What’s the story?
Eight months after PV Sindhu became the second Indian and first woman to win an individual Olympic medal, most of India still seems to be quite taken by the “badminton queen”.
Needless to say, Sindhu’s form has been consistently high since the conclusion of the Olympics and reports suggest that she is quite the inspiration for the next generation of sportspeople.
While people admire her for various facets of her personality, notably for her skills and her on-court sportsmanship, a certain section of Indians seem to have their priorities misplaced when it comes to Sindhu. It is April 2017 and even now, “PV Sindhu caste” is one of the most searched terms regarding the athlete in the country.
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Immediately after the completion of the grandest international tournament in Rio, Sindhu was hailed as one of the heroes of India’s Olympic challenge. Given the fact that India sent a historically large delegate of athletes to the 2016 Olympics, the medal count was comparatively disappointing.
By the end, India ended up with only two medals after fielding a team of 117 athletes overall. Needless to say, the badminton superstar was one of the few people who provided much-needed respite to the increasing levels of frustration in the country born out of a lack of medals and narrow misses.
In this context, it is quite heartbreaking to see a part of the country more obsessed with her caste than her achievements.
The details
In August 2016, media outlets reported a sudden surge in this particular search term immediately after Sindhu’s historic win at Rio with nearly 2100 searches per day. Her coach, former badminton player Pullela Gopichand, and wrestler Sakshi Malik were not let off easily either as “Pullela Gopichand caste” and “Malik caste” came a close second on the list of most searched terms on Google. Is this symptomatic of a larger and more deeply ingrained evil within Indian society?
One does not need to look far for the answer to this. An obvious explanation at the time was the rush among people of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to claim her as one of their own. Social media campaigns championing both cases were equally carried out throughout the state while Telangana even petitioned to have her named the Ambassador of the state – replacing tennis star Sania Mirza in the process.
Even today, the number of searches for “PV Sindhu caste” average around 80 per day.
Implications
Since Rio 2016, Sindhu has bagged four gold medals and defeated Carolina Marin twice after losing to her in the Olympic final. She has proven herself to be the epitome of hard work leading to success.
Yet, why is it that we as Indians, refuse to respect her struggle for what it is without the perversions of casteism and discrimination? The issue of caste has always been relevant in the country. It is quite coincidental that the champion of anti-discrimination movements Dr. BR Ambedkar was born in this very month and this makes the scrutiny of Sindhu all the more glaring.
Instead of being lauded for bringing glory to a sports enthused country, suddenly the history of her birth and family become more relevant than her hard fought battle against Marin.
Also read: Setting examples on and off the court, PV Sindhu is truly the consummate professional sports star
Even ultimate glory could not defeat the deep roots of casteism. Examples of our biases exist on a daily basis and manifestations of it can be seen in our day to day interactions.
Hot headed online debates against caste based reservation in educational and professional sectors find a lot of takers while most people choose to remain silent on the struggles faced by marginalised communities.
In retrospect, the fact that even an Olympic medal winner was not spared should hardly be surprising.
Author’s Take
As an athlete, PV Sindhu has more than proved her worth as a tough competitor worldwide. Currently ranked fifth according to the latest BWF rankings, we as her countryfolk have a lot of reasons to be proud of her.
One hopes that, with time, the misplaced fanaticism of a certain section of Indians subsides to give way to nothing but admiration and respect for the badminton star.
