# India at the 1948 Summer Olympics

India competed at the 1948 Summer Olympics in Wembley Park, London, England. 79 competitors, all men, took part in 39 events in 10 sports. It was the first time that India competed as an independent nation at the Olympic Games. The 79 competitor Indian contingent won the country's first and only medal of the Olympics in field hockey.

## Medalists

Medals by sport :
| Sport | | | | Total |
| Field hockey | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Medal | Name | Sport | Event |
| Gold | Leslie Claudius Keshav Dutt Walter D'Souza Lawrie Fernandes Ranganathan Francis Gerry Glackan Akhtar Hussain Patrick Jansen Amir Kumar Kishan Lal Leo Pinto Jaswant Singh Rajput Latif-ur-Rehman Reginald Rodrigues Balbir Singh Sr. Randhir Singh Gentle Grahanandan Singh K. D. Singh Trilochan Singh Maxie Vaz | Field hockey | Men's Field hockey |

## Competitors

Note: All times mentioned on this page are in British Summer Time (BST). Indian Standard Time (IST) = BST + 4:30hrs.
| Sport | Men | Women | Events |
| Athletics | 8 | 0 | 10 |
| Boxing | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| Cycling | 9 | 0 | 5 |
| Field Hockey | 20 | 0 | 1 |
| Football | 18 | 0 | 1 |
| Swimming | 7 | 0 | 5 |
| Water polo | 9 | 0 | 1 |
| Weightlifting | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Wrestling | 6 | 0 | 6 |

## Athletics

| Athlete | Event | Heat | Heat | Quarterfinals | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | Final | Final |
| Athlete | Event | Time | Rank | Time | Rank | Time | Rank | Time | Rank |
| Eric Prabhakar | Men's 100 metres | 11.0 | 2 | 11.26 | 6 | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance |
| Athlete | Event | Qualifying | Qualifying | Semifinal | Semifinal | Final | Final |
| Athlete | Event | Time | Rank | Time | Rank | Time | Rank |
| Jim Vickers | Men's 110 metres hurdles | 14.7 | 1 | 15.09 | 4 | Did not advance | Did not advance |
| Athlete | Event | Qualifying | Qualifying | Final | Final |
| Athlete | Event | Time | Rank | Time | Rank |
| Sadhu Singh | Men's 10 kilometres walk | -- | -- | Did not advance | Did not advance |
| Athlete | Event | Final | Final |
| Athlete | Event | Time | Rank |
| Sadhu Singh | Men's 50 kilometres walk | -- | DNF |
| Athlete | Event | Final | Final |
| Athlete | Event | Time | Rank |
| Chhota Singh | Men's marathon | -- | DNF |
| Athlete | Event | Qualifying | Qualifying | Final | Final |
| Athlete | Event | Score | Rank | Score | Rank |
| Gurnam Singh | Men's high jump | 1.87 | NP | 1.80 | 18 |
| Athlete | Event | Qualifying | Qualifying | Final | Final |
| Athlete | Event | Score | Rank | Score | Rank |
| Baldev Singh | Men's long jump | 7.000 | 11 | Did not advance | Did not advance |
| Athlete | Event | Qualifying | Qualifying | Final | Final |
| Athlete | Event | Score | Rank | Score | Rank |
| Henry Rebello | Men's triple jump | 14.650 | 5 | - | NM |
| Athlete | Event | Qualifying | Qualifying | Final | Final |
| Athlete | Event | Score | Rank | Score | Rank |
| Nat Singh Somnath | Men's hammer throw | 41.36 | 23 | Did not advance | Did not advance |

## Boxing
### Men

| Athlete | Event | Round of 32 | Round of 16 | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Final | Final |
| Athlete | Event | Opposition Result | Opposition Result | Opposition Result | Opposition Result | Opposition Result | Rank |
| Rabin Bhatta | Flyweight | Bye | Frankie Sodano (USA) L KO1 | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance |
| Babu Lall | Bantamweight | Allan Monteiro (PAK) W RSC1 | Juan Venegas (PUR) L PTS | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance |
| Benoy Bose | Featherweight | Francisco Núñez (ARG) L PTS | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance |
| Gene Raymond | Lightweight | Svend Wad (DEN) L PTS | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance |
| Robert Cranston | Welterweight | Aurelio Díaz (ESP) L PTS | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance |
| John Nuttall | Middleweight | Bye | Ivano Fontana (ITA) L PTS | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance |
| Mac Joachim | Light heavyweight | Franciszek Szymura (POL) L PTS | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance |

