India's first gold medal at Olympics by Ekta Singha
India’s Olympic gold in field hockey in 1948 was more significant than any of the country’s three previous gold wins, as it was the newly sovereign nation’s first major sporting triumph.
Befittingly, India claimed the championship by defeating Great Britain, the former colonizer, on their own turf in Wembley, London.
India's first gold medal at Olympics by Ekta Singha
At 4-0, the victory was comprehensive. It came less than a year after India had achieved independence and gone through a traumatic partition. The team would refer to the date, August 12, as “the greatest day in independent India’s sporting history”.
India's first gold medal at Olympics by Ekta Singha
Building the team
After the Partition of India, the team had gone through a reshuffle, as several players from Punjab, including Niaz Khan and Aziz Malik, moved to Pakistan. Independent India’s 15-member team had eight players from Bombay, including Kishan Lal, a Railways player, as captain.
Vice-captain KD Singh Babu, Leslie Claudius, and RS Gentle were among the other stars on the Indian side.
Naval Tata, who was the chief of the Indian Hockey Federation for 15 years, played an important role in shaping this historic Olympic outing. Most importantly, he saw to it that the team would fly to London, rather than sailing, which would take much longer. In the run-up to the Games, the team used all the travel time they saved to train at camps and practice games. The players wore boots with studs.
India's first gold medal at Olympics by Ekta Singha
India qualified from Pool A without a single loss, opening with some high-scoring matches. Patrick Jensen scored four goals to help the Asian side win 8-0 against Austria. Six goals from Balbir Singh allowed India to beat Argentina 9-1.
India's first gold medal at Olympics by Ekta Singha
Balbir, a formidable center-forward from Punjab, had almost not made the cut in the national squad. He was called up much later when most players were already at the training camp in Bombay, and only after former India player Richard John Carr had rallied for his inclusion.
In the clash with Spain, India’s goals flowed less freely, but they secured a 2-0 win. The semifinal against the Netherlands was more closely contested; India edged out the Dutch side for 2-1.
India's first gold medal at Olympics by Ekta Singha
Top of the podium
During the final, two goals scored flew from Balbir Singh’s hockey stick, one early in the game and another just before half-time.
While Great Britain found no answer to that, Patrick Jansen and Tarlochan Singh scored a goal each for India, sealing the victory for the visiting side at 4-0.
India's first gold medal at Olympics by Ekta Singha
“As our national anthem was being played and the tricolor was going up, I felt that I too was flying with the flag. The sense of patriotism that I felt was beyond any other feeling in the world,”
Balbir Singh had recalled at a commemoration ceremony.
Independent India’s first Olympic gold set the stage for a period of hockey dominance. Proud and confident, the country would win again in 1952, 1956, 1964, and 1980.
Illustration by Ekta Singha