The Arjuna Award, officially known as the Arjuna Awards for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, is the sports honour of Republic of India. It is awarded annually by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. Before the introduction of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 1991–1992, the Arjuna award was the highest sporting honour of India. , the award comprises "a bronze statuette of Arjuna, certificate, ceremonial dress, and a cash prize of ."
Name The award is named after Arjuna, a character from the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata of ancient India. He is one of the Pandavas, depicted as a skilled archer winning the hand of Draupadi in marriage and in the Kurukshetra War, Lord Krishna becomes his charioteer teaching him the sacred knowledge of Gita. In Hindu mythology, he has been seen as a symbol of hard work, dedication and concentration.
History Instituted in 1961 to honour the outstanding sportspersons of the country, the award over the years has undergone a number of expansions, reviews, and rationalizations. The award was expanded to include all the recognised disciplines in 1977, has introduced indigenous games and physically handicapped categories in 1995 and introduced a lifetime contribution category in 1995 leading to creation of a separate Dhyan Chand Award in 2002. The latest revision in 2018 stipulates that the award is given only to the disciplines included in the events like Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, World Championship and World Cup along with Cricket, Indigenous Games, and Parasports. It also recommends giving only fifteen awards in a year, relaxing in case of excellent performance in major multi-sport events, team sports, across gender and giving away of at least one award to physically challenged category.
The nominations for the award are received from all government recognised National Sports Federations, the Indian Olympic Association, the Sports Authority of India (SAI), the Sports Promotion and Control Boards, the state and the union territory governments and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna, Dhyan Chand and Dronacharya awardees of the previous years. The recipients are selected by a committee constituted by the Ministry and are honoured for their "good performance in the field of sports over a period of four years" at international level and for having shown "qualities of leadership, sportsmanship and a sense of discipline".
Recipients A total of 151 awards were presented in the 2000s thirty-one in 2000, followed by fourteen in 2001, twenty-one in 2002, fifteen in 2003, fifteen in 2004, fifteen in 2005, fourteen in 2006, eleven in 2007 and fifteen in 2009. Individuals from twenty-six different sports were awarded, which includes nineteen from hockey, eighteen from athletics, thirteen from wrestling, twelve from shooting, nine from badminton, eight each from cricket and kabaddi, seven from chess, six each from boxing and rowing, five from table tennis, four each from archery and billiards & snooker, three each from golf, judo, lawn tennis, swimming, volleyball, weightlifting and yachting, two each from equestrian, football and powerlifting, and one each from basketball, gymnastics and squash.
A major controversy arose in 2001 when Milkha Singh refused to accept the lifetime contribution honour in athletics, being the only sportsperson to date to do so. Milkha Singh, nicknamed The Flying Sikh, was the first Indian athlete to win an individual athletics gold medal at a Commonwealth Games and is best remembered for his fourth-place finish in the 400 metres final at the 1960 Summer Olympics in which he had entered as one of the favourites; his time of 45.73 seconds stood as the Indian national record for almost 40 years. A biographical Bollywood film based on his life, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, was released in 2013 to critical and commercial success. His reasoning for declining the award included being clubbed with other sportspersons who were not deserving, politicization and lobbying for the award instead of specialists selecting the winners, and the awarding of players who had one good performance in their lifetime in a non-notable competition rather than awarding consistent performers and medalists at the most prestigious international competitions. The "other sportspersons" have been commonly interpreted as Rachna Govil, awarded the lifetime contribution honour of 2000 in athletics, and Kalpana Debnath, awarded the lifetime contribution honour of 2000 in gymnastics. The former was then the deputy director of Sports Authority of India and the latter was then warden of the National Institute of Sports girls hostel in Patiala. Asian discus champion Anil Kumar challenged both the awards in the Delhi High Court, claiming that both awards seemed less on their individual merits and achievements and more on the political influence and lobbying. Due to the stature of Milkha Singh and the attention the controversy garnered, the Sports Ministry revamped the selection system from the year 2002 onwards and introduced a new award for lifetime achievement in sports, the Dhyan Chand Award. Despite him never accepting the award, Singh's name is on the official awardees list.
