POLTICS ECONOMY AND SPORTS PERFORMANCE

1. POLTICS ECONOMY AND SPORTS PERFORMANCE PRESENTED BY DR. RAJESH KUMAR IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION P.G.G.C.G. SECTOR -11, CHANDIGARH

2. POLITICS AND ECONOMY ROLE OF POLITICS AND ECONOMY OF THE COUNTRY IN THE PROMOTION OF GAMES AND SPORTS The world history is witness to the fact that in every regime the ruler has tried to promote games and sports in the country, although their objectives might not be similar After going through the history of Physical Education and games and sports of various countries, it is inferred that rigorous physical activities, games and sports have been promoted and used in various ways for different purposes by the rulers from time to time. There are instances of nations which have promoted physical culture, games and sports for making their nation physically fit as well as mentally alert, to prepare their defence personnel for tough jobs. Even to reduce the national budget on medical expenditure of their citizens, a country like U.S.A., has passed legislation to make physical education an integrated part of institutional curriculum, to gain some political mileage at the national and international level of politics etc. It means it is the political set-up of the country which decides the fate of sports and games. There will be nothing wrong if it is said that prior to the promotion of sports and games, the destiny of the economy of the nation is decided by the politics of the country.

3. The very hard fact is that the economy of the country is now subject to politicization, and the differentiation of the economy from the politics is classical liberal theory which is no longer a fact of life as it was once. Further, the responsibility of formulation and implementation of economic policies, taking into consideration the needs of the country as well as the development of national economy matching with the rest of the world lies with National Government run by the Political leaders, Economists and Bureaucrats. It means the national politics affects each individual citizen's life. Therefore, in the promotion of games and sports in the country, political system plays a vital role. The important thing is to be seen whether the National Govts are sincerely doing some thing for the promotion of this field or to get some personal benefits out of it. Indeed, the days are gone when it was believed that sports is essentially an apolitical institution. Further, the intrusion of political considerations into sports were, and to a large extent, still are regarded as likely to have negative results. But this is also fact that there is a lack of interest in investigating the dimensions of involvement of one of the major institutions of society, the polity, into the arena of sports. This neglect becomes more astonishing when one considers the degree of public interest in spectator sports and the consequent economic strength of the sports and games entertainment industry.

4. INDIAN POLITICS AND ECONOMY AND ITS ROLE IN THE PROMOTION OF GAMES AND SPORTS IN THE COUNTRY. • India remained slave for hundreds of years. Before 1947, many foreign rulers such as the Muslims, the Portuguese, the French and the British ruled India in their own suitable ways and methods. But they are credited for their positive approach for the development of games and spoils in the country, though their purposes of doing so were different. This is also a fact that the economy of the country was ruined by all the foreign rulers. All valuable things were taken away from here. • During the Muslim regime, the aim was on training the army personnel only through indigenous physical activities such as gymnastics, dagger fighting, fire fighting, archery, fight with wild animals, wrestling, hunting, horse riding, swimming etc. whereas during the British rule Western civilization influenced the Indian culture. The indigenous physical activities and military training lost their importance, when the arms act was passed. However, the love for outdoor games / sports of the British rulers and their long association with the Indians resulted in promoting and popularizing team games in the country. For instance cricket, hockey, football etc. are gifts of the British Rulers to India.

