Manisha Mohite

A Tribute to Khashaba Jadhav: A
Forgotten Olympic Bronze Medallist
A“
t the end of the day it is
performances which matter,
the rest is just drama,” stated
Abhinav Bindra in his usual
forthright manner when quizzed
whether sports stars enjoy the
limelight and the glamour of
endorsements. Bang on target once
again! This is one young man who
believes in shooting for “gold,” but
with his gun and not in front of
cameras. His individual Olympic
gold medal at Beijing 2008 has
delighted more than a billion
Indians, even more so with bronzes
from boxer Vijender Kumar and
wrestler Sushil Kumar. India’s
major claim to Olympic glory in
previous editions was gold in
hockey, which is a team sport
anyway.
It is time to look at the small
towns and villages that are
bubbling with budding, but
hidden, talent. Understandably we
have to now set new targets and
look beyond Beijing, but I could
not help but take a tiny pause and
sneak a peek, behind Beijing, all
the way back to 1952 Helsiniki
Olympic Games, even though I
was not even born then. An
unheralded and unseeded Indian,
Khashaba Jadhav, achieved the
unexpected. He wrested a bronze
in freestyle wrestling in the 52 kg
bantamweight class, which
incidentally was independent
India's first ever individual medal
at the Olympics.
This was the start that went
unnoticed and unparalleled for the
following 56 years. No showering
of paisa or praise, not to speak of
a raise in status for this young
man from Goleshwar (Karad,
Maharashtra). Only the wrestlingloving
villagers greeted him with
a cavalcade of 151 bullock carts
that went in procession from Karad
to his village. Most say that fame
and fortune go together, but for
Khashaba what followed was
oblivion and poverty.
I have never had the fortune
of meeting Khashaba. To be honest,
it was just another name, until
1991 when I travelled to Shahu
Smarak in Kolhapur
(Maharashtra) to receive the
Utsfurta Paritoshik for having
participated at the international
level in chess. At the same event,
Khashaba was conferred an award
posthumously by the same
organization and his wife,
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Manisha Mohite
Kusumtai, received the award on
his behalf. There was some talk
about the hardships faced by his
family, and a cash award was also
announced. This was when I heard
first-hand about Khashaba, his
efforts, his determination to excel
at all costs, and small snippets
about his life in general. Our own
efforts in our respective sports
appeared to pale in comparison to
Khashaba’s dedication. After the
ceremony, however, both
Khashaba’s feat and wrestling
once again faded from memory,
only to come rushing back after
watching Sushil Kumar bag the
bronze in Beijing. This time
around, I was determined to pay a
tribute to Khashaba in writing and
made some more enquiries about
him. 1
Bindra reminds me of
Khashaba; both with a singleminded
focus on their respective
sports and an inclination to let
their trade do the talking. Unlike
Bindra, however, Khashaba did
not have access to state-of-the-art
training facilities. No doubt, class
comes from consistency and
consistency in performance is
something that cannot be ignored.
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But despite his consistency,
Khashaba was grappling more
with paucity of funds rather than
opponents for practice when he
was selected for the London
Olympics in 1948. By then he had
moved to Kolhapur, a city imbibed
with a wrestling culture. In fact, it
was the Maharaja of Kolhapur
who funded his trip for the 1948
Olympics. After a 20-day sea
voyage to the venue, Khashaba
was floored—not by his opponents,
but by the new international rules
that were different from those
practised in India. Also, the biggest
transition for him was from
wrestling barefoot in mud-floored
akhadas to wrestling wearing
boots and on the matin an indoor
stadium. The modern wrestling
format had, indeed, long overtaken
India and her wrestlers. Khashaba
picked up some rules during the
actual matches, even as he tried
to latch on to his opponents’
mistakes. Despite such adversities,
Khashaba was placed a creditable
sixth.
The next four years were spent
in intense training for the Helsinki
Olympics, but in the last couple of
months before the event, the
activity was more focused on fund
raising as players had to bear their
own cost. Here, Principal
Khardikar, of Rajaram College,
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114 Commodity Vision I Volume 2 I Issue 2 I Oct-Dec 2008
where Khashaba was completing
his Bachelor’s degree, mortgaged
his house to raise the money for
the trip. The first thing that
Khashaba indulged in after
returning victorious from Helsinki
was to participate in a wrestling
bout, the entire proceeds of which
was used to release his principal’s
house.
Khashaba joined the police as
a sub-inspector in 1955 and
worked for 22 years without a
promotion. It was one of the
bleakest periods of his life as he
never got his due, and even his
help was never seriously sought
as a coach though he evinced
interest.
Khashaba died in a tragic road
accident in 1984 at the age of 58.
His wife had to run from pillar to
post for help, even to meet their
daily needs. Incidentally,
Khashaba had to make several
efforts even to get his pension, and
a small house that he was building
was delayed for scarcity of funds.
Ironically, he named it “Olympic
Niwas,” but passed on even before
he could move there. It was also
sad that even though he died on
the spot in a two-wheeler accident,
there was no one to identify him,
except for a passing journalist
who identified him after looking
at his bank pass book. The state
government only lauded his effort
posthumously by conferring the
Chhatrapati Puraskar, the highest
award for sports in Maharashtra,
in 1992-93. Finally, the central
government recognized his efforts
with the Arjuna Award in 2001,
almost 50 years after his moment
of Olympic glory. 2 The very fact
that India went without a medal
in the individual section for the
next 44 years 3 speaks volumes
about Khashaba’s feat.
Therefore, I was happy when
the efforts of our recent Olympic
achievers were lauded with
accolades and monetary benefits.
Personally, as a sportsperson and
a sports writer, I must admit that
the sight of successful sports stars
on podiums evokes much more
national pride and respect than
watching them prance around
uncomfortably for the stage or on
celluloid. Our cricket-crazy nation
has also rediscovered that there are
other sports that can be followed
and pursued. There are several
non-cricketing sporting icons—
Viswanathan Anand, Geet Sethi,
Pankaj Advani, Leander Paes,
Karnam Malleswari, Abhinav
Bindra, Vijender Kumar, Sushil
Kumar, Prakash Padukone, and
many more—to look up to and
idolize as role models.
NOTES
1. I must thank Mr Vasantrao Mohite, Vice President of the Kolhapur Wrestling Association, who provided many valuable inputs.
2. More recently, SNS College of Engineering, Coimbatore, has instituted an award in honour of Khashaba Jadhav for excellencein
sports.
3. Leander Paes won a bronze for tennis in 1996 and Karnam Malleswari a bronze for weightlifting in 2000.
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