Hockey: Our National Sport

Every child in our country is taught that peacock is our national bird, Jana Gana Mana is our national anthem and hockey is our country’s national game. But we need to see it properly to understand that it is not our national game.

If you are also one like me who believed that hockey is our national game then, you are in the dark. India does not have a national game, and it is something that is confirmed by our nation’s Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.

This revelation came into everyone’s knowledge when a girl named Aishwarya Parashar who was only 10 years old at that time, filed a Right to Information (RTI) request with the Office of Prime Minister. She filed this request to get information on the declaration on the national anthem, sport, song, bird, animal, flower, and the country’s symbol.

The PMO (Prime Minister Office) send this query to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and then they declared that our nation does not have any sport or game as India’s national game.

Then the major question that arises now is, why all these years hockey was considered and was taught to us as a National Sport? Many would answer that, it’s because of its success as in the 20^th century Olympic Games, which made this game a household name.  In 1928, our nation’s hockey team made their first debut, and then between the years 1928 to 1956, they won six gold medals.

Then gradually they started facing a decline in the 80s and 90s. But then in 2018-19, the Men Hockey Team of India won the fourth rank in the world in 2020. And India’s women’s hockey team ranked 10^th in the Olympics of 2020.

But as we have witnessed out of history that success is not permanent and it’s sometimes come and sometimes go. But this criterion is not a good criterion to choose a nation’s sport. If it goes like this then cricket would be our nation’s sport as it is most famous. And cricket also is not immune to growth and decline as it depends on the downfall and uprising of the team.

As we know popularity comes and goes but it is not the best way to choose a country’s national sport. Several countries have declared Cricket as their national sport. The country Bahamas officially declared cricket as their national sport in 1973.