Punjab in Sports: Post-Partition (East Punjab)

Part 4 of 9 Part Series-4/9

 As a British colony, the Indian contingent competed as a separate nation in the Olympics under the British India flag until Independence in 1947. India competed under the tricolor for the first time in the 1948 London Olympics.

Punjab won the hockey nationals in 1946 and retained the title in 1947, held before Independence. However, August 1947 saw the Radcliffe Line dividing the sub-continent into two nations and the division of Punjab Province. East Punjab fell in Indian Territory and West Punjab went to Pakistan.  

The partition led to the largest migration of the human population, causing carnage and resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people on both sides. Punjab bore the brunt of the devastation.

The partition was a significant blow to Punjab hockey, as many top players stayed in Lahore and later represented Pakistan in the 1948 London Olympics. Some players’ families shifted to Kolkata, Mumbai, and Delhi, representing their adopted cities and provinces in the nationals and subsequently making it to the Indian squad.

In the 1948 nationals, the defending champion Punjab lost badly and exited in the initial round. 

For the 1948 London Olympics, Punjab’s Tarlochan Singh Bawa, Balbir Singh Senior, Grahanandan Singh, and Amir Kumar made it to the squad.

Grahanandan Singh (Nandy Singh) and Amir Kumar, who played in the 1947 Nationals from Punjab Province, shifted their base to West Bengal and Mumbai, respectively, at the time of Partition.

On August 12, 1948, the Indian men’s hockey team gave a year-old nation a moment of pride and world recognition. Independent India won its first Olympic medal. In the final, India defeated Britain 4-0 in London, with three goals contributed by Punjab players, Balbir Singh (2) and Tarlochan Singh (1).

“Had the Indian team been formed after the 1947 nationals, more than half of the squad would have been from Punjab. But partition took with it some of our good players who represented Pakistan in the Olympics,” triple-Olympic medalist Balbir Singh Senior had said.

Continued...

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