5. Further, in 1920 Mr. H.C. Buck founded the Y.M.C.A. College of Physical Education, Madras. This institute not only produced qualified teachers of Physical Education but also introduced the games like Basket -ball and Volley ball which are of American origin. No doubt the games like cricket, Hockey, Foot-ball, Basket ball and Volleyball were very attractive. However, these games had adverse effect on the existence of indigenous games. Perhaps in order to counteract the effect of foreign origin games, the Hanuman VyayamPrasarkMandal, Amravati was formed in 1928, which played a very significant role to make indigenous activities popular and more attractive. This organization offered number of courses in Physical Education. It was also the first institution to start demonstration tours to propagate the cause of indigenous activities all over India and abroad. In Punjab to provide training facilities in Physical Education a Govt. College of Physical Education was established at the Montmorency Park, Lahore in 1943. It is pertinent to note that it was political system of Muslims and British rulers which catered to the needs of promotion of physical activities, games and sports in the country either at the government level or through private organizations irrespective of their political motives and the prevailing economical conditions of the country. India participated for the first time in the Modern Olympics in 1920 in athletic and wrestling. In Hockey Indian team participated first time in 1928 Olympics and maintained it's supremacy continuously till 1956 Olympic Games. The inclination of the British polity in India towards the promotion of games and sports can be judged from the formation of the Indian Olympic Association in 1927.

6. On August 15, 1947 India became a Sovereign State. As far as economical condition of the country is concerned, it was in a very bad shape. However, under the prevailing circumstances, our political leaders were busy with identifying the priorities in order to rebuild the country and serve their own people in the best possible manner. The following activities taken by them on priority show their determination, love and dedication towards the promotion of games and sports in the country despite the tight economic conditions: • The Central Govt. Physical Education Committee popularly known as Tara Chand Committee was set up in the year 1948. This committee made several valuable recommendations for the promotion of Physical Education and Recreation in the country. • In 1949, a team of experts from Hanuman VyayamPrasarakMandal, Amravati, participated in physical activities in Lingiad at Stockholm (Sweden) and also gave a demonstration of Indian System of physical activities. • In 1951, the first Asian Games were conducted in Delhi despite the fact that the nation was in deep financial crunch. • In 1953, Raj KumariAmritKaur Coaching Scheme was started for the promotion of games and sports and to train Indian sports persons for participation in the National and International Competitions. • In 3954, Central Advisory Board of Physical Education and Recreation was established by the Govt, of India to advise the Government on the coordination of all programmes and activities in the field of Physical Education and Recreation in the country.

7. In 1954, the School Games Federation of India was formed in order to organise and conduct annual Inter-state / National Championships in games and sports for the school students of various age groups. • In 1956, A National Plan of Physical Education and Recreation was prepared by the Central Advisory Board of Physical Education. In this plan greater emphasis was given to promote indigenous physical activities. • In 1957, Lakshmibai College of Physical Education was established in Gwalior. This is Centre Govt, sponsored College. To begin with this college afferedBachelar of Physical Education Degree of three years duration. • In 1958, for the promotion of physical education, sports and youth welfare, a separate division was established in the Ministry of Education. • The Ministry of Education sponsored various seminars in the field of Physical Education. In 1958, a seminar for the Principals of Physical Education Colleges, and another Seminar for Inspectors of Physical Education and Directors of Physical Education and Sports of Universities, and in 1959 a seminar for experts and specialists in Indigenous Physical Activities were conducted.

8. After the 9th Asian Games held in Delhi, the Govt, of India realised the need to have one central sports body. As a result, Sports Authority of India was established in 1982 with the twin purposes i.e. to promote games and sports in the country and to maintain and utilize the existing sports infrastructure. • In 1987, to have an integrated approach towards the development of Physical Education, Games and Sports in the country, the controlling body of Lakshmibai National College of Physical Education and Netaji Subash National Institute of Sports, Patiala, known as Society for National Institutes of Physical Education and Sports (SNIPES) was merged with the Sports Authority of India. It has two wings, i.e. academic wing and sports wing. • In 1995, the premier institute of Physical Education, being run by the Centre Govt, under the name of L.N.C.P.E. Gwalior was given the status of "Deemed University", which is now known as Lakshmibai National Institute of Physical Education, Gwation. • Indian Olympics Association with the active financial support of the Govt, had decided to conduct first Afro-Asian Games in Delhi in November, 200!. But due to security reason it could not happen. Otherwise it would have defmitly acted as a boosting doze for the promotion of games and sports in the country.

