PT Usha is a name which i guess even a child in India`s remote district would know and the recent high handed handling of her by SAI( sports authority of India) shows just how much of value SAI has for its athletes, cynics say that what else would she would have expected from SAI , which doesn`t cares about it athletes but interested in filling their pockets.
It was anything but deja vu for Indian public in witnessing such treatment of a sportsperson who is not a cricketer and is sometimes sickening to see the god like status cricketers have but other sports-persons treated in a humiliating manner. One can well recall when abhinav bindra famously lashed out against NRAI (National rifle association of India) about their treatment of shooters after winning Beijing Olympic gold in 10m rifle shoot out.
Is corporate India not interested in helping them out too or they are more interested in making money out of cricket ?
Abhinav Bindra and Vijender singh (bronze medalist in boxing in Beijing) are thankfully getting endorsements and making money, otherwise rest of the athletes seems to be suffering.
It is high time corporate sector realizes their responsibilities towards such great names and offer them some endorsements because certainly a nation of billion can play and watch more than just one sport.
As for PT Usha , it is best she books her own hotel space next time rather than depending upon SAI ,as there is a famous qoute that from every experience,
The boxing as sport in India has gained prominence in recent times, it is due to the rise of some prominent boxers with the likes of Vijender Singh and Akhil Kumar
Before the rise of these stars there were Dingko Singh, Hawa Singh , Mohd Ali Qamar and V. Devarajanamong some outstanding boxers India ever produced. Hawa Singh dominated the national championships, by winning title for eleven years on a row, from 1961-1972.
Dingko Singh shot into fame at a very early age, when he won the sub-junior national boxing title in 1989, when he was eleven years old. He made the country proud by winning a gold medal at the Bangkok Asian Games in 1998.
Qamar created history in Indian boxing, by becoming the first Indian boxer to win a Commonwealth gold medal at the Manchester Games. While Dingko Singh‘s Asian Games gold medal reminded one of the heroics of the legendary Indian boxer Hawa Singh, Ali Qamar‘s triumph has inspired the youngsters to don the boxing gloves for the country. V. Devarajan created history in his own right as he became the first Indian to win a World Cup medal on foreign soil in 1994,
Though it was Vijender Singh’sBronze in Beijing 2008 Olympics that has brought boxing in the prominent light, where as earlier it use to live in the shadows of of cricket and other sports , since there was no glamor associated in the sport and corporate world used to shy away from investing in the game as they feared no good returns from their investments.
It seems as though Vijender Singh`s rise and growing demand from all across the country for an alternate sport to cricket has caught even corporate India’s eyes, Vijender got a deal worth 5 crore per annum which is though nothing compared to Sachin Tendulker`s 100 crore deal but with time hopefully he can match him in earning. Those who went along with him and did well in Olympics also have a chance to make fortune out of it which include the likes of Akhil Kumar and A L Lakra.
It seems that onus of making boxing a household name lies in the hands on handsome 23 years Vijender Singh who has just recently become the world no .1 , one should not forget MC Mary-Kom who has been women’s world champion in boxing for last 4 consecutive years and this time that women boxing is also being included in Olympics sport so it is likely that she will bring home the first Olympic gold. It is just that these boxer apart from encouragement would also require the service of corporate world which could be a vital force in achieving the targets in making a power in boxing arena and then we Indians no longer need to boast just about being good only at cricket and young children could identify these boxers as their role models as they do with the crickets.
Recently in news we have seen a lot about honour killings in the parts of haryana and Punjab and a lot has been written against it too. This phenomenon according to media is generally associated with martial races or “martial natured religions” in particular which includes jats, gujjars, rajputs, bhumiars, sikhs, Muslims, Christians, jews etc. Though characterizing it just in certain identifiable regions to religions to communities to countries would be gross understudy. This pattern has been prevalent in human society may it be “progressive” or “regressive” for time immemorial. It needs to be seen more in the lines of sociology and psychology.
Some excerpt from news:
Virtually taking law into its own hands, a Khap mahapanchayat (caste-based council) in Haryana’s Jat heartland “rejected” the Hindu Marriage Act and asked politicians to promise a new law as per its diktat if they wanted votes in the coming parliamentary elections.
The decision to reject the act came following a meeting of 46 khaps at Narwana town of Jind district, 180 km from Chandigarh, attended by 250 representatives of various khaps.
“The Hindu Marriage Act does not address intra-village or intra-gotra (sub-community) marriages. We want the politicians, who seek our Jat votes, to promise that a new law would be passed in Parliament to address our community issues,” Pawanjit Banwala, president of the Akhil Bhartiya Adarsh Jat Mahasabha, said.
“We will not spare anyone who defies our stand. Law is made for society, society is not made for law,” Banwala said.
Though recently it is been focuss on jats, it is has been prevalent in many communities in northern India. Let us understand why the whole community is against “one form of love “. Apparently a female and a male cannot marry into her/his father’s, mother’s and paternal grand mother’s gotra ie Clan.
A clan is something of lineage line that come through father’s side , it is identified by their surnames.
Eg:
Boy: Kabir Grewal (Grewal his clan)
Father: Rajbir Grewal (Grewal his clan)
Mother: Sujata Ahlawat Grewal
(In this case mother’s clan before marriage was Ahlawat and after marriage became Grewal)
Paternal Grandmother: Kalavati Hooda Grewal
(In this case paternal grandmothers` clan was Hooda but once she married to grandfather it became Grewal)
Now the lad cannot marry any girl from Ahlawat clan or from Hooda clan cause it will be termed as Incest since it matches his mother’s clan and that of grandmother’s clan and certainly not into his own Grewal clan, this goes same for the girl too irrespective of the regions and countries. Though it is a complex patrilineal system but has been in existence since Hundreds of years.
In earlier times in jats even maternal grandmother’s gotras ie her surname was also considered for marriage
Eg:
Maternal Grandmother: Satyawati Gehlot Ahlawat
(Then the boy cannot marry any girl from Gehlot clan too)
Those who have married within their gotras it is said that their immune system plays a havoc ie is to say the child born out of such a union will not last long and might not be in good health and this seems to backed by the theory of Indian gotra traditions to which spur across various communities in India.
Then there was another case where villages which are governed by same “khap” consider each other brothers and sisters and are forbidden from marrying each other, This seems to be heated debate topic since those regions which have urbanized no youngster wishes to follow age old traditions and “khap” which was formed to fight of Invasions on northern Indian land now are eroding, but they are trying to keep their authority intact and thereby leading to clash among “modern” and “ancient” or “young” and “old”.
Though the traditions are old and ancient it seems to hold a lot of value still in remotes parts of northern India. In cases of educated or “modern” jats they believe traditions should change with society, that is certain marrying traditions should be let go, one such was leaving maternal grandmothers` gotra or surname which seemed to be a norm about 30 years back and some have even started to leave their paternal grandmother’s gotra or surname since finding suitable matches became a difficulty.
In no way is honour killing justified and is abhorical but those not from community their voicing it and targeting the community will not solve any purpose. The change needs to come from within the community especially those who can make difference since they would be suitable and sensitive to their cause and their community rather than someone who is not from their community because a sense of alienation remains and those from outside are considered “outsiders”.
If those within community don’t take up this cause it would reflect badly on them and notoriety of honour killing will always be associated with the community, but the youth it seems in recent times is more than willing to take up the cause and it is on them now that the onus of the community lies.
INQUISITION 