After winning the hockey gold medal in London in 1948, the Indian team went to France to celebrate the victory, Balbir Singh senior recounts. Now, the Indians are back in France and while PR Sreejesh calls it his last dance, the stakes are as high as they were in 1948. Perhaps, it is worth looking back at what happened in that final.

It was, in effect, a dream final: newly independent India, champions since 1936, would face their former imperial masters, Great Britain, who had refrained from playing Olympic hockey as long as India remained a colony.

That the Indians were aware of the symbolic importance of the challenge was evident from a report submitted by Alex Valentine. India Times August 12. He announced that the Indians have decided not to play any more practice matches but have started a two-day ‘armchair strategy’ session to prepare for the final. ‘The main factor in Thursday’s final, which both sides readily accept, will be the weather. The Indians want hot sunshine for the next two days, while the British want rain or at least no heat.’

That the weather conditions had changed in England’s favour was revealed when the groundskeeper in charge of the pitch said humorously, ‘A heat wave before the final would not leave the pitch in any worse condition than it is now.’

When it rained on the eve of the final on 11 August, most of the Indian players decided to take to the field in spiked boots rather than playing barefoot. They were also aware of the extra sporting connotations of the competition, as is evident from the following statement by Balbir Singh Sr.: ‘Britain had been Olympic hockey champions in the 1908 Games in London and the 1920 Games in Antwerp. India decided not to play after participating in the 1928 Games in Amsterdam. Britain never fielded an India XI as long as they remained our rulers. The 1948 Olympic hockey final was the first encounter between Britain and India.’

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Despite the odds being against them in the final, India won the match in style, beating Great Britain 4-0. India’s overwhelming superiority was confirmed in Valentine’s match report India Times:

“India have won the 1948 Olympic Hockey Championship decisively tonight at Wembley Stadium, beating Great Britain by four goals to nil. India’s superiority was never in question. Despite the heavy, muddy turf and a light rain that fell for long periods throughout the game, the Indians outpaced the English team with their excellent ball control, accurate passing and clever positional play. It was clear long before the first half that India would win comfortably. If England had had another goalkeeper than Brodie, India could have doubled their score… (Midway through the second half) Britain had accepted the fact that they had lost the game. But they were determined not to lose by an even bigger margin. They poured their remaining energy into their defence. As the minutes ticked down to the final whistle, it was clear that the Indians would not be able to break through the wall of English defenders. The full-time came with another Indian attack on the English goal and the match ended as it had begun. But now the Indians were four ahead.”

This victory on English soil set off some of the wildest celebrations Indian hockey has ever seen. To use a cricket analogy, most Indians today remember the joyful Indian invasion at Lord’s after the victory in the 1983 World Cup final. The images of these celebrations, broadcast live on television, are now etched into India’s collective memory. There were no live cameras to record the historic hockey victory in London forever, but contemporary press reports indicated that the several thousand Indian spectators present went wild. Amidst the scenes of great jubilation, the Indian High Commissioner V. K. Krishna Menon rushed onto the field to join in the celebrations. Even the stern Menon, who was scorned by Western and especially American diplomats, who would later ‘bored’ the United Nations with his seven-and-a-half-hour marathon speech on Kashmir, and who was known as ‘the devil himself’, ‘the Mephistopheles in a Saville Row suit’, ‘the old snake charmer’, let his hair down that day.

As Balbir Singh Sr. recalls, “After the victory, V. K. Krishna Menon, the first High Commissioner of free India in London, came running to congratulate us. He joined us for a group photograph. Later, he hosted a formal reception at India House, where a large gathering of sports fans were present. When the Olympics were over, we went to mainland Europe and visited France, Czechoslovakia and Switzerland. This short tour of two weeks was more of a goodwill gesture and brought great fame to India. None of us had visited Europe before and we were thrilled by the sights we saw.”

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