The world cup is over and India have lifted the world cup in grand style after 28 long yrs.I am happy and proud as every other Indian ought to be.But I'm not going to talk about Saturday's game or the many wonderful moments this world cup has given me.I’m going to talk about the impact sports has on people.
Sport is essential in life.It provides joy to so many people playing it and the so many more watching it.Some say sports does not affect the common man.I disagree.The same thing can be said about music,movies,dance,art,fashion,etc but we all know how important these are to our lives.So sport has its value and its high up there.I’ve been a true sports fan for so long.It started with cricket,moved to football,tennis and F1.I've enjoyed every bit of watching these sports and also the suffered the heartbreaks that comes with it.So i know first hand how sport fans think.Joy,grief,faith and un-reasonability all in equal measure
The days before the India-pakistan semi-final the tension was building intensely.There was so much hype surrounding the clash that most people just wanted that match to get over as soon as possible to spare them the anxiety.There was a lot of pak-bashing going on.I assume there equal India-bashing on the other side.Even I joined in all the excitement and maybe indulged in some myself.But then as the clash was nearing the things being said in public discussions and forums,over news channels,SMSes,newspapers,e-mail forwards and social networking sites got ugly and then it was plain indecent at times.there was so many hate filled messages and statements going around everywhere.Much more than before the Australia quarter-final clash or when India lost to South Africa.Some insecure fans threatening the Indian team against losing to Pakistan.Things being said about pakis mothers and sisters.It was somehow ok to the fans with India losing to Australia or South Africa but it was a strict no when it came to Pakistan.I asked myself at that point…why so?
True that since the partition there’s always been tension between our countries And Pakistan being a very poorly governed country this tension had just increased over the years.True our borders are being challenged everyday as i speak.They might be infringing on our internationally recognised land.Pakistan is also the safe haven to so many terrorists who repeatedly attack India and also other countries. causing so many lives to be lost.We’ve had two wars with them and there so many wounds yet to heal.But my point is what has the Pakistan cricketers,cricket officials,common people of Pakistan have to do with what is essentially a political problem.More over what has sports got to do with it? Maybe the partition was not the best thing to happen to us but it happened more than 63yrs back and we cant with all our powers change that.What gives us the right to abuse anybody just on the basis of him belonging to a country we think we hate.Why do we forget that these are people who suffer the very same problems that we face or maybe at times even more than us.
Some months ago,Sania Mirza decided to tie the knot with Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik.There was a huge furore in the country which was reflected by “Breaking news” features everyday in the news channels.Sania Mirza could have got married to anybody in the world(or any foreigner for good effect) but the fact that she was marrying a Pakistani was not acceptable to our people.I found it bemusing at best.We Indians think just because Sania plays tennis for our country(and of course we are proud of her for that) we have a say in her personal life.Well that’s not my point here actually.my point here is her husband being a “Pakistani” was offensive to Indians.Again why so much hatred for individuals? The country was quick to react with threats to Sania’s life,controversy regarding some non valid earlier marriage of Shoaib and lastly the fatwas issued by the muslim community of India.Sania was labelled a traitor for marrying a Pakistani.I’m not in anyway suggesting the discord is just from our side.Shoaib Malik who was captain of the Pakistani team when India beat them to win the Inaugural T20 world cup in 2007,his first words at the presentation ceremony was ”I want to thank all the Muslims of the world who supported the Pakistani team”.He apparently forgot that the man of the match in the final was Irfan Pathan and the Indian team had two other Muslims, Zaheer and Yusuf.I guess a less educated Shoaib Malik did not have enough maturity to realize such a blaring fact and he uttered publicly what he thought his country believed.This in part reflects the queasy feeling that Muslims in our country get when such things occur.They are somehow anxious not to be be seen as supporting Pakistan in anyway lest they be seen as traitors.But really it can’t be the case.There are more Muslims in India than in Pakistan and also we have the second largest Muslim population in any single country behind Indonesia.So Muslims in India are as Indian as anyone else.Nobody has the right to question their allegiance to our secular country.This to India’s credit reflects our amazing culture of tolerance.I’m not an idealist.I too at some level share some of the prejudices against Pakistan hence I understand the hatred that seems to be all around us.But in my few years on this planet I have realized that so much hatred is bad and brings negative energy to our country.It stunts our progress.We invest 20-30pc of our budget on defence,weapons and to maintain a million strong army all for the fear of our neighbours, Pakistan.If we shared cordial relations with them we wouldn’t have to invest so much on the military.we could use that extra resources towards eradicating poverty by good education to our countrymen.Even Pakistan can stop investing in weapons and do good to their country.Its not enough to be anti-war its more important to be pro-peace.We need an atmosphere of peace to stop this kind of hate taking root in our hearts.We shouldn’t let these politicians sell us false stories to create hatred to help their own political agendas.Let us all live in peace.
