The Story Of The Unsung Hero Of Wrestling

Intern: Prashant Sharma

“The only Olympic Medalist who never received a Padma Award”

WHO IS HE? IS HE A VETERAN MOVIE STAR? IS HE A FREEDOM FIGHTER?

These were the response from my friends when I first mentioned the name of KHASHABA DADASAHEB JADHAV to them. Expectedly they were as clueless as I was when I first heard the name before stumbling on to a brilliant piece of book written by Sanjay Sudhane on the life of the legendary Indian wrestler KHASHABA DADASAHEB JADHAV. The book titled Olympic Veer K D Jadhav showcased glimpses of the great wrestler’s life.

KHASHABA DADASAHEB JADHAV was the first Indian wrestler to win a Bronze medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki He was the first ever individual Olympic medalist of Independent India. He went on to hold this record for fifty years and was finally broken when Leander Paes won the bronze in 1996.

Jadhav was born to Dadasaheb Jadhav on January 15, 1926 and belonging to a family with wrestling background prompted him to take up wrestling as his career. Soon he became the champion at his birthplace Goleshwar Tal in Satara district in Maharashtra after defeating the local champion in just two minutes. He was coached by Rees Gardner prior to his first Olympic appearance in the 1948 LONDON OLYMPICS where he finished sixth.

There is an interesting story about him being selected for the 1952 summer Olympics in Helsinki. Initially he was not selected for the summer Olympics after falling prey to nepotism due to which he got one point less than the eventual winner at the Madras Nationals which ruled him out of the Olympics .After realizing that he was been cheated he approached the Maharaja of Patiala to get Justice. The Maharaja himself was an avid lover of sports and arranged his entry in Olympic trials where he floored his opponent and won an entry in the Olympics. But this was not the only hurdle he had to go through as he and his family was short on finance and couldn’t fund his Olympic venture. His family went around the village begging for donations to fund his dream. In a very noble gesture the principal of Jadhav’s college mortgaged his own house for 7000 and helped Jadhav.

He put up an impressive show defeating the players from countries like Mexico, Germany before bowing out in the semifinals after finding it difficult to adjust to the mat surface. After returning to the country he was given a grand welcome and everyone draped in the moment of happiness, pride and joy but sadly all of this slowly faded away as he was continuously ignored and finally forgotten by the Indian government for his contributions.

He was not only a wrestler but was also a part of the QUIT INDIA MOVEMENT. He served the Indian Police Department for a whopping 27 years before retiring as the ASST. Police Commissioner. But as mentioned before, he never got what he deserved as a national hero. Even after a long time of service he had to fight for his basic rights such as his pension. It was heart wrenching to know that he spent the last days of his life in extreme poverty before dying in a road accident in 1984. Even after his death and his terrible plight the government of India has still failed to acknowledge his contribution and he remains the only Olympic medalist to have never received a Padma award.

Many efforts are being made to bring the legendary wrestler in the limelight and one such effort is being made by Ritesh Deshmukh the Bollywood actor and producer who have decided to produce a movie titled POCKET DYNAMO on the life of the unsung hero. We can only hope such an effort will make the country realize and acknowledge our FORGOTTEN CHAMPION.

 

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