List of recipients +
+ Key
+ List of Arjuna award recipients, showing the year, sport, and gender Year Recipient Sport Gender2000 Swimming Male2000 Lawn Tennis Male2000 Athletics Male2000 Athletics Female2000 Shooting Female2000 Athletics Female2000 Hockey Male2000 Shooting Male2000 Weightlifting Female2000 Hockey Female2000 Gymnastics Female2000 Athletics Female2000 Shooting Male2000 Kabaddi Male2000 Wrestling Male2000 Rowing Male2000 Wrestling Male2000 Athletics & Powerlifting Male2000 Wrestling Male2000 Cricket Male2000 Volleyball Male2000 Hockey Male2000 Hockey Male2000 Hockey Male2000 Athletics Male2000 Wrestling Male2000 Badminton Male2000 Athletics Male2000 Chess Female2000 Swimming Male2000 Hockey Female2001 Football Male2001 Hockey Female2001 Athletics Male2001 Billiards & Snooker Male2001 Shooting Male2001 Rowing Male2001 Lawn Tennis Male2001 Wrestling Male2001 Cricket Male2001 Yachting Male2001 Kabaddi Male2001 Volleyball Male2001 Basketball Male2001 Hockey Male2002 Wrestling Male2002 Athletics Female2002 Table Tennis Female2002 Golf Male2002 Hockey Female2002 Billiards & Snooker Male2002 Wrestling Male2002 Yachting Male2002 Weightlifting Male2002 Boxing Male2002 Volleyball Male2002 Athletics Female2002 Chess Male2002 Cricket Male2002 Shooting Female2002 Hockey Male2002 Rowing Male2002 Kabaddi Male2002 Shooting Male2002 Badminton & Athletics Male2002 Football Male2003 Billiards & Snooker Male2003 Athletics Female2003 Hockey Male2003 Hockey Female2003 Chess Female2003 Boxing Female2003 Kabaddi Male2003 Equestrian Male2003 Cricket Female2003 Badminton Male2003 Shooting Male2003 Athletics Female2003 Judo Male2003 Cricket Male2003 Wrestling Male2004 Equestrian Male2004 Judo Female2004 Shooting Female2004 Badminton Male2004 Athletics Male2004 Table Tennis Male2004 Rowing Male2004 Wrestling Male2004 Hockey Female2004 Lawn Tennis Female2004 Athletics Male2004 Golf Male2004 Athletics Female2004 Kabaddi Male2004 Hockey Male2005 Archery Female2005 Chess Male2005 Cricket Female2005 Athletics Female2005 Boxing Male2005 Kabaddi Male2005 Wrestling Male2005 Shooting Male2005 Badminton Female2005 Powerlifting Male2005 Archery Male2005 Hockey Male2005 Table Tennis Male2005 Swimming Female2005 Billiards & Snooker Female2006 Badminton Male2006 Badminton Male2006 Athletics Male2006 Cricket Female2006 Kabaddi Male2006 Squash Male2006 Chess Male2006 Wrestling Female2006 Hockey Female2006 Shooting Male2006 Weightlifting Female2006 Table Tennis Male2006 Boxing Male2006 Archery Male2007 Golf Male2007 Powerlifting Male2007 Judo Female2007 Chess Female2007 Boxing Male2007 Shooting Female2007 Hockey Male2007 Athletics Female2007 Badminton Male2007 Rowing Male2007 Wrestling Female2009 Archery Male2009 Boxing Female2009 Wrestling Male2009 Cricket Male2009 Table Tennis Female2009 Rowing Male2009 Hockey Female2009 Badminton Female2009 Badminton Female2009 Athletics Female2009 Chess Female2009 Kabaddi Male2009 Shooting Male2009 Hockey Male2009 Yachting Male
Explanatory notes
References
External links Official Website