India's first Olympic campaign post independence was in the 1948 London Olympics, where the nation had sent 79 athletes to compete in 39 events. The contingent returned with one medal – a gold in men's field hockey.
However, India had to wait another four years to have their first individual medallist at the Olympics. In the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, the men's field hockey team were successful in defending their gold medal, but the highlight was wrestler's Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav's bronze triumph in men's freestyle bantamweight event.
In his book called 'Journey of a Nation: 75 Years of Indian Sports', published by Rupa Publications, sports commentator and writer Chandresh Narayanan sheds light on Jadhav's inspirational journey, and how he fought battles both on and off the mat.
The following are excerpts from his book:
Ending Niranjan Das' Dominance
He (Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav) decided to challenge the then reigning flyweight champion, Niranjan Das of Bengal. Das stood at over 6 feet and was considered to be a machine because of his power. Jadhav stood at just 5 feet 5 inches. But Jadhav overpowered Das quite easily, who later claimed that he was not ready for the tussle. He asked for a rematch and lost again!
Jadhav had to petition Maharaja of Patiala Yadavinder Singh, who was also the then president of the IOA, to seek a trial after he was denied a gold medal at the national championship in Madras. This was meant to act as a selection event for the Olympics. A third tussle was organised and once again, it was Jadhav who won as he pinned Das. Finally, Jadhav achieved his dream of being named in the Indian squad for the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki.
Medal on One Hand, Receipts on the Other!
He went on a self-funded trip by requesting his fellow villagers to donate. The biggest help however came from his former principal, Khardikar, who mortgaged his house and lent him Rs 7,000. He was still short of the Rs 12,000 mark and he, along with the two other wrestlers from Maharashtra who had qualified for the Games, reached out to the then chief minister of the state of Bombay, Morarji Desai, who would become India's prime minister in 1977.
Jadhav's coach Govind Purandare had taken a loan of Rs 3,000 from Maratha Co-Operative Bank a couple of days before he had left for Helsinki. Dudhane reveals that Jadhav gave a receipt to each of his creditors and he took it back from them when he repaid their money!
A Stroke of Luck
According to Professor Dudhane, when Jadhav reached out to the team manager to know the schedule of bouts, he was informed that it was a rest day for him, but when he went to the stadium after being bored sitting in his room, he carried his kit along as a matter of practice. As he was watching the other duels, he heard his name being called for a bout. He somehow managed to reach the official's table after his name was called out for a second time.
This confusion affected Jadhav majorly as he lost the bout to Shohachi Ishii. Much to Jadhav's surprise, his next bout against Soviet Union's Rashid Mammadbeyov was also announced within minutes. He had to play the Soviet wrestler within 30 minutes.
There was no Indian administrator around to fight for his cause and rescind the bout for the day. As a result, Jadhav was engaged in a bout with the Soviet wrestler within 15 minutes. As he had still not recovered enough, Jadhav lost to Mammadbeyov and had to settle for a bronze medal. This was the end of a four-year-long struggle to win a medal for India and himself. Jadhav had to jump a lot of hoops to get to his dreams, stymied as he was by bureaucratic and financial hurdles.
The journey to his village was something that everyone still talks about. There were about 100 bullock carts, which led the procession. A regular 15-minute ride from the train station took seven hours that day because that was how much the bronze meant to everyone in the village. "There were dhols along with a 151-bullock-cart procession right from the outskirts of Goleshwar to the Mahadeva temple which is normally a 15-minute walk," reminisced Sampat Rao Jadhav, his cousin who was with him when he left for Helsinki, in a chat with Scroll.in.
"It took seven long hours that day and no one was complaining. We have not seen joyous scenes like that either before or after that day. There was a feeling of pride and every villager was basking in that moment of glory. Khashaba bhau brought the small village of Goleshwar, earlier a dot on the map, to the fore. The whole world knew and recognised Goleshwar as the village which gave India its first-ever Olympic champion," he said.
There is little recorded history about responses to Jadhav's bronze, either from the wrestler or from the newest republic at the time. Once he returned home, Jadhav went about repaying his creditors and all those who had raised money for his trip. He organised wrestling tournaments to raise money to repay everyone, and first amongst them was his college principal, Khardikar. He helped his principal to buy back his house. The residents of his village, Goleshwar, dedicated a structure at a public square in his honour.
The structure has five rings signifying his achievement. Jadhav also named his house ‘Olympic Niwas’, which means Olympic House in English. The living room of the house is full of trophies, medals and mementos. The walls of the room are covered with photographs. The most memorable image is that of Jadhav on the medal podium at the ceremony during the 1952 Helsinki Games. In one of the glass cases in the Jadhav living room are displayed laminated copies of old, sepia-tinted receipts of people whom he had repaid.
An Unfortunate End to an Inspirational Life
Despite his success, Jadhav's life after Helsinki was difficult. He joined Maharashtra Police in 1955. He juggled his passion for wrestling and was all set to travel to the Melbourne Olympics in 1956, but a serious knee injury ended his hopes. Jadhav did take part in the Police Games and also trained a number of cops, but it was never the same. He served as a sub-inspector for 22 years and got promoted just six months before his retirement. His commendable life met an unfortunate end when he died in a motorcycle accident in 1984.
Rewards and recognition came to Jadhav posthumously. He received two of Maharashtra state's biggest honours: the Shiv Chhatrapati Award in 1994 and the Arjuna Award in 2001. He remains the only Indian Olympic medal winner not to receive one of the highest national awards, the Padma Shri or the Padma Vibhushan. However, in 2010, the wrestling stadium at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex, Delhi, was named after Jadhav, before the Commonwealth Games.
(This is an excerpt from the book titled 'Journey of a Nation: 75 Years of Indian Sports', penned by sports commentator and writer Chandresh Narayanan. The views expressed here are the author's own. The Quint neither endorses them nor is responsible for them.)
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