9. After going through the above mentioned events undertaken by the Govt, of India during the period of political and financial crisis the then Prime Minister of India, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru did a lot for promoting sports and games in the country. It is the political system that has introduced numerous sports promoting schemes including conduct of International competitions. It means the more important force is political will or political back-up than the economy of the country. This fact can be authenticated when we look at the country like Japan which after the World War-II was economically ruined; it was the political system of the country which not only re-built Japan in very short period, but also demonstrated miraculous results in sports as well as in the field of technology. Similar are the examples of Germany, China, Korea, etc. where political systems have succeeded in promoting sports.

10. THE INDIECONOMY AND ITS EFFECT ON THE PROMOTION OF GAMES AND SPORTS.AN POLITICS AND • This is a different story; especially after 1982 Asian Games held at New Delhi, the sports performance has drastically declined. • There was time when our great leader like Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru made earnest, honest, concerted efforts to bring the country up to the international level in all respects. He did a lot for the promotion of sports and games in the country. Despite poor economical conditions and other alarming problems of the country he did not look back and leave any stone unturned to promote sports in the country. During his regime many attractive schemes were introduced and institutions of physical education and sports of international standard were established. It is pertinent to mention here that after the 1954 Asian Games, Late Pt. Jawahar Lai Nehru, the then Prime Minister of India appointed an inquiry committee to know the reasons of poor performance of our sports persons in the 1954 Asian Games. He duly honoured the recommendation of the committee and took some concrete steps. • The modern political leaders have changed the side altogether to the extent that no one is interested even to takeover sports ministry at the centre as well as in the state/s. Under some circumstances if any body is compelled to take this assignment, then least interest is shown in running the sports department to the expected level of the nation.

11. Whenever any competition is held abroad, may be Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, or Olympic Games, a jumbo contingent alongwith equal or some times more number of officials is cleared by the Govt, for the said purpose. Often they come back without any medal or at the most in Asian and Commonwealth Games they may earn a very few medals. Their achievements do not match with the expenditure incurred on their participation in the competition. No official is held responsible for the dismal performance of Indian sports persons. Contrary to this, 'Captain or a Coach' is sacked after the defeat of the team. In the recently concluded Sydney Olympics, when our main medal hope, the hockey team, returned without a medal, the captain, the coach, and a few players were held responsible for the poor performance. But it is yet to be seen / heard if any official of the Indian Hockey Federation being sacked or made accountable for the debacle. Our players sweat and toil to bring glory for the country. In case of failure, these heroes are quickly turned into zeroes, while the federation officials who enjoy in the sunshine of the players go scot free. In the absence of accountability of these officials, they have made very strong nexus in the respective federations of doling out favours of paid foreign pleasure trips to their faithful supporters as managers, observers or delegates and in turn these people help their masters to continue with their strong hold on the respective national sports federations. Further to get elected as an office bearer in the state sports association or national sports federation all possible methods are applied.

12. Now a days, there is a politics in all the organization of sports, institutions of sports and among the sports persons too. The intrusion of third grade politics in these areas has ruined the Indian sports. It has gone so corrupt and low that:- (i) Often parents are reluctant to send their female ward for coaching camps and competitions being conducted at far off places. (ii) The class sport (tennis, badminton, cricket, golf etc) upcoming players belonging to ordinary family find it difficult to be selected in the state or national team. (iii) Sanctioned kit, diet and pocket money of players do not reach in full-quantity and quality to the concerned player. Also there are examples of legendary international players who are finding it difficult to earn their livelihood in the old age and there is no one to listen them.

