Biography of Hockey Wizard Dhyan Chand
By Niket Bhushan, Wiley Eastern Ltd., 1992
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Tricolour or Union Jack? | These revolutionaries requested Dhyan
Chand that the team march into the Olympic village flying the Indian tricolour and
not the Union Jack, the flag of British India.
Dhyan Chand very much wanted to meet their request but felt helpless as the team would have been disqualified. To keep an eye on the Indian team, the British ambassador to Germany, Sir Eric Philips, had come to meet the team at the railway station. |
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mong the
large crowd that welcomed the Indian team in Berlin, Dhyan Chand noticed that
there were also some Indians present. Later, he found out that they were freedom
fighters settled in Germany and USA who had come to greet the team with the
Indian tricolour.
These revolutionaries requested Dhyan Chand and assistant manager Pankaj Gupta to enter the Olympic village flying the Indian tricolour and not the Union Jack, the flag of British India. Dhyan Chand very much wanted to meet their request but felt helpless as the Indian team would have been disqualified had they displayed the Indian flag. To keep an eye on the Indian team, the British ambassador to Germany, Sir Eric Philips, had come to meet the team at the railway station.
So finally, under the Union Jack and not the Indian tricolour, and accompanied by the British ambassador, the Indian team travelled by bus about 20 km from Berlin to the Olympic Village.
Huge German swastikas and Olympic rings decorated the village. The Mayor of Berlin honoured Dhyan Chand with a medal. The Germans had appointed Captain Fansela from the Reich army as the attache for the Indian team. Captain Fansela could not speak a word of Hindi, but only English. Normally the team would have got an Indian attache, but maybe Hitler did not want his visitors to know the truth about Nazi Germany.
Dotted with brick cottages, the Olympic Village was large and much better built than the one for the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. The Indian team got cottage number 113, named Elbing after an industrial town. There were 38 dining halls in the Olympic Village.
Dhyan Chand's pass number for Berlin Olympics was 05516. It had his name and the word "Naik" (his position in the army then) below it. His picture had the signature and stamp of the Indian Olympic Association. His pass did not have the correct date of birth though - written on it was September 8 instead of August 29.
Dhyan Chand's son Virender Singh with the 1936 Olympics gold medal certificate