Is Hockey Really The National Game Of India?

During our school days every child is taught that the tiger is the national animal of India, Jana Gana Mana is the national anthem and Hockey is the national sport. But amazingly, Hockey is truly not the National Sport of the country. Then what is?

This came as a shock to everyone that hockey is not the national game of India. The national sport of a country is selected on the basis of two important things first is the idea of recognition of the sport in that country and the second is the idea of its historical connect from that country. As we saw in the movies like 'Gold' that how India won their first Gold for the country after independence and the popularity of hockey at that time could also be the reason why hockey considered as the national game of India.

Hockey is considered as the unofficial National game of India because the Republic of India doesn't have any game as the National Game. Majorly, after the partition of India and Pakistan, Hockey was considered as the national sport of India because of its amazing performance in the Olympic Games. Aishwarya Parashar, a 10-year-old girl from Lucknow who wanted to know the accurate year when the government declared hockey as India's national game filed the RTI with the help of Right to Information Act 2005. After she filed the RTI, The Union Ministry Of Youth Affairs responded to her with a message that says that the ministry could not find any official date when government adopted hockey as the national game of India. But the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs officially declared hockey as the national game of India in August 2012 in response to the RTI filed by Aishwarya Parashar. This was shock to many citizens because every Indian citizen know hockey as the country's National Game.

To decide the national game on the basis of success isn't a good idea . Currently hockey is not popular in India as much as Cricket. The best criteria could be popularity to adopt the national game. But back then Cricket was not as popular as hockey. The Cricket World Cup of 1983 made cricket immensly popular in India. There could be a time where another sport might gain popularity like Cricket. Every sport, every industry needs a revolution to make place in the hearts of people. For that reason, popularity also isn’t the correct method or criteria to give any game the national sport's status. Currently, India does not have any national sport. With a wide range of culture and many people, it is not practically correct to call one game as the national sport of the country. So until India figures out its national game, people can take the pleasure of cricket and read about history of hockey in books.