13. VIEWS OF BARON PIERE DE COUBERTIN WITH REGARD TO THE IDEALS OF PARTICIPATION IN OLYMPIC GAMES. • The Modern Olympic Games were revived under the leadership of Baron Piere de Coubertin with the aim to develop international understanding and goodwill among the youth of the world. • He categorically stated that, the competition is between individuals or teams, not between nations. And although news papers often compare the total number of medals won by each country, that is strictly unofficial. There is no such thing a country winning 'Olympic Games'. In the words of Baron Piere de Coubertin, "The important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but take part, as the important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well. The spread of these precepts is to develop a more valiant, more strong, more scrupulous, and more generous humanity". Further, he was of the firm opinion that "the games have a potential for the promotion of social peace and justice. Therefore, the games could break down barriers not only between classes but also between nations; let us export rowers, runners, and fencers, there is the free trade of the future."

14. INTERNATIONAL POLITICS AND SPORTS • Sports is an element of social reality, strongly anchored to the political-economical system in which it is placed, that has significance far beyond the trivial. Further, sport is related to the power structure of a society and reflects the ideology of that society and is used to extend and reinforce it. In the developed countries the politicians use sport for political mileage. • At the International level the sport is not only commercial but political too, having significant impact on both national and international levels. Sport continues to be used to promote both the political aspirations of individual politicians and the nationalism, ideology and prestige of nations. Practically all nations now consider achievement in sport as characteristic of their vitality and ideology. • First, sport has been used by political figures to enhance their image as a sport participant or performer. Possibly, two aspects are construed to be of significant benefit to the politician. One, identity with sports is supposed to provide evidence of the politician's physical strength and vigour and that they have the health to carry out the job of their office in vigorous way. Second, their exists an overwhelming desire on the part of the politician, as with so many individuals, to identify with sports persons. This somehow enhances their own self image, self importance and ego.

15. Secondly, sport is not used only at the community level to develop social integration locally, but also at the national and international levels to demonstrate national supremacy in ideology and economic sufficiency. At the local levels, school, college and university teams are expected to bring credit to the community. People identify with the total community and institution through the winning team. • The news media calls attention to the politics of judges and scorers. Lombardi's dictum of "winning is the only thing", and Durocher's battle cry that "nice guys finish last" have lowered the ideals for which the Olympics once stood. Baring Sydney Olympics where International Olympic Committee made all possible efforts to curb the menace of drugs and its effect on sport performance. In the previous Olympics, direcjlyor indirectly leading nations allowed their athletes to enhance their sports performance by any mean in order to earn more medals. Politically motivated acts of "poor sportsmanship" range from Hitler's snuffling of "JESSE OWNS" a black super-athlete in 1936 Berlin Olympics to the murder of Eleven Israeli participants by terrorists (Palistinan Liberation Organisation—PLO) in 1972 Munich Olympics, the boycott of 1976 Montreal Olympic Games by the African nations on account of apartheid, the 1980 Moscow Olympic bycott by the United States and friendly countries on account of invasion of U.S.S.R. on Afghanistan and 1984 Los Angeles Olympics bycott by the Socialist countries led by the U.S.S.R in retaliation to 1980 bycott by the U.S. and others.

16. Sports also has other political meanings / connotations. Patriotism is a political concept that somehow has infiltrated in the field of sport. The national anthem is played before a sport event, the flag is presented by armed colour bearers, and in some events fighter planes fly over­head in specific formation. Such acts do stimulate an individual to think that: Is there a relationship here between patriotism and sport ? Are the flags and anthem symbols of war ? And, is the analogy that sport is war a realistic societal norm ? • The simple answer to the aforementioned questions may be that atleast war like trappings or equipment that symbolize patriotism and are used to glorify sport are rituals of the institution of sport. This is also supported by the Baron's feelings that the "Gaines should become true festival with its solemn ceremonies of oath, hoisting of flags, and worthy opening and closing ceremonies. He went on telling to the extent that grounds should make its contribution to the beauty of great public display." • The period between 1968-2000 has been characterized by political protests. On many occasions the national anthem and the flag have been treated disrespectfully by both athletes and spectators to show their political discontentment. Therefore, it is apparent that, sport has become a stage for the political activities.

