It's Freezing, But They Want To Bat

Sporting bonds are bound across the India-Pak border. They yearn for the stifling siege to lift.

- Qaiser Mohammad Ali

AROUND the time of the sanguinary Partition of India in 1947, hockey wizard Dhyan Chand was posted by the British Indian Army in Bannu, near Kohat—currently in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan. After he returned to a newly partitioned India, his salary got stuck in Pakistan. After almost 27 years, he received his salary, all of Rs 13,000, thanks to a Pakistani who was an Indian once—the legendary hockey forward Col (retd) Ali Iqtidar Shah Dara.

Partition couldn’t weaken the bond forged between Dhyan Chand, then part of the Punjab Regiment, and Dara on and off the field. Both played as forwards for the Indian team that won gold in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, and their combined exploits are now part of hockey lore. Dara went on to captain Pakistan and played in the 1948 Olympics. Both met up again in 1974 in New Delhi when Dara accompanied an Asian All-Star XI that played matches in India. At a reception hosted by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Dhyan Chand told Dara about his outstanding salary. “Within a few months, bauji [father] received his salary, Rs 13,000 in total, thanks to Dara saheb,” recalls Ashok Kumar, son of Dhyan Chand, who scored the 1975 World Cup-winning goal.

That is just one instance of the ties between athletes of undivided India, one that transcends geographical boundaries. Even after Partition, Indian and Pakistani sportspersons have been friends off the field—something that appears to be unbelievable amidst the heightened distrust that has infected fields of play in the past decade. That mood has only deepened after the recent Pulwama terror attack, the Indian reprisal and the fog of conflict that seemed to engulf the two nations. As sporting relations between the countries are dealt a fresh blow by politicians, athletes’ personal bondings endure.