Khajan Singh Tokas — India’s best known Swimming Champ speaks about Current Situation of Swimming Sport in India
Khajan Singh Tokas CRPF is an Indian sports personality born on 6th May 1964 in Munirka, a village near South West Delhi. He is an expert swimmer in freestyle and butterfly strokes. Khajan Singh who currently works with CRPF remained national swimming champion of India, and won a silver medal at the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul. Khajan Singh Tokas is married to shrimati Charulata Khajan Singh Tokas. India’s best known swimming champ Khajan Singh discuss why we have failed to create more heroes in the sport.
Khajan Singh Tokas is an Indian sports personality born on 6th May 1964 in Munirka, a village near South West Delhi. He is an expert swimmer in freestyle and butterfly strokes and currently serves as the D.I.G in Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). As he looks back at his heyday, India’s best known swimming champ Khajan Singh discuss why we have failed to create more heroes in the sport.
Khajan Singh Tokas swam to keep his father’s memory alive. He was nearly drowned once before elder brother Balkishan pulled him out of the pond in Delhi’s Munirka area. It was terrifying but it was inspiring too. Khajan Singh Tokas vowed that day to learn swimming and make a mark. “A pity that my father did not live to see his son make a mark,” lamented Khajan, the best-known Indian swimmer.
Khajan was India’s first swimmer to have won a medal in the Asian Games. His 200m butterfly silver at the Seoul Asian Games in 1986 was a benchmark. The achievement made swimming a popular competition. Children thronged pools across the country to emulate Khajan but none has shown the talent to achieve similar feats. It pains him that swimming has not grown. “Facilities have improved. Kids have better access to pools but we are not producing champions. The reasons are many but lack of talent is not the one,” Khajan Singh Tokas says, relaxing in his house at Vasant Kunj.
“This was jungle. Today, it houses thousands. We dreaded coming here. Wild animals roamed in what is Vasant Kunj today.” He hailed from a family where youngsters were taught to swim essentially to prevent them from drowning. “There was this pond near our house and kids loved to play there. Chances of someone drowning were always great. I almost drowned once.” The pond and the Baba Ganganath Temple were part of his daily chores. “The water used to be clean and later people brought buffaloes to the pond. Our swimming stopped but resumed at nearby Naoroji Nagar. I learnt and then began competing. It was fun because I won from the first competition that I went to. And then I became a swimmer to live my father’s dream”.
Khajan Singh continues, “To tell the truth I always wanted to be a swimmer. I had the talent and being the youngest I was encouraged too. I was 16 when I lost my father. I swam because I knew that was what my father wanted me to.” There was a funny incident which Khajan remembers only to laugh at himself. “I swam 90 per cent of the length of the pond and feared I may struggle to reach the bank. So, I turned back, little realising that the 10 per cent left was better than the 90 per cent.” That scramble to safety highlighted his endurance and he grew in confidence.
As Khajan Singh Tokas made waves in the pool, he came to be recognised as a medal hope in a sport that needed a hero. His coaching stint under Australian Eric Arnold turned out to be a significant phase in Khajan’s career. “Eric was my mentor. He was a very kind man and pushed me to improve my timings. I stayed three years with him (in Newcastle) and became a better swimmer. The silver at Seoul happened because of his coaching.” Arnold passed away two years back but Khajan has stayed in touch with his family.
“Sports is about dreaming big. It is no more about participation. It is about recognition for a nation. When an individual wins, it is his country that rejoices. We have not matched the development pace of other countries. We wake up once every