17. DOES SPORTS HELP IN BUILDING BRIDGES OF ANY LASTING FRIENDSHIP ? • A popular adage links sports with friendship even as religion relates to peace. Nothing can be farther than that. Sports may have all the ingredients to bind people in friendly bondage but in real life very rarely does that happen. It is the opposite that often manifests, friendship giving way to rivalry which sometimes embroils the supporters into frenzied and often violent reaction. Infact with the growing distrust among nations sporting competition has on occasions been used to express suspicions and hatred rather than spread the much-talked-scent of love and friendship, opined Ramusharma. • In order to discuss the role of international / national politics in the promotion of sports and games, friendship and peace, breaking race, caste, colour and national barriers, all the pros and cons of sports competitions will be discussed here; in the words of Ramu Sharma, correspondent of "The Tribune", a leading newspaper of Northern India, sport certainly has quite often created more problems than settling issues. One recalls the rather unprecedented occurrence in 1969 when El Salvador and the Honduras went to war, to assuage feelings spilling over from incidents during their world cup football qualifying

18. India in its own way, once suffered because of its political philosophy. Remember the Asian Games of 1962 in Jakarta, "Thousands of Indonesians stormed the Indian Embassy, breaking furniture, tearing down shutters, uprooting trees, and troops had to be called to prevent insult to the Indian flag". The crowd wanted the Senior Vice President of the Asian Games Federation, Prof. G.D. Sondhi, to go back home. His fault was that as an observer of the International Olympic Committee, for the games, he had mooted the idea of dropping of the word "Fourth" from the games as the hosts had drawn on their political prerogative by bannningFormosa (Taiwan) and Israel from the competition. Sondhi's principled stand so infuriated the host Indonesia that it cut off trade relations with India. • Violence of course has been a part and parcel of sport with ill-will being generated at the cost of goodwill on some occasions. Foot­ball for example is hardly ever free from crowd violence. "English Hooligans" did not earn the name by just sitting and watching the game in England and elsewhere. One sensational example was the tragedy of the Munich Olympics 1972.

19. On the other hand it has also been observed and experienced that in first modern Olympic Games which commenced in 1896, only 289 competitors from 13 nations took part. But today, in the Sydney Olympics 2000 more than 200 countries with nearly 11,000 participants participated. Also it is on record that various countries as well as athletes had experienced crowd hostility, death of athletes, bycotts of Olympics, social discrimination, stolen Olympic flag, insult to national flags by their own athletes, protest during the Olympics by the athletes to show the social injustice being meted out to them by their own govts and by the rest of the world, attempt to snatch Olympic torch before the commencement of Sydney Olympics, and may be many more omissions and commissions of such nature. But it has not ceased the national govts of the world to stop their athletes from taking part in the Olympics. Rather, if International Olympic Committee decided to impose ban on any country's participation in the Olympics, the same country has been observed pressurizing the International Olympic Committee internationally through various sources to allow it to participate with the condition that they will satisfy the conditions of International Olympic Committee. There is a very good example of Afghanistan. Before, the Sydney Olympics the International Olympic Committee slapped a ban on the Afghanistan Olympic Committee due to some irregularities and unfulfilled conditions. The same country used its International influence to revoke the ban. Also there are examples of international politics of dividing the countries but International Sports competitions such as Olympics facilitated the divided countries to field unified teams in the Olympics for example teams of both Germans, Koreans, Bosnia's, etc. march-passed together under one flag. Another example of a International Sports Competition is "2002 Fifa World cup Korea—Japan" which facilitated. The enemy countries to come close and organise World Foot Ball Cup together. .

