The Progress Of Physical Education And Sport In India Till 1947

Abstract

From the dawn of humankind to around 10,000 BC, men had a constant voice in the back of their head saying, “Run for your life!” Physical development followed a natural path that was determined by the practical demands of life in a wild landscape as well as the vital need to avoid threats and seize opportunities for survival. Starting between 10,000 and 8,000 BC, the Agricultural Revolution is often considered to be the dawn of civilization. Man’s transition from nomadic hunter-gatherer to farmer led to dramatic changes in his physical activity. The numerous demands of growing food and raising cattle meant a lot of chores and a lot of daily labor for farmers. But these tasks were largely repetitive, and required a very limited range of movement. At the same time, the need for performing a variety of complex movements — running, balancing, jumping, crawling, and climbing— greatly diminished. Such movements were rarely performed in a farm environment, or were performed in much simpler ways; for example, climbing a ladder is safer and more constrained and predictable than climbing trees. Ancient military training had similarities to the movements performed in nature by our cavemen brethren, but with more structure and a different end goal. Young men practiced fundamental skills such as walking and running on uneven terrains, jumping, crawling, climbing, lifting and carrying heavy things, throwing and catching, unarmed fighting, and weapons training. The great Epic the ‘Ramayana’ and the ‘Mahabharata’ are full of stories of great warrior depicting there martial qualities. If you just look into the epics we can well understand that physical fitness was considered as an important factor in all warfare and it was prompted by indigenous system of physical education. All war weapons and war tactics were also of indigenous nature.  The warriors were well versed in archery, wrestling, sword fighting, horse riding, elephant riding and Chariot racing. Taxila University is an example, where training of archery (Dhanurvidya) was of a very high order. From survival in ancient period as basic objective behind physical education, all-round development of individual has become the motto of physical education. However, this transition in the outlook and objective of physical education from ancient to modern through medieval period has traversed various stages of growth.

Keywords: Physical Education, Development and Civilization..