Vinesh Phogat is mendacity on high of her cousin sister Sangeeta Phogat. They are on the highway, and so they’re surrounded by police who’re seeking to prise them aside by dint of pure drive. In the wrestlers’ palms, a stick, and hooked up to it, the nationwide flag of the Republic of India. It, like them, is mendacity helplessly on the ground.

Close your eyes now, and make a journey down reminiscence lane. Rewind all the way in which again to a 12 months in the past. It’s the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Vinesh Phogat is standing on the wrestling mat, and she or he’s smiling. She’s carrying India blue and has INDIA in all caps on her chest. Raised above her head is the nationwide flag. It’s flying; she’s giving it the wind it deserves.

*****

If ever a picture outlined the sporting 12 months of a nation, it was that first one… the ache, the chaos, the dogged unwillingness to let go of the nationwide flag. In this 76th 12 months of independence that simply handed us by, it was a reminder: That second picture of the flag, the one which’s flying, the one which’s being fêted does not come about with out the primary.

You see, freedom was at all times received by way of wrestle, by way of bitter preventing, by way of a cussed refusal to just accept the status-quo, by way of sacrifice. The freedom to have a good time, much more so.

Now, it is simple to be cynical right here, downright livid even. What was even the necessity for that first picture to happen? Why ought to the police manhandle folks (overlook that they’re athletes who deliver glory to the nation worldwide) who’re protesting the inaction of authorities in opposition to a person who’s been accused of sexual abuse and psychological torture? Why ought to our wrestlers must take to the streets to aim to proper a improper that ought to by no means have been allowed to happen within the first place? But that might be a naïve anger.

The world’s not good and it is solely ever made higher, nevertheless barely, by these keen to place themselves on the road. Through the perfect a part of 2023, that is what a few of India’s most adorned wrestlers tried to do. Once once more, it would be simple to take a look at photos of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh waltzing into court docket with the pomp of a feudal lord and be disgruntled. What was the purpose, you could possibly ask. Well… they tried, and so they carry on retaining on.

Isn’t that every one we are able to do, actually?

It’s as a result of a number of folks tried, as a result of a populace quickly joined them in an awesome collective rebellion, as a result of all of them sacrificed lots that the tricolour was first hoisted atop the Red Fort on August 15, 1947. Independence wasn’t handed over to us as a result of that was the precise factor to do. It was achieved as a result of this nation’s folks fought, they tried, they sacrificed.

That perseverance to strive, and take a look at, and take a look at some extra, regardless of the innumerable obstacles thrown in entrance of them has turn out to be the motto of the Indian sportsperson. Take these wrestlers as an example: girls wrestlers to today must battle social taboos to only win the precise to compete, even when athletes like Vinesh and Sangeeta have made it a neater path by pioneering the battle.

And it is not simply them. It’s everybody. Take the nation’s girls footballers, who continue to grow regardless of a system that hardly remembers they’re there. The compound archers, who ignore the seemingly complete lack of nationwide recognition and go on to become world champions. The monitor cyclists, who navigate broken tracks and abusive coaches to contend at a worldwide stage. The volleyball gamers, who must pay their own way to play for the nation, who continuously battle an administration that’s all purple taped dead-ends. The monitor and area athletes who take the stereotype that Indians cannot probably run quick, or leap lengthy, or throw far, and by force of individual character flip it on its head. The particular athletes, who battle social limitations, private handicaps, and antiquated ideas to embody the true sportsperson’s spirit, who battle simply to symbolize India.

There are helps programs now, the place as soon as there none. Many federations are enhancing their manner of functioning, nevertheless slowly. There are leagues now that cater to sports activities from basketball to arm wrestling, from desk tennis to handball and volleyball. There are avenues opening up for skilled sportspeople that they may solely have dreamt of some years in the past.

This is progress. Slow, and maybe a bit infuriating, however regular. And it is solely potential as a result of these athletes maintain making an attempt, maintain preventing. Whether it is society, the police or the greed of the authorities that is making an attempt to tug them again into mediocrity, they battle. Flag of their hand. Voices raised. Day-in and day-out, they battle for the liberty to stay the life they crave.

Even then, although, it comes with a ceiling. All the leagues, all the cash coming in, all of the endorsements and the recognition can raise athletes however solely as much as a sure degree. Win, reward everybody above you, and go about your enterprise and all’s properly…. Essentially, ‘shut up and dribble if you recognize what’s good for you’. Raise questions, battle for fundamental rights and also you go from winners and ‘delight of the nation’ to troublemakers and good-for-nothing loafers. The wrestlers realized that the arduous manner… however you recognize what? They did not care. They fought, and fought and continue to fight.

And that is the one manner any actual change can probably come about: ask India’s freedom fighters. Like them, our greatest wrestlers knew with out sacrifice nothing occurs, no one listens, nobody cares. And so, they put their careers on the road, at their very peak, and someway caused a dent within the system. Just a dent, however they took somebody up to now above them on the standard socio-political ladder to court docket. That’s a win.

In a month’s time, Bajrang Punia might properly increase the Indian flag above his head once more in Huangzhou. Or a 12 months’s time in Paris for Vinesh. When they do, this nation will unite in celebration, as a result of our athletes’ victories are mechanically ours.

But it might serve us properly to do not forget that when they’re down-and-out, after they have their backs in opposition to the wall, we have to be there for them too…. We simply have to consider the time a number of months in the past after they, and our flag, lay battered on the streets of the nationwide capital. A reminder of that nice life lesson, lest we overlook: that celebration, that freedom to have a good time, was a hard-fought victory. Let’s applaud that wrestle, that battle, as a lot as we do the glittering metallic that comes on the finish.

So the following time somebody raises their voice, perhaps ask why; perhaps catch your self cussing them out and recollect the essential founding ethos of this republic: with out wrestle, there isn’t a freedom.