20. ANALYTICAL CONCLUSION: • After going through the influence of national / international politics on the promotion of games and sports, it can be safely said that the International politics should not go down so low that countries should boycott enblock the Olympics because of supermatic ego and deprive off their athletes from participation in such a religious Olympic festival. • No doubt, sport has the potential of being political in the highest sense, But, on a globle scene such as the Olympics and other international sport competitions, sports has the possibility of providing a world dimension. That is extremely needed as the future unfolds and the earth becomes more of a village. Despite its number of draw backs and evils coming in, sport has the latent capability to promote international understanding and good will among nations and their youths. • The nationalistic type of politics that now spreads through the Olympics can be changed. In fact, the endeavour should be toward the idea of sharing in the struggle, enjoyment, and achievement of mankind on international level rather than asserting the Polito-economical superiority of nations or races. Sports, at its best need not be a barrier against mindless isolationism, but rather a bridge to equality living and filling up a socio-economic, racial or religion , or political ideological. The performance of Jesse Owns, Carl Lewis, Jim Thorpe and many more American Africans is an answer to the racial dom mating international politics.

21. ROLE OF THE ECONOMY OF THE COUNTRY IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPORTS AND GAMES • There is an old saying that "Money makes the mare go". It mean to say that without money nothing can be done. Rather, in todays world, your identity is attached with your economic status, ofcourse exceptions are always there. Then the development of sports and games too has relations with the economy of the country. In general we can say that it is some thing like this, if the head of the family is not able to feed its members with its meager sources of income, he cannot even think to spend some money for recreational purposes of the members of the family. Similarly, a country fighting on various domestic problems for its citizens may not be able to spare enough funds for developing games and sports in the country. Examples of Pakistan, Afghanistan and some African countries may be quoted for this reason. Their economies are totally shattered, there is no proper planning, either they are in the grip of terrorism, or religious barbarism or in the holds of racism. Such countries cannot provide enough facilities in the country for developing sports and game since the major chunk of their national income is being wasted some where else.

22. Practically speaking, as far as Olympic games are concerned uptill 1976 Montreal Olympic Games, it was really difficult for the national Olympic Committees / Associations of national governments of the countries to take the responsibilities of such big sports function because huge amount was needed to create infrastructure for the games, making arrangement of latest equipment, arrangement of boarding and lodging of athletes, officials, and spectators. Another factor was that lot of emphasis was given on amateurism and almost negligible efforts were made towards attracting sponsorships. But, the Americans have shown the way to the rest of world by conducting 1984 Los Angeles Games in which profit earned from the games was more than the expenditure. However, they adopted the extreme methods allowing the private / multinational concerns to use the Olympic Logo on their product. But their approach of earning money and conducting games has attracted the world to bid for conducting such sporting events. The philosophy of Americans seems to be on the right track. They said lot of infrastructure of permanent nature is established which can be used for centuries to come and it will be a regular source of income for the nation. There was time when developed countries used to be scared to have the responsibility to conduct international sports competitions. Contrary to that, now a days there is a race among the nations, irrespective of their economic, social, religious, ideological, racial, domestic and international problems, to get allotted the international sport competition.

23. For this purpose they use all kinds of methods including political pressure, willingness to pay bribe to the voters to decide the verdict of allotment of games in their favour. It is very well realized by the nations that by conducting international sports event (Olympic Games, Football World Cup, Cricket World cup etc.) not only money is saved and infrastructure is established but also some political mileage is achieved at international and national scene. Further national prestige is enhanced at the international level. There is also a stimulation of national interest in sports in the youth of the country. It is the political system and its will to do some thing for the promotion of sports at the national and international level that ultimately counts. In support of this argument, there are several examples which may be quoted. In 1951 when first Asian Games were held in India, the economy of the country was not in a good shape. Again when IX Asian Games were held in 1982 in India, the economy of the country, in relation to other developed countries was no where. Now, again we are thinking to conduct first Afro-Asian Games, despite the fact that country is facing lot of problems on account of anti-India campaign by the neighbouring nations, internal unrest of the youth, political instability, number of scams etc. Definitely, countrymen will be benefited from such sporting festivals and there will be promotion of games and sports. It is the political will of the National Govt, not the economy to have such ventures which ultimately boost the growth and development of games Sports in the country.

24. THANKING YOU