Sports: Britain's Legacy To India

The pic for this article is the poster of the 2002 Oscar nominated Indian movie "Lagaan". The movie revolves around a group of villagers who, oppressed by the British tax policies in spite of the drought vow to defeat the inventors in their own game and free themselves from the tax burden.

The movie was based on a fictional plot with fictional characters. But somewhere, I believe, there ought to be some fact intermingling with fiction.

The 200 years of colonisation by the East India Company then transferred to the kingdom, though stifling, cruel in some ways contributed to some good too.

They might have ruled with an iron fist, quelled protests, looted and plundered India[wasn't this the real purpose behind colonisation?] but they taught us a bit about them. 

Their language, so that there should not be any problem in conversation; their dressing sense, so that they wouldn't be looking odd and most importantly, their sports. I don't know why they did this? Maybe it was because they wanted someone to play along with them. After all, they couldn't have imported all of them.

But they did us good. Their sports, many branches in which Indians proudly represent their country and win laurels too.

Sports has always been India's forte and we have always been connoisseurs of such activities.

But, even though, we Indians used to excel in such activities, it was in areas like Malkhamb, Kushti[Indian version of wrestling] to quote a few. The British rule in India made us aware of sports like Cricket, Hockey, Tennis and Golf and now in some of them, we are almost there!

Now, we are a strong contender among the toughest of rivals and its nice to see the Indian flag among the most developed nations sway with pride. It gives a sense of swelled chest each time our country makes its mark.

This year we would be celebrating our 62nd Independence and I can't help but reflect on our achievements in various fields: Technology, Research and Development and the topic that we all love to write about: Sports.

A hardcore patriot may disagree to my views but I stand firm in saying that we Indians owe a big thanks to the Britishers for giving a first step to us so that we are proving ourselves to the world.