In India, there are quite a number of sports that have been very much successful in producing players of a great quality and also who are very much successful in the regional and international competitions. Amongst these sports, the name of the game of Boxing will definitely be in the first part of the list. The Boxers are also quite famous among the people of India, as they feel very proud for their success. This is the main reason why the winners` list of the honourable "Arjuna Award" contains the names of a good number of boxers in it.
The first name of any boxer in the winners` list of the "Arjuna Award" was the name of L. Buddy D` Souza who won it in the year of 1961. Hav. P. Badadur Mal was influenced by him and he did try hard and perform very well only to win the award in the very next year that is in 1962. After as 4 years` gap from the year of 1962, Hawa Singh won it in 1966. The boxers continued to win the award quite regularly with occasional gaps after 1966 and in the year of 1968, Hav. Dennis Swamy became the winner. The award was named after Hav. Muniswamy Venu in 1971 and in 1972, it went to Hav. Chandranarayanan. Hav. Mehatab Singh won it in the very next year in 1973 and it was won by B.S. Thapa in the years of 1977-78.
The boxers` names continued to be in the list of the winners` of the "Arjuna Award" and in 1978-79 C.C. Machaiah won the award. In the following years also, the boxers were winning the award. In 1979-80, B. Singh won it; Issac Amaldas won it in 1980-81; in 1981 the winner was Hav. G. Manoharan and Hav. Kaur Singh won it in 1982. The winning streak of the boxers stopped for a while after the year of 1983 when Jas Lal Pradhan won the award. After three years of gap, Jai Pal Singh broke the dead lock and won the award again in 1986. Seeva Jayaram followed him by winning it in the very next year in 1987 and Gopal Dewang received it in 1989. The boxers again had a great run in the winners` list from the year of 1991 when D.S. Yadav became the winner of the award. In the following year, Rajender Prasad claimed it and in 1993, it was the first occasion when more than one boxer won the "Arjuna Award" in the same year. In that year, Manoj Pingale and Mukund Killekar won the award jointly.
After the double win in the year of 1993, the following year went winner less for the Boxers and V. Devarajan won it again in 1995. The award went to the name of Raj Kumar Sangwan in the year of 1996 and in 1998, the winner was N.G. Dingko Singh. The boxers had another double win in the year of 1999 when both Gurcharan Singh and Jitender Kumar became successful to win the award. When Md. Ali Qamar won the "Arjuna Award" after his astonishing performance in the Commonwealth Games in 2002, a female boxer named as Ms. Mangte Chungneijang Marykom won it in the year of 2003. Akhil Kumar has been the last "Arjuna Award" winner on behalf of the boxers of India so far as he did win it in the year of 2005. Vijendar received the award for boxing for 2007.
Like most of the other famous sports of India, the game of Boxing also did never feel lack of talent throughout its history so far and the Indian people do also like very much to see them successful in various championships. They are also hoping to see more and more talented and successful Indian boxers around them in the future.
Year | Recipient Name | Year | Recipient Name |
1961 | L. Buddy D` Souza | 1989 | Gopal Dewang |
1962 | Hav. P. Badadur Mal | 1991 | D.S. Yadav |
1966 | Hawa Singh | 1992 | Rajender Prasad |
1968 | Hav. Dennis Swamy | 1993 | Manoj Pingale, Mukund Killekar |
1971 | Hav. Muniswamy Venu | 1995 | V. Devarajan |
1972 | Hav. Chandranarayanan | 1996 | Raj Kumar Sangwan |
1973 | Hav. Mehatab Singh | 1998 | N.G. Dingko Singh |
1977-78 | B.S. Thapa | 1999 | Gurcharan Singh, Jitender Kumar |
1978-79 | C.C. Machaiah | 2002 | Mohammed Ali Qamar |
1979-80 | B. Singh | 2003 | Ms. Mangte Chungneijang Marykom |
1980-81 | Issac Amaldas | 2005 | Akhil Kumar |
1981 | Hav. G. Manoharan | 2006 | Vijender Kumar |
1982 | Hav. Kaur Singh | 2008 | Verghese Johnson |
1983 | Jas Lal Pradhan | 2009 | L. Sarita Devi |
1986 | Jai Pal Singh | 2010 | Dinesh Kumar |
1987 | Seeva Jayaram |