JOIN USInternational Women's Day: The Indian women sportspersons who have left their mark
Mhari choriya choro se kam hai ke? (Are our girls inferior to boys?)
When Mahavir Phogat (played by Aamir Khan) asks this question to his wife (Sakshi Tanwar) in the famous movie 'Dangal', after she inquires whether their girls will survive in the wrestling pit, one cannot help but murmur an answer: Yes, they will.
If one looks back at the history of our society and try to decipher the role of women in its progression till a certain period, one can be left disappointed. For women, barring the brave ones who rode the waves of exceptional courage and determination, were unfortunately seen as someone adept at only managing the household chores.
But time has a habit of changing traditions. Cometh the age of modernity, cometh the struggle for fundamental rights. In the changing society, women took to the streets and protested for their basic rights and privileges denied to them for long.
The emergence of women sportspersons in India
Even some 70 years ago, anyone raising the topic of Indian women in sports would face bewildered and angry glances, for it was an alien concept. That despite the participation of women in the freedom struggle. The public defined sports as a domain where physical prowess was of paramount necessity. And so, women were ruled out of contention.
In subsequent years, the perception changed drastically, thanks to some eminent women sportspersons. Those women would enter the sporting arena and come out not just with sympathy and condolences but with medals and trophies amid fascinated applause describing their exploits. Society will sit up and realise that gender discrimination in sports is nothing but a flawed concept.
So, here are some of the prominent Indian women who have left their mark in different sports:
Mithali Raj
Cricket is considered a religion in India, and its Gods have always been men. Women's cricket in the country perished in the shadow even some five years back. Despite having some pathbreaking names, nobody could capture the essence of their struggle and subsequent victory like Mithali Raj. A person who paved the way for the recent boom in women's cricket, and led it during the darkest days.
661 runs in 10 Test at an average of 51. 6,888 runs in 209 ODIs at an average of 50.64. 2,364 runs in 89 T20Is at an average of 37.52.
These are numbers that can rival the record of any cricketing great from the male domain. It was not just the batting, but Mithali has to shoulder the burden of captaincy as well.
Mithali Raj and the team that she led endured a difficult journey. Test cricket was virtually non-existent, ODI matches were few and far between, T20I craze was yet to take over the game's domain. To make matters worse, funds dried up like a river in summer. Amid the applause for the 'Men in Blue', the 'Women in Blue' seldom got the chance to shine. But over the years, the women gradually improved their performance and emerged as a force to be reckoned with. Posterity will give Mithali the due credit for this turnaround in fortune, and immortalise her in the folklore of cricketing greats across gender.
Mary Kom
Mary Kom's rise from a humble family at Kangathei village in Manipur to a superstar boxer, a sport where women participation was almost unthinkable even at the beginning of this millennium in India is nothing short of a miracle.
The use of the word 'miracle' unjustly puts into shade her strong will power and hunger for success. In 'Unbreakable: An Autobiography', 'Magnificent Mary' as she is fondly known, has vividly described how her family toiled hard to make ends meet and her struggle to find decent training facilities for boxing.
But poverty was just another opponent in the ring for Kom, whom she punched relentlessly until she found herself as the World Amateur Boxing champion. Her rise is not just about breaking the gender barrier in Indian boxing, but also a manifestation of the dreams of northeastern people, who aim to make a mark in society.
Till now, she is the only female to become World Amateur Boxing champion for a record six times, the only female boxer to have won a medal in each one of the first seven World Championships, and the only boxer (male or female) to win eight World Championship medals, and also the only Indian female boxer to have qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics. She possesses an array of other records, and the fact that she achieved most of those after becoming a mother is a story of unrivalled inspiration.
Sania Mirza
Ramanathan Krishnan, Vijay Amritraj, Ramesh Krishnan, Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi, Rohan Bopanna.
Some of the names who carried the flag of India's excellence in tennis, before a girl with a powerful double-handed backhand decided to raise the pace of the aces.
Sania Mirza plays tennis. This is a very simple term. Now let us break it into parts.
Saina plays a game that was almost ignored in India before the success of Peas and Bhupati and was seldom pursued by the women in the country.
That is why the six Grand slams of Mirza and her attempt to carve out a place in the sport has acted as a beacon for all the girls who are willing to pick the racket and send back the volley of apprehensions.
P.T. Usha
Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha, or P.T. Usha as she is widely known, is probably the first female Indian superstar when it comes to athletics.
The "queen of Indian track and field" was one of the pioneers in women's participation in sports in India.
After rising through the ranks at the national level, Usha set the stage ablaze in the international arena during the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
She came agonisingly fourth in the Olympics, falling behind the eventual bronze medalist by 1/100th of a second.
After retiring from sports, she became the committee head of the Indian Talent Olympiad that conducts the National Level Indian Talent Olympiad examinations in schools across India.
Deepika Kumari
Her father was an auto-rickshaw driver, and her mother a nurse. It was a family of abject poverty. Amid such a scenario, the girl hoped to conquer her dreams with a bow in her hand and arrows in the quiver. Deepika Kumari's aim was sharp since childhood.
