Sport in India
Additional football accomplishments include India having reached the Groupstage of the 1960 Olympics, qualified for the 1950 FIFA World Cup, and won the SAFF Championship.
[11] Professional wrestling and mixed martial arts (MMA) are popular among young audiences,[12] with some Indian wrestlers achieving international success.
Though the British Raj has attained direct control over the subcontinent, there is a perspective that the Native Indians were able to cultivate their own form of national empowerment and a sense of implicit sovereignty through means of sport.
As Australian author Brian Stoddart writes in his article on British sports and cultural imperialism, “Colonial governors were especially important in emphasizing cricket as a ritual demonstration of British behavior, standards, and moral codes in both public and private.”[57] Despite many Indians being a part of white-dominated sports teams, there was an inevitably constant re-emphasis of the superior and inferior race ideology within the teams.
During this era, there was a prevailing mindset amongst the British colonizers, being the fact that they viewed the Indians through a lens of superiority, which was reflected through socio-political events, specifically through sports.
The theory that Indians resisted British colonialism through sports to regain power over their country has been evident in various scholarly articles, books, and monographs.
Specifically, in the 1963 memoir Beyond a Boundary, Tranidian Marxist intellectual C. L. R. James compares Indians on the field to Greek drama plays: “selected individuals played representative roles which were charged with social significance.”[60] The author explains that there is irony between the English origins of the sport and the means of which Indians use it as a way to express their national identity – an identity which they feel was stolen from them as a result of the British Raj or ruling.
They developed proud self-image throughout time as a significant step for achieving freedom and establishing popular sovereignty, which underscores the revolutionary power of resistance among Indians against their British colonizers through harvesting strength and national self-determination and identity.
[128] Other successful players include Aparna Popat, Syed Modi, Chetan Anand, Parupalli Kashyap, Prannoy Kumar, Sameer Verma, Lakshya Sen, Ashwini Ponnappa, and N. Sikki Reddy.
Losing at the quarter final stage of the 2016 Rio Olympics following a loss to Belgium, India would win the 2017 Men's Hockey Asia Cup.
In Squash world cup 2023, the India team reached semifinal but lost to Malaysia 3–0, before that they defeated Hong Kong and South Africa each with 4–0.
Other major domestic competitions for men's football include the I-League second division in the Indian League System and the annual knock-out style Federation Cup.
However, the sport gained national attention after the performance of Dipa Karmakar at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where she reached fourth place in the final round during her debut.
Leander Paes won a singles bronze medal at the 1996 Olympics, achieving the world record for the number of mixed doubles in Wimbledon.
Table tennis is a popular indoor recreation sport in India, which has caught on in states including West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.
Till the time the British left India in 1947, there were five active sailing clubs located at Bombay, Madras, Bangalore, Barrackpore and Nainital.
Uttarakhand tourism development annually organise Uttrakhand Himalyan MTB tournament in which 50 mountain bikers participate in 884 km long race, which runs for a week.
[tone] The tour has grown bigger and the routes tougher, allowing cyclists to test their endurance, enjoy the biodiversity of the Nilgiris covering the southern states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
[citation needed][tone] India has a wide following in various equestrian sports, including show jumping, eventing, dressage, endurance riding and tent pegging.
Bollywood actors Nitu Chandra, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Ajay Devgn and Isha Koppikar have black belts in this sport.
India's notable karate participants include Aniket Gupta, Deepika Dhiman, Sunil Rathee, Supriya Jatav, and Gaurva Sindhiya.
India's top players have included former World Champion Viswanathan Anand, 2024 Candidates winner Gukesh D, prodigies R. Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi, and Pentala Harikrishna.
[203][202] On 12 June 2023 Divya Deshmukh, the current national champion won gold medal at the Asian Continental Women's chess championship.
Champions including Wilson Jones, Michael Ferreira, Geet Sethi and now the domination of Pankaj Advani have underlined the powerhouse status of the country.
Several training camps for developing budding talent and providing them with regional and state sponsorship have been organised by the Billiards and Snooker Federation in various parts of the country.
During Grand Prix of France held in Evian-les-Bains Jonas Anderson took the first place and Indian flag waved on the highest step of the podium.
He also defeated world champion wrestler Lou Thesz of USA[240] Singh participated in almost 500 professional fights and remained undefeated in all of them, he wrestled against George Gordienko of Canada, John da Silva of New Zealand and others.
[253] In July 2023, there was an Indian visit to Moscow and Krasnogorsk,[254] including the national junior team practicing[255] and playing matches[256] on an ice hockey rink with large goal cages (the Czech invention "short bandy"[257]).
[265] Places such as Malshej Ghat in Maharashtra, Paithalmala in Kannur district of Kerala, Rajsangam, and Badami in Karnataka are popular rock climbing destinations.
Other regional sports include Ilavatta kal where huge spherical rocks are lifted,[305][306] and Nondi, which is a hopscotch game played by folding one leg and hopping squares.