## Cycling

Ten cyclists represented India in 1948

### Individual road race

* Bapoo Malcolm
* Raj Kumar Mehra
* Eruch Mistry
* Homi Powri (Pavri)

### Team road race

* Bapoo Malcolm
* Raj Kumar Mehra
* Eruch Mistry
* Homi Powri (Pavri)

### Sprint

* Rusi Mulla Feroze

### Time trial

* Rohinton Noble

### Team pursuit

* Adi Havewala
* Jehangoo Amin
* Rohinton Noble
* Piloo Sarkari (Sarkar)
Also represented India: Netai Chand Bysack
Sohrab Bhoot and Nariman Saugar were administrators for the cycling team.

## Field hockey

The Indian field hockey team defeated the British team to win the country's first gold medal at the 1948 Summer Olympics. It was the country's first Olympic gold medal since India became independent.

### Squad

Leslie Claudius Keshav Dutt Walter D'Souza Lawrie Fernandes Ranganathan Francis Gerry Glackan Akhtar Hussain Patrick Jansen Amir Kumar Kishan Lal (c) Leo Pinto Jaswant Singh Rajput Latif-ur-Rehman Reginald Rodrigues Balbir Singh Sr. Randhir Singh Gentle Grahanandan Singh K. D. Singh (vc) Trilochan Singh Maxie Vaz

### Group A matches

| Rank | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts | | | | |
| 1. | India (IND) | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 1 | 6 | X | 9:1 | 8:0 | 2:0 |
| 2. | Argentina (ARG) | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 12 | 3 | 1:9 | X | 1:1 | 3:2 |
| 3. | Austria (AUT) | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 2 | 0:8 | 1:1 | X | 1:1 |
| 4. | Spain (ESP) | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 0:2 | 2:3 | 1:1 | X |

### Semi-finals

| India (IND) | 2 – 1 | Netherlands (NED) |

### Final

| India (IND) | 4 – 0 | Great Britain (GBR) |

## Football
### Squad

Head coach: Balaidas Chatterjee
| Pos. | Player | Date of Birth | Age | Caps | Club | Tournament games | Tournament goals | Minutes played | Sub off | Sub on | Cards yellow/red |
| MF | Talimeran Ao | Jan 28, 1918 | 30 | ? | Mohun Bagan A.C. | 1 | 0 | 90 | - | - | - |
| MF | A. Sattar Basheer | 1924 | | ? | Mysore | 1 | 0 | 90 | - | - | - |
| FW | Robi Das | | | ? | Bhawanipore Club | 1 | 0 | 90 | - | - | - |
| FW | Ahmed Mohamed Khan | Dec 24, 1926 | 21 | ? | Mysore | 1 | 0 | 90 | - | - | - |
| DF | Saliendra Manna | Sep 1, 1924 | 23 | ? | Mohun Bagan A.C. | 1 | 0 | 90 | - | - | - |
| FW | Sahu Mewalal | Jul 1, 1926 | 22 | ? | Eastern Railway S.C. | 1 | 0 | 90 | - | - | - |
| DF | Taj Mohammed | 1924 | | ? | East Bengal | 1 | 0 | 90 | - | - | - |
| MF | Mahabir Prasad | 1918 | | ? | East Bengal | 1 | 0 | 90 | - | - | - |
| FW | Balaram Parab Ramchandra | 1925 | | ? | Bombay F.C. | 1 | 0 | 90 | - | - | - |
| FW | Sarangapani Raman | 1920 | | ? | Mysore | 1 | 1 | 90 | - | - | - |
| GK | Kenchappa V. Varada Raj | 1923 | | ? | Mysore | 1 | 0 | 90 | - | - | - |
| | - Stand-by players - | | | | | | | | | | |
| FW | K. P. Dhanraj | | | ? | Mysore | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - |
| MF | S. M. Kaiser | | | ? | East Bengal | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - |
| MF | Anil Nandy | | | ? | Eastern Railway S.C. | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - |
| FW | Santosh Nandy | 1932 | | ? | Eastern Railway S.C. | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - |
| DF | T. M. Varghese "Papen" | | | ? | Bombay F.C. | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - |
| GK | Sanjeeva Uchil | | | ? | ICL-Bengal Club, Bombay | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - |
| MF | B. N. Vajravelu | | | ? | Mysore | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - |

