Manisha Mohite

Beyond Commodities
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,
manishamohite@hotmail.com
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.
Manisha Mohite.p65 114
9/26/2008, 12:33 AM