While an award acknowledges the artistry, the nomenclature of the same acknowledges the ultimate artist, which defines the legacy of the award itself. Time and again nudges in nomenclature have appropriated that legacy in consonance with the tides of time. In one such moment, on 6th August 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the renaming of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award.
Informing about the executive resolution, PM Modi tweeted “I have been getting many requests from citizens across India to name the Khel Ratna Award after Major Dhyan Chand. I thank them for their views. Respecting their sentiment, the Khel Ratna Award will hereby be called the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award.”
The announcement came a day after Indian hockey team defeated Germany to claim Bronze medal at Tokyo Olympics. The feat ended India’s four decade long wait for an Olympics Hockey medal. Last, India won a Gold at Moscow Olympics 1980.
The decision to rename the award received an extraordinary reception from all fraternities. Vishal Singh, Major Dhyan Chand’s grandson, told ANI “Renaming the Khel Ratna award to Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award will encourage sportspersons.”
Experts called it a well-deserved honour to arguably the most inspirational persona in India’s sporting history. 2012 Olympics medalist wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt tweeted, “This has not only fulfilled the demand, this act will make the whole sporting fraternity and entire country aware of sports superstar Major Dhyan Chand Ji.”
The phenomenon called ‘Dhyanchand’
Dhyan Chand, popularly known as ‘Hockey ka jadugar‘, is unmatched legend of field hockey, whose on field records remain unrivalled even after seven decades of his retirement from the game. The wizard of the game earned recognition for the country in modern era sports when India was not even an independent nation on the world map.
Even after seven decades of the completion of his international career which spanned from 1926 to 1949, Dhyan Chand’s record of 570 international goals (in 185 matches) stands unbeaten till date. Pakistan’s Sohail Abbas holds second place with 348 goals. Dhyan Chand is also the only player to score more than one thousand goals in competitive hockey even when during his prime days only two Olympics (1940 and 1944) and other international tours had been put off due to the Second World War. But numbers don’t say it all about him.
If Hockey was an art, he was an artist. He was magician of the game because his game was above all known human abilities witnessed by the particular sport, prior to him. In an unprecedented episode Hockey authority in Netherlands once broke his hockey stick to confirm if there was a magnet inside.
He was a team player in true sense who believed in passing, and in creating opportunities for his team-mates as well. The patriot in him refused the colonel rank in German Army without giving it a second thought, when it was offered to him in 1936 by Hitler, who was then in awe of his game.
Revisiting legacy, Rescripting Glory
Dhyanchand’s legacy has inspired generations of players. In an interview with HT, Gurbux Singh, 2 time Olympic Hockey Gold medalist tells “We all became Hockey players because of the legacy of Dhyan Chand’s 3 Olympic gold medals.”
But despite ruling the hockey field for almost four decades, clinching seven out of eight Olympic gold medals between 1928 to 1964, Indian hockey had gone into oblivion for quite a long time. Finally, after a gap of 41 years, Indian men’s hockey team made it to the podium in Tokyo on Aug 05, 2021 with a bronze medal. In yet another historic feat Women’s team too earned a place in top four.
PM Modi himself praised the historic highs for Hockey at Tokyo Olympics. “The exceptional performance of the Men’s and Women’s Hockey Team has captured the imagination of our entire nation. There is a renewed interest towards Hockey that is emerging across the length and breadth of India. This is a very positive sign for the coming times.”
According to experts, this was an opportune moment to give a further boost to the game by associating country’s highest sports award with the name of Dhyan Chand, whose birth anniversary (29 August) is also celebrated as the National Sports Day.
The award
Highest sporting honour of the country, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Awards was instituted in 1991-92 in the memory of late PM Rajiv Gandhi. “It is given for the most spectacular and outstanding performance in the field of sports by a sportsperson over a period of four years immediately preceding the year during which award is to be given”, says the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports website.
An award called ‘Dhyan Chand Awards for Life Time Achievements in Sports and Games’ already exits and is given to those sports persons who have contributed to sports by their performance and continue to contribute to promotion of sports even after their retirement from active sporting career. But the Khel Ratna has always been the most coveted national sports award. And the prefix it has got now is being cherished all around as an ultimate tribute to the legacy of the magnanimous ‘Major Dhyanchand’.
Story edited by NK Jha