# India at the 1956 Summer Olympics

India competed at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. 59 competitors, 58 men and 1 woman, took part in 32 events in 8 sports. Their solitary medal, a gold, came in men's 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 Ranganathan Francis Haripal Kaushik Amir Kumar Raghbir Lal Shankar Lakshman Govind Perumal Amit Singh Bakshi Raghbir Singh Bhola Balbir Singh Dosanjh Hardyal Singh Garchey Randhir Singh Gentle Balkishan Singh Grewal Gurdev Singh Kullar Udham Singh Kullar Bakshish Singh Charles Stephen | Field hockey | Men's Field hockey |

## Athletics

Men's High Jump
* Ajit Singh
   * Qualification Round — 1.96m (14)
Men's 200 metres
* Milkha Singh
   * Heat — 22.47 (→ did not advance)
Men's 800 metres
* Sohan Singh
   * Heat — 1.52.4(→ did not advance)
Women's 100 metres
* Mary Rao
   * Heat — DNF(→ did not advance)

## Field hockey
### Squad

Leslie Claudius Ranganathan Francis Haripal Kaushik Amir Kumar Raghbir Lal Shankar Lakshman O. P. Malhotra Govind Perumal Amit Singh Bakshi Raghbir Singh Bhola Balbir Singh Dosanjh Hardyal Singh Garchey Randhir Singh Gentle Balkishan Singh Grewal Gurdev Singh Kullar Udham Singh Kullar Bakshish Singh Charles Stephen

### Group standings

| Rank | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts | | | | |
| 1. | India | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 0 | 6 | X | 6:0 | 14:0 | 16:0 |
| 2. | Singapore | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 7 | 4 | 0:6 | X | 5:0 | 6:1 |
| 3. | Afghanistan | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 20 | 2 | 0:14 | 0:5 | X | 5:1 |
| 4. | United States | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 27 | 0 | 0:16 | 1:6 | 1:5 | X |

### Semi-finals

* 3 December 1956
| India | 1–0 | United Team of Germany |
* Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne

### Gold medal match

* 6 December 1956
| India | 1–0 | Pakistan |
| Gentle 38' | Report | |
* Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne

## Gymnastics

Three athletes represented India in Gymnastics at the 1956 Olympics: Pritam Singh, Sham Lal, and Anant Ram.

## Shooting

Two shooters represented India in 1956.

### 50 m rifle, three positions

* Harihar Banerjee
* Haricharan Shaw

## Swimming

Men's 100 m Freestyle
* Sri Chand Bajaj
   * Heat — 1:01.6
Men's 200 metre butterfly
* Shamsher Khan
   * Heat — 3:06.3

## 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 | Round 6 Result | Rank |
| Baban Daware | −52 kg | Asai (JPN) L $^{VT}$ | Lee J-g (KOR) W $^{Pt}$ | Tsalkalamanidze (URS) L $^{VT}$ | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance | − |
| Tarashkeswar Pandey | −57 kg | Kämmerer (EUA) L $^{Pt}$ | Vercouteren (BEL) W $^{Pt}$ | Yaghoubi (IRN) L $^{VT}$ | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance | − |
| Ram Sarup | −62 kg | Mewis (BEL) L $^{Pt}$ | Bye | Salimullin (URS) L $^{Pt}$ | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance | − |
| Lakhshmi Kant Pandey | −67 kg | Nizzola (ITA) L $^{VT}$ | Güngör (TUR) L $^{Pt}$ | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance | − |
| Devi Singh | −73 kg | Sorouri (IRN) L $^{VT}$ | Ikeda (JPN) L $^{VT}$ | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance | — | − |
| B. Singh | −79 kg | Davies (AUS) W $^{Pt}$ | van Zyl (RSA) L $^{Pt}$ | Lindblad (SWE) L $^{VT}$ | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance | − |
| Lila Ram | +87 kg | Richmond (GBR) L $^{Pt}$ | Kaplan (TUR) L $^{VT}$ | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance | did not advance | − |