### First round
## Swimming

| Athlete | Event | Heat | Heat | Semifinal | Semifinal | Final | Final |
| Athlete | Event | Time | Rank | Time | Rank | Time | Rank |
| Sachin Nag | Men's 100 m freestyle | 1:03.8 | 34 | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance |
| Isaac Mansoor | Men's 100 m freestyle | 1:06.4 | 38 | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance |
| Dilip Mitra | Men's 100 m freestyle | 1:06.9 | 39 | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance |
| Bimal Chandra | Men's 400 metre freestyle | 5:38.6 | ? | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance |
| Bimal Chandra | Men's 1500 metre freestyle | 22:52.9 | ? | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance |
| Khamlillal Shah | Men's 100 metre backstroke | 1:19.9 | ? | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance |
| Prahtip Mitra | Men's 100 metre backstroke | 1:24.5 | ? | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance |
| Prafulla Mullick | Men's 200 metre breaststroke | 3:14.9 | ? | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance |

## Water polo

Indian water polo team ranked 9th in tournament.

### Squad

Gora Seal Samarendra Chatterjee Ajoy Chatterjee Suhas Chatterjee Dwarkadas Mukharji Durga Das Jamini Dass Sachin Nag Isaac Mansoor Jahan Ahir

### Group C matches

| Rank | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts | | | |
| 1. | Netherlands (NED) | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 26 | 1 | 4 | X | 12:1 | 14:0 |
| 2. | India (IND) | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 16 | 2 | 1:12 | X | 7:4 |
| 3. | Chile (CHI) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 21 | 0 | 0:14 | 4:7 | X |

### Group H

| Rank | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts | | | |
| 1. | Netherlands (NED) | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 3 | 4 | X | 5:2 | 12:1 |
| 2. | Spain (ESP) | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 6 | 2 | 2:5 | X | 11:1 |
| 3. | India (IND) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 23 | 0 | 1:12 | 1:11 | X |

## Wrestling

Key:
* VT - Victory by Fall.
* Pt - Decision by Points.
* Pd - Decision by Points but Judges disagree.

### Men's freestyle

| Athlete | Event | Round 1 Result | Round 2 Result | Round 3 Result | Round 4 Result | Round 5 Result | Rank |
| K. D. Jadhav | −52 kg | B. Harris (AUS) W $^{Pt}$ | B. Jernigan (USA) W $^{Pt}$ | M. Raeisi (IRN) L $^{VT}$ | — | — | 6 |
| Nirmal Bose | −57 kg | G. Leeman (USA) L $^{VT}$ | — | — | — | — | − |
| S. Suryavanshi | −62 kg | A. Parsons (GBR) L $^{Pd}$ | A. Muller (SUI) L $^{VT}$ | — | — | — | − |
| Banta Singh | −67 kg | M. Hassan (EGY) L $^{Pt}$ | C. Atik (TUR) L $^{VT}$ | — | — | — | − |
| A. Bhargava | −73 kg | Yaşar Doğu (TUR) L $^{VT}$ | E. Estrada Ojeda (MEX) W $^{Pd}$ | Dick Garrard (AUS) L $^{VT}$ | — | — | − |
| K. Roy | −79 kg | M. Vachon (CAN) L $^{VT}$ | R. Arthur (AUS) L $^{VT}$ | — | — | — | − |