Sports played in India include Association Football, Badminton, Chess, Cricket, Field Hockey, and Golf. Field Hockey is the National Sport, where India has an influential record with 8 Olympic gold medals. Other popular sports are Badminton, Cricket, Football, Tennis, Volleyball, amongst which, Cricket is the most favorite Sport in India.
India is a home to various classical sports which arised in the country and continue to remain fairly popular. During the British rule in India, the popularity increased of sports like Boxing, Billiards, Cricket, Football, Golf, Hockey, Rugby Union, Rugby League, Snooker, Squash, and Tennis. In Indian culture there are two most important things: sports and fitness. It is also strictly followed in the Physical Education program in Schools, Colleges, or Universities. If we compare before the Independence and after the Independence, we find many difference and improvement.
Before Independence
Physical culture in ancient India was fed by a powerful fuel which is the religious traditions. There were some clear worth especially the mantra (Atharva-Veda), saying," Duty is in my right hand and the fruits of victory in my left". These words hold the same beliefs as the traditional Olympic bond: "For the Honor of my Country and the Glory of Sport."
Badminton believably originated in India as a grown up's form of an old children's game known as battledore and shuttlecock (in England ), the battledore being a paddle and the shuttlecock a small feathered cork, which is now commonly called a "bird."
In the fields of games and sports, India has been the place of development for many games. One would be wonder to know today that games especially Chess, Snakes and Ladders, Playing Cards, Polo, the martial arts of Judo and Karate had originated as a sport in India and it was from here that these games were carried to different foreign countries, where they were again modified.
Many of today's Olympic disciplines are cultured history of the games of the strength and the speed that grow in ancient India and Greece. Games including Archery, Chess, Hockey, Polo, and Wrestling are of the games believed to have originated in India.
After Independence
Later the IX Asian Games in New Delhi in 1982, the capital city now has modernized all the different sports aid. Such aids are also being occurred in other parts in the globe. Also games and sports which is included in the international sporting agenda, there are many which have progress inborn. Among them are Wrestling and few traditional systems of Martial Arts. The Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports was first set up in 1982 as the Department of Sports at the time of organization of the IX Asian Games in New Delhi, India. It was renamed to the Department of Youth affairs & sports all the while in 1985, celebration of the International Youth Year. India has already hosted and performed in various international sporting events like the 1951 and the 1982 Asian Games, the 1987 and 1996 Cricket World Cup, the 2003 Afro-Asian Games, the 2010 Hockey World Cup and the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Major international sporting events annually held in India include the Chennai Open, Mumbai Marathon, and the Indian Masters. The country is appointed to host the 2011 Cricket World Cup and the first Indian Grand Prix in 2011.