India finally won the world cup after 28 yrs.It was an extremely emotional moment for me to witness India winning the world cup in my lifetime(i was not even born when they won in ‘83).The scenes around my house was overwhelming and the joy one witnessed in everybody’s faces was incredible.For one night the whole of India forgot all their problems,biases,prejudices and celebrated whole-heartedly.Those scenes will stay with me for the rest of my life and i shall always cherish it.It was truly a kodak moment in history for all Indians.It is also imperative that one highlights the unforgiving Indian fan in the midst of all these celebrating and euphoric days.We Indian cricket fans make gods out of cricketers when they win but our whole world comes down when India loses.These very cricketing heroes become India’s most hated people.They are publicly abused and vehemently castigated.I understand that Indians are emotional people and maybe we have some right to criticize the players but only up to a point.The rule of sport is that one team wins and another team loses.Either one individual wins or loses like we experience in our daily lives.So we should treat sport as part of our life and not our whole life’s endeavour so our reactions to wins and loses must be appropriate.
Its incredible that Indian cricket team has so much support across the country.Nothing seems to unite the country more than a cricket match win(or maybe in times of war).But our patriotism is restricted to these few moments.Our patriotism is not evoked when we vote for all the wrong men who after getting elected are involved in a number of scams eating up crores of the tax payer’s money in the bargain.It never pains us that not a single politician in India is convicted of corruption.Even very few bureaucrats are punished for corruption.Our patriotism is never evoked when we bribe the traffic policeman to let us go or buttering a government official’s hands to make our papers pass through the red tape.But our blood starts to boil when India loses a cricket match against Pakistan or when an Indian marries a Pakistani or some irresponsible Pakistani minister makes an inflammatory statement against India.In the true perspective of things don’t we think our reactions are unbalanced and mostly misplaced.I hope you see how blind this hate for Pakistan has made us.For all we know,for all the unbridled and unreasonable hatred we have for these unknown Pakistanis if you go to their homes they might turn out to be as hospitable and warm as we are to our guests.Think about it!
4th April,2011 Raghuraj S. Hegde
Personally, I have no love lost for cricket. I'm happy India won the WC, but can't bring myself to be proud of our sporting culture until we achieve a similar feat in hockey (possible considering the calibre displayed over the last decade, maybe undone by the likes of KPS Gill); in football (in our lifetime?); or how about a sizeable medal tally at the Olympics.
ReplyDeleteAbout Pak, agree about their people being warm & hospitable. But, this is only a segment of the population we're talking about. The Pak Army runs its own agenda - remember Kargil when Nawaz Sharif had just finished a Peace trip & didn't have a clue about Musharaf's sneaky plan? (hope those facts are right - that's how I remember them). Short story - Pak is well on the way to implosion & that is extremely bad for India. I don't think there's anything India can do to remedy Pakistan's internal situation.
On the other issue about Sania Mirza, yes, nobody has the right to pass judgement on her personal preferences. I would partly blame the attitude & cultural 'blindness' of the many Indians who deem it fit to do so without reason. Almost a 100 years since Tagore wrote "Where the mind is without fear", but India isn't yet awake. Partly I accuse the Indian media (largely Television & news) for their bumbling immaturity.
Anoop
@anoop Nice to get your inputs on my blog.i agree with what you have to say about India's sporting culture.i share similar views.of course cricket as a sport does not rock the world in terms of the number of countries playing but it is an inseparable part of our culture.just like football is to Brazil.so i'm proud that we won the world cup.we all should be.
ReplyDeletei also agree with what you say about pakistan too.you've got your facts right about kargil.But this kind of hate between the countries is detrimental to each of us.true we cannot do anything about the internal situation of pakistan but we being a better off country make them see reason at least on the political level.Moreover i believe sport should be free of politics.at best it should be an instrument of peace.