Unsung heroes, not a burden

Paralympic winners are finally getting their due, but much work remains

Filmmaker Kabir Khan’s biopic Chandu Champion (2024), which he co-wrote with Sumit Arora and Sudipto Sarkar, brings to light the attitudinal and infrastructural barriers that India’s first Paralympic gold medalist Murlikant Petkar had to overcome throughout his life.

Actor Kartik Aaryan’s excellent portrayal of Petkar fills a huge gap in the public memory of this athlete’s contributions. Petkar, who won an individual gold medal in the 50-metre freestyle event at the 1972 Heidelberg Paralympics, received the Padma Shri only in 2018.

Aparna Jain’s book Boys Will Be Boys: Inspiring Stories for Smart Kids (2019), published by Westland, with a chapter on Petkar, emphasises that he has served India in more ways than one. As an army officer posted in Kashmir during the India-Pakistan war of 1965, “he took nine bullets in his thigh, leg, spine and eye” and also “fell from a height to a road below, where a truck ran over him, leaving him in agony”.  He turned to swimming because he was paralysed waist down, and the doctor advised him to swim to regain strength in his legs.

The most gut-wrenching part of the film is not the delay in accolades from the government but the scene where Petkar’s brother tells him that the family cannot afford to take care of him, and that he would be better off in the army hospital. The idea that a person with a disability is a burden robs them of their humanity, and their right to be cherished as they are.  This episode hurt Petkar deeply. He did not want to be a burden on anyone. He wanted to be a proud breadwinner. Later in life, when industrialist JRD Tata asked him, “How can I help you?”, Petkar, who had decided to retire from the armed forces by then, said, “I don’t want any cash or land from you. Please give me a job. I want to be self-reliant.” Jain writes, “Tata hired him on one condition — that Murli should continue to participate in competitions!”

One hopes that Chandu Champion will be followed by more films on the lives of athletes who have represented India at the Paralympics, but have not been celebrated much.

Filmmakers looking for material can dive into Anantha Krishnan M’s book A Different Spirit (2009) on the life of track and field athlete  Malathi K Holla, the first disabled person to receive the Padma Shri in 2001. Before that, she got the Arjuna Award in 1995. In this book, published by Partridge, the biographer notes, “In 1979, the government had barred all those who were not ‘normal and able sports people’ from being considered for the (Arjuna) award.” Finding this rule “preposterous and inhuman”, she protested and won. The author clarifies that Holla did not canvass for the award for herself but received it in 1995.

In 2015, Tulika Publishers brought out a children’s book on Holla’s life, written by Sowmya Rajendran, and illustrated by Arun Kaushik. Titled Wings to Fly, it focuses on the dedication that enabled Holla to “become very good at sport” even after polio paralysed her body as a baby. Once, when she went to Ahmedabad for a sports meet, she was the only woman who had signed up to participate. The organisers said that they needed at least three women. Eventually, she told them, “I’ll race with the men.” She was nervous but she stood first. Using her wheelchair, she challenged prejudice and exclusion. It gave her wings to fly. She went on to represent India at the Paralympics in Seoul, Barcelona, Athens and Beijing. Now she works with Syndicate Bank and runs the Mathru Foundation for polio-affected children.

Another striking book is Madhavi Latha Prathigudupu’s autobiography Swimming Against the Tide (2021), published by Sage. Having won multiple gold medals at National Paralympic Swimming Championships in India, she wants to ensure that other persons with disabilities have access to facilities and opportunities that they deserve. She founded the Paralympic Swimming Association of Tamil Nadu, co-founded the Wheelchair Basketball Federation of India, and initiated the Yes, We Too Can movement to support athletes with disabilities.

Earlier this month, HarperCollins India announced that they will publish a book written by Deepa Malik—who won a silver medal in shot put at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro—in December 2024. Malik, who served as the President of the Paralympic Committee of India in the past, is now the South Asia Representative at the Asian Paralympic Committee. In a video posted on X , Malik said, “It will inspire… not just a person with disability but everybody to look for the silver lining around every (dark) cloud.”

While there is no dearth of inspiration to be derived from these stories, they are also reminders of how much more families, educational institutions, and governments need to do.

The writer is a Mumbai-based journalist