Syed Modi Murder & Milkha Singh Trauma

For a nation of over a billion people, the Commonwealth Games have often been the stage where Indian sport finds its truest expression.

Since India’s debut in 1934, when wrestler Rashid Anwar won a lone bronze in London, the sporting culture has grown exponentially. India’s best showing at the Commonwealth Games was when Delhi hosted the event; the nation won a record 101 medals.

India have been part of this legendary run since 1934, even before independence, since these games were called the British Empire Games. From Milkha Singh topping the podium for the first time for India to multiple golds across Badminton, Weightlifting, and Wrestling in Birmingham 2022, the nation has come a long way.

Today, let’s take a look at some pioneering and unsung heroes of Commonwealth Games whose story might be lost in lore, but their performances breathe in archives.

1958: Milkha Singh won India’s first Commonwealth Games gold

Milkha Singh’s journey through the 1947 Partition began in his native village of Gobindpura (present-day Pakistan), where he witnessed his parents and siblings brutally murdered by violent mobs. Fleeing the bloodshed, he arrived in India as an orphaned, traumatised refugee, sleeping on railway platforms and in camps before discovering his life-changing athletic talent in the Indian Army.

India’s first gold arrived in 1958 at Cardiff, where the “Flying Sikh” won the men’s 440 yards, clocking the distance in 46.6s. It was followed almost immediately by wrestler Lila Ram’s gold in the 100kg freestyle category. That same edition marked a milestone for women’s sport in India, as track athletes Stephanie D’Souza and Elizabeth Davenport became the first Indian women to compete at the Games.

1982: Syed Modi, Commonwealth champion at 19, was murdered at 25

Syed Modi, the youngest of eight children to a sugar mill worker father from a small town in Uttar Pradesh, became a national badminton singles champion at the age of 14 in 1976. Five years later, he matched Prakash Padukone by winning gold at the men’s singles event of the Commonwealth Games.

While Padukone had won his gold at Edmonton in 1978 without dropping a single game, Modi lost the first game of his final against England’s Nick Yates before coming back strongly to pick up the gold. Modi won the Indian national title eight years in a row starting with 1980, and was murdered at the age of just 25, while coming out of a training session in Lucknow in 1988.

Every year, on a Thursday in December, the best badminton players in the world, from China, Indonesia, Japan, Denmark, arrive in Lucknow to compete in a tournament. Flags go up. Stadiums fill. A name is announced throughout the competition, and that name is Syed Modi, in remembrance of whom the Syed Modi International is organised.

2002: Mohammed Ali Qamar, the man who is still boxing from the shadows

The first boxer to win gold for India at the Commonwealth Games, Kolkata-born Qamar’s performance in Manchester came on the back of a strong showing at the World Championships in 2001. In Manchester, he faced local favourite Darran Langley in the final and trailed 22-17 after the first three rounds of the bout. He counter-punched in the fourth and final round, securing India’s 24th Gold medal during that edition.

Mohammed Ali Qamar during the 2021 Tokyo Olympics (Credits: Ali Qamar/ Instagram)

His coaching tenure as head of the elite women’s team from 2019 to 2021 played a key role in India’s historic achievements, including enabling four women boxers to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics for the first time, as he helped secure Lovlina Borgohain a bronze medal in the welterweight category.

Qamar’s success came from innovative training methods, developed in collaboration with foreign coach Raffaele Bergamasco. The methods focused on building explosive power, aggressive attacking styles, and mental resilience, which also contributed to strong medal hauls at the 2019 Asian Championships (six medals) and World Championships (four medals).

Mohammed Ali Qamar (on left) with Olympic medallists Lovlina Borgohain (centre), and Neeraj Chopra (right) (Credits: Ali Qamar/ Instagram)

2002: The Indian women’s hockey team

The Manchester 2002 win of the Indian women’s hockey team was the same underdog story that served as the inspiration for the 2007 film Chak De!.

India couldn’t have had a more surprising finish when the 17th-ranked Indians beat world number 5 England by a golden goal in the final of the second-ever hockey tournament at the Games in Manchester. The victory helped the girls claim India’s only gold in the sport to date.

Drawn against England, world number 6 New Zealand and Canada in the group stages, India beat Canada 1-0 and drew with England. A defeat to New Zealand saw them face South Africa in the quarter-finals, where they trailed 3-0 at one stage. Jyoti Kullu got them a golden goal in a thrilling 4-3 comeback win to set up another meeting with New Zealand. A 2-1 win thanks to a Mamta Kharab winner took them to the clash against England, where Kharab would score a golden goal to clinch gold.

2010: India’s best ever Commonwealth Games

Nothing in India’s Commonwealth Games history compares to the 2010 Delhi Games. As host nation, India delivered its finest showing ever: 101 medals in total, 38 gold, 27 silver and 36 bronze, finishing second in the medal table behind only Australia.

The shooting range alone produced 30 medals, cementing the sport’s status as India’s Commonwealth Games powerhouse. Discus thrower Krishna Poonia added a historic gold in women’s athletics, ending a 52-year wait since India had last won a women’s track and field title at the Games.

Geeta Phogat’s historic gold medal came in the women’s 55kg wrestling event. It was special since it was the first Commonwealth gold by an Indian woman in the sport. Later, Alka Tomar (wrestler) and Anita Sheoran (wrestler) would win golds too.

2014 and beyond: India stayed consistent but couldn’t surpass 2010 glory

India didn’t rest on its 2010 laurels. Glasgow 2014 brought 64 medals and a fifth-place finish, while Gold Coast 2018 delivered 66 medals and a third-place finish. Manika Batra became the first Indian woman to win individual table tennis gold in the 2018 edition.

In 2022 Birmingham, India claimed 61 medals in total. Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu opened the Games with a historic gold on day one. Wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Ravi Kumar Dahiya, along with badminton star PV Sindhu, added to the tally. Sudhir, a powerlifter, also made history, winning India’s first-ever para-sport gold at the Games.

Across 18 editions since 1934, India has won 564 Commonwealth Games medals: 203 gold, 190 silver, and 171 bronze, placing it fourth on the all-time table. Shooting tops the sport-wise count with over 135 medals, closely followed by weightlifting and wrestling.