Extreme financial constraints led Deepika to practice archery by aiming for mangoes with stones or make bamboo bows and arrows at home. It was in Tata Archery Academy in Jamshedpur in 2006 that Deepika started practising with proper equipment. Once the journey took off, there was no looking back, with her arrows rarely missing their mark.
She rose to the top of the world nine years ago, becoming the world number in July 2012. Currently, she ranks in the ninth position in the world. She won a gold medal in the 2010 Commonwealth games in the women's individual recurve event among other achievements.
In 2012, the Government of India conferred her with Arjuna Award, the nation's second-highest sporting award, and in 2016, she was honoured with Padma Shri.
Hima Das
Hima Das and her journey of becoming India's top sprinter is a classic story of an underdog overcoming all odds. Coming from a peasant family that belongs to the Assamese Kaibbarta community, Hima Das encountered poverty since her childhood. The family of seven members at Kandhulimari village procured got two good meals.
But when Nipon Das, one of Hima's first coaches, took her under his wings, things began to change. Talent coupled with tremendous willpower propelled Hima to success, and then in 2018, Hima grabbed the headlines. By then, she was a talent on the verge of explosion, moulded by the best of trainers and coaches.
The then 18-year-old Hima won the IAAF World U20 Championships in Tampere, Finland, thereby becoming the first Indian to win a gold medal at a global track event. Since then, her success path has only gone uphill.
Saina Nehwal
When Saina Nehwal burst into the badminton frontier, she found that mostly the Chinese players dominate the arena. India had never been a leading nation when it came to supplying badminton greats to the world stage. Yes, a Prakash Padukone or a Pullela Gopichand conquered the All England Open. But apart from those successes, the country mostly looked at the sport as a winter exercise.
So when Saina took on the best players in the business and stamped her authority, she broke a barrier and showed that it is a sport that Indians can master. The Bronze in the 2012 Olympic Games, the victories in the Indonesia Open, Singapore Open, and most notably in China Open and in a host of other elite tournaments sealed her status as a sporting legend and someone who ventured into unchartered territory to inspire more women in our country to take up the racket and shuttlecock.
PV Sindhu
PV Sindhu perfected what Saina Nehwal started. Following the footsteps of Nehwal, Sindhu cemented the notion that Indian women can indeed dominate the world badminton stage. At times, she has even trumped Nehwal in the battle of mastery.
Her Silver medal in the 2016 Olympic games and victories in tournaments like China Open and Korea Open highlights her skill and ability to stay at the top of her game for a long time.
Incidentally, both Saina and Sindhu has been moulded into champion by the same coach: Pullela Gopichand
Anju Bobby George
Much the PT Usha, Anju Bobby George excelled in the field of athletics. The former long jumper has brought laurels for India in a career that is as inspirational as it is luminous.
She won the bronze medal in the long jump at the 2003 World Championships in Athletics in Paris. Thus, she became the first Indian athlete to win a medal in a World Championships in Athletics.
Two years later, she scripted history again. She won the gold medal in the 2005 World Athletics Final in the long jump (she won silver but was later upgraded to gold after the winner was disqualified), thus becoming India’s only world champion in athletics.
The Phogat sisters
The 2016 sports drama 'Dangal' made the Phogat sisters household names, portraying their journey from Haryana's wrestling pits to the podiums of international events.
By now, everyone is aware of how Geeta and Babita Phogat not only wrestled with the male competitors in the pit but also fought the patriarchal mindset of local people, the gender inequality, female foeticide and child marriage prevalent in Haryana. Aided by their father Mahavir Phogat, the sisters showed that girls are indeed not inferior to boys even when it comes to physical prowess.
Sakshi Malik
Sakshi Malik is probably the most successful Indian wrestler to date. Born in Haryana, her grandfather Badlu Ram inspired her to take up wrestling, and she began training when she was 12-years-old.
At the 2016 Summer Olympics, she won the bronze medal in the 58 kg category, becoming the first Indian female wrestler to win a medal at the Olympics. In 2016, she was honoured with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, the highest sporting honour of India, and in 2017, she was conferred with the Padma Shri.
Karnam Malleswari
Karnam Malleswari is the first Indian woman to win a medal at the Olympics. She achieved the feat at the 2000 Sydney Olympics when she lifted 110 kg in the 'snatch' and 130 kg in the' clean and jerk' categories for a total of 240 kg.
She is also the first and only Indian woman weightlifter to date to win an Olympic medal. Even before her Olympic win, Malleswari was a two-time weightlifting world champion with 29 international medals, including 11 gold medals.
It is impossible to cover all the names at one go. Sportsperson like Jwala Gutta, Harmanpreet Kaur, Manika Batra, Rani Rampal, Ngangom Bala Devi and others have led the way and made the path for other female players easier. On this International Women's Day, let us hope that more and more women will trample the gender barrier in sports and make us proud.
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