Dhyan Chand. File photo
Hockey is back in the news, thanks to the superb performance of the Indian men’s and women’s teams in the Tokyo Olympics. Dhyan Chand is in the news too as the Khel Ratna Award has been named after him. This year’s Independence Day marks the 85th anniversary of India’s hockey gold at the Berlin Olympics in 1936.
In 2016, we marked the 80th anniversary of the triumph with an exhibition during my tenure as India’s Ambassador to Germany. The India-Germany final was scheduled for August 14, 1936, but it was put off by a day due to rain. India, which had not conceded any goal in the run-up to the final, faced the motivated German team, which had trained for two years. Dhyan Chand, the Indian captain, came into his own in the second half. After changing his shoes, the hockey wizard powered India to an 8-1 rout of Germany. This was the third successive gold for India in hockey. At Tokyo 2020, it was again a win over Germany, as in 1936, that brought India back to the podium.
We did extensive research for our exhibition with the help of the German media and the hockey association. The Punjab Regimental Centre provided memorabilia that was showcased at the Indian embassy in Berlin. Dhyan Chand’s son Ashok Kumar was most helpful.
Though the exhibition coincided with the I-Day celebrations, we went ahead with it on August 15 to mark the 80th anniversary of the 1936 victory. Since most of Germany is on holiday in August, the prospects of getting a high-profile guest for the event were bleak. Luckily, we were introduced to the brother-sister duo of German hockey players Natascha and Florian Keller. She was part of the team that won the hockey gold in 2004, while her brother had done it in 2008.
What linked them to the event was their grandfather, Erwin, a member of the 1936 team that played against India. At our exhibition, our chief guests saw him in a German team photo for the first time.
There was always chatter about the Indian team not giving Hitler a raised-arm salute. The offer of an army commission to Dhyan Chand by Hitler is also part of the folklore. Indeed, the Indian team did not give a Nazi salute during the march past. A rare film from the archives confirmed it.
No mention of the army offer was found. Dhyan Chand’s autobiography, Goal, has no reference to it. If the offer had been made, he would have mentioned it. After all, he was a sharpshooter on the hockey turf, as none other.