Is Hockey the national sport of India?

We all know that hockey is the national game/sport of India, as we have studied that in our school. Today, they would be in shock. Students in India are taught by their teachers from 1st standard, "Hockey is our national sport" or " Hockey is the national sport of India" and we all believe them. Right? Yeah! But it's not true.

                                              

India won six consecutive hockey gold medals at Olympics between 1928 and 1956. Indian men's field hockey team is the most successful team in Olympic history with 8 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals.

Back in 1928, when India played hockey for the first time in the Olympics, it started saying that India's national sport is hockey but never officially announced...

But how do we came to know that??

In 2012, a curious Lucknow-based ten-year old kid named Aishwarya Parashar filed a Right to Information (RTI) application to the Prime Minister's Office for the official copies of the declaration of the National Anthem, sports, song, bird, etc..

Aishwarya's request was sent to the Home Ministry who forwarded the sports-related query to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. And to the entire nation's surprise, the then Secretary of Sports Ministry, Shiv Pratap Singh Tomar wrote back to Aishwarya saying the Ministry has not declared any particular sport as the 'National Sport of India'.

Then I came to know that my whole childhood was a lie!! 😓😞😩

You can also check it on any website of the Government of India.

So, in reality, Hockey or any other sport for that matter was never the National Sport of India. And we never found it out about it before because no one was never as curious as Aishwarya to inquire about it.

Special Thanks to Aishwarya.