The Senior National Hockey Championship is a state-level national field hockey competition contested by the state associations and government institutions under Hockey India, the sport's governing body in India.

It was first held in 1928 under the aegis of Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), the former Indian field hockey federation and was also known as Rangaswamy Cup.

[1] In 1928, the Indian Hockey Federation organised the first national championship at Calcutta which was won by United Provinces.

This shield won by Punjab in 1947 but was never returned by Pakistan following partition.

In 1951, Madras hosted the National Championships for the first time and a new trophy was donated by the proprietors of The Hindu group.