pritchard (silver in 1900) and Leander Paes (bronze in 1996), he is the lone Indian to have graced the medal podium as an individual. Such is our callousness that one influential author on Indian sports history mentioned the bronze medal to be ‘silver!  Another ‘prominent’ author thought it was a ‘lower category’ medal!

 

Four years earlier in 1948 at the London Olympiad, Jadhav competed in the flyweight division and was ranked a creditable 6^th out of 42 wrestlers. The western world was a culture shock for the rustic wrestler from interior Maharashtra.  He was bewildered to learn that the rules of international wrestling differed from those prevalent in India. None in India had the farsightedness to inform him. Moreover for the first time ever he was to grapple on mat instead of the familiar mud-pit back home.

 

But he came across Reese Gardner, an American wrestling coach, who took him under his wings for 7days. The London Olympics of 1948 was a learning process for this indomitable youth.  Four years later when he stood on the victory stand, Jadhav was grateful enough to acknowledge the contribution of Gardner, his coach and mentor.

 

Back in India political profit was extracted as endless receptions followed. But within days he once again became a non-entity. No award, no recognition came either from the central or the state government. No private benefactor acknowledged his mighty achievement. Since 1952, nearly 70 years have passed yet the name of Khashaba Jadhav does not even figure in the list of lifetime-awardees! In an age when average sportsmen receive national awards, the treatment meted out to Jadav is a national shame.

 

Born in Goleshwar village in the Satara district of Maharashtra, Khashaba learnt the rudiments from his wrestler-father, Dadasahab. From Tilak High School at Karad, he went to Raja Ram College at Kolhapur, where Professor Manik Rao patronized wrestling contests. Here under the conscientious guidance of Professor Khardekar, the latent talent of Jadhav began to bloom.

 

Those days the selected sportsmen had to pay their own travel cost. Poor Jadav realized that he had no chance to make the trip. But Prof. Khardekar was not a person to beg and borrow. He actually sold his house to pay for his protégé’s trip. Magnanimity at its height. No other Indian patron or sponsor has ever come close to the professor’s sacrifice.

 

Today when sponsors come forward with cheques, they do not do so with any interest for national causes. They come for their own commercial interest. The case of Professor Khardekar is as unique as Khashaba Jadhav’s is.

 

It required an academic to assist a sportsman for a national cause! Apart from –inevitably enough – the Maharaja of Patiala, no king, no politician, no bureaucrat, no industrialist came forward to help the country by sponsoring him. They all lined up to gain publicity the moment he returned with the Olympic medal around his neck. And again they vanished just as they always do.

 

During his lifetime no one thought of giving independent India’s only Olympic medal winner any financial support. Nor did he get award either from the State of from the nation. It gave a distinct impression that to get something one had to beg and plead.

 

Khashaba Jadhav was not born to beg or plead for awards and financial assistance. He was the champion wrestler who gave independent India – yes, our motherland – the first-ever medal at the Olympics in 1952 in an individual event. But, very distressing to relate that in a nation of no genuine sports culture he remained a perpetual pariah.

 

 He was born in abject poverty and lived his life in perennial penury. Where were all the sports ministries and sports policies? Where were all the patrons and sponsors who were supposed to be contributing for the nation’s welfare? They were nowhere in sight when Khashaba Jadhav needed them the most. It appears that he was competing in the Olympics in his individual capacity and not as an Indian representative bantam-weight wrestler.

 

Actually the real truth is that in our country we do not have any genuine interest in sporting activities. We cater to only those sports disciplines where we can reap easy money and media attention. Politicians, bureaucrats, parliamentarians, corporate leaders, sports administrators and media moguls are all in the same boat. They do not have the national interest at heart.

 

Mediocre performers with below-average results are earning in millions today because they have learnt the tricks of the corrupt trade in sports. Commissions and kick-backs are the order of the day. Self publicity has become a way of life. Entertaining the media is a very unfortunate off-shoot that has taken over Indian sports and sportspeople.

 

Today why can our sports-policy makers not think of some posthumous pensions for the family of these great performers? During their prime we neglected these outstanding sports performers. Now that they are no longer alive, why not try to make some amends to the evil that we perpetrated?

 

Why not try to help those families who are in need of financial support. That would be paying a real homage to the soul of our own past greats who brought fame to our motherland. We have the time and the money, but do we have the will to think of others? Do we have the wish to give any effort to help others?

 

 It is high time that instead of sitting in parliament and other high offices, I wish our famous former sports personalities who have had the benefit of earning in millions, do something worthwhile for their sports grandfathers. If one cannot do anything concrete and constructive for these greats of yesteryears while holding prominent positions in the government as well as in the corporate sector, what is one actually there for?

 

The eternal problem with us is that we are totally self-oriented. We cannot think or visualize beyond our noses. As long we are getting fame and fortune for ourselves, we talk in terms of helping others. But the moment we realize that there is nothing available for our own selves, we very quickly lose our interest. We of course still keep talking a whole lot of nonsense but do precious little in concrete terms.

 

In 1988 independent India’s first Olympic medallist died in a road accident, unlamented and unheralded. This in a nut-shell is the sports culture prevalent in our country. Que sera sera…