Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu today called for reviving the glory of traditional Indian sports like hockey and urged state governments and corporate entities to join hands in providing needed encouragement.
Releasing the postage stamp in the memory of social worker and nationalist Chaman Lal at Upa-Rashtrapati Nivas today, the Vice President said that the recent performance of the Indian hockey team in the Tokyo Olympics has rekindled the interest in the sports and time has come for promoting traditional Indian sports like hockey and kabaddi in a big way. He called for strengthening infrastructure including artificial turf and training and coaching at the grass-root level.
Asking to shed the colonial mindset of aping others blindly, the Vice President said that we should justly feel proud of great tradition and culture. He also asserted that there is inherent talent among Indians in every field, ‘what is required is right encouragement and support for this talent’.
Paying rich tributes to Chaman Lal, the Vice President said that he dedicated his entire life to selflessly serving the country and the people. Calling Chaman Lal a great nationalist and a visionary thinker, he said that his life’s philosophy was characterised by service, values and creativity. “Despite receiving a gold medal in M Sc at Punjab University (Lahore) in 1942, he chose the path of service even though he had a bright career ahead. He saw spirituality in service,” Naidu said.
Lauding the eternal Indian Guru-Shishya tradition, Naidu underlined that Indian culture does not see knowledge and learning as intellectual property rather it believes that knowledge increases by sharing.
We believe that one has to repay one’s debt to the Guru by sharing his or her knowledge with others, he said. Quoting Rigvedic shloka – “Aa no bhadra: kratavo yantu vishwatha”, the Vice President said that Indian culture believes in universality of knowledge. “Knowledge is not bound in any geographical boundary, it is the common heritage of all humanity,” he added.