The game, which is played in Olympics, is not always synonym to sport. Instead of the sheer power and talent of the weight-lifters, wrestlers, boxers, athletes and other sportspersons we, very often, see political muscle flexing at its best. We have very vivid examples of Berlin (1936), Munich (1972), Moscow (1980) and many others.
The 1936 Olympic Games in the German capital witnessed an exhibition of brazen Nazi brand German nationalism and Aryan superiority over the so-called inferior races of the world. On the other hand the Games held in the Russian capital in 1980 was marred by the boycott by a large number of countries, western as well as Muslim, in protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan on December 27, 1979.
However, the Munich Olympics – once again in Germany – of 1972 took a real violent form when Palestinian gunmen stormed into the Olympic village and made several Israeli athletes hostage. In the subsequent exchange of fire with the security forces at least 11 Israelis and nine Palestinians lost their lives. Though the Palestinians were fighting for the just cause, their modus operandi was simply unacceptable.
But there are many other Olympic Games, which are still remembered for non-playing events. In Mexico Olympics of 1968 Black gold and bronze medalists, Tommie Smith and John Carlos respectively of the United States accepted their medals wearing black socks and no shoes to protest against the Black poverty in that country. They got support from White Australian silver medalist, Peter Norman. All the three had to pay dearly for their protest, but they are hero of the Blacks and human rights activists of the world.
Ever since the revival of the Olympic Games in 1896 the West has been, one way or the other, trying to implement their own civilisational agenda. In fact, the overblown myth of the ancient Olympic Games needs to be exploded as none of the present–day game used to be played 2,500 years ago. In fact, they were simply local affairs and not an international jamboree as it is made out today.
The secular Europeans always blow out of proportion the contributions of Greeks as, till the 18th century, they had little to offer to the world. The Christian Church left no stone unturned to keep the whole of Europe fettered in the Dark Age. Therefore, they had to dig up the pagan age to display their superiority.
Thus ever since the Independence of Greece from the Ottoman rule in 1832 efforts have been on to cook up fantastic theories about the ancient contributions of the Greek people. No doubt they produced some great scholars, but then other ancient civilisations of the time were equally better. The opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics was in fact not only an attempt to neutralise the Greek-centric myth of the western civilisational superiority but also gave an idea of how much more China was developed than other civilisations 5,000 years ago. The inaugural function was a marvellous propaganda effort and the western intelligentsia will not take it lying down.
Beijing 2008 provided the Chinese with the first global opportunity to highlight their achievements, an exercise in which the West has been engaged since the start of Olympics in 1896. Greece was once a great civilisation, but who can deny the fact that the Turks, whom the West dub as savage, ruled over it for more than three centuries and a half. It was only after the prolong (1821-1832) efforts of many European powers that it could get independence.
Apart from sporting events, Olympics have, at times, been used to celebrate the western achievements. The 1992 Olympic Games at Barcelona was one such exercise. This Olympic was held in the Spanish city of Barcelona to mark the 500 years of the expulsion and extermination of Muslims from that country, that is, in 1492.
But it was in 1492 too that Columbus ‘discovered’ America for the western world. In fact, for rest of the world America was no new world. The Chinese Muslim explorer, Zheng He, (original name Haji Mahmud Shams) had already led an expedition to America in 1421. However, for the West it would have been in the fitness of the things to organise Olympic in 1992 in the USA or in any country of North or South America. But they chose Spain, obviously to commemorate the defeat of Muslims at the hands of the Christians.
The story of Athens Olympics of 2004 had a different story too. Once again it has less to do with the sports, but more to do with civilisational superiority. Greece is too poor a country to single-handedly organise such a big show. But it got able support from the western countries as the cause was much nobler for them. In this tussle of West versus East the fountain-head of the western culture needs to be remembered.
Olympic, it needs to be mentioned, is a much costly jamboree for an average country to organise. It took 30 years for much richer Canada to repay all the loans taken from international agencies for the Montreal Olympics of 1976. How was it possible for the Greece alone to ever dare to hold such an extravaganza.
Politics and civilisation apart, the real games played in the Olympics also have a tinge of power-struggle – albeit of different nature. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990 Russia and Communist East European countries would pose a difficult challenge to the West in the medal-rush. Later China, Japan, South Korea also started emerging as strong contenders. Today in the multi-polar world there are at least six poles. The United States, Russia, China, Japan, European Union and of course India.
What is significant is that while the first five centres of power will have cut-throat competition among them for the medals India has absolutely no chance whatsoever. Out of the 11 medals we have so far won in the entire Olympic history eight was in hockey. Incidentally the hockey team could not qualify for the first time in 80 years. China will do its best to emerge as the leading medal winner this time, but the expression Chindia will be missing in Beijing.
But like in many other Olympics the one in Beijing also exposed the country’s Achilles’ heel. The blast which killed 16 in China just less than a week before the start of the Game highlighted the seriousness of the problem in Xinjiang (Sinkiang or Eastern Turkestan). Sinkiang, though sparsely populated, is one-sixth of China and till the early part of the 20th century a big empire. China has a huge Muslim population, according to one estimate, about 10 crore.
Triggering a blast is certainly not the best way to come in the news, but it has surely pushed the issue of Tibet and pro-democracy movement to the backburner. The West, especially the United States, only supports the cause of Tibetan when the fact is that the challenge from Sinkiang is much more grave for China than the Lamas of Tibet. But then even the Americans do not wish to see the success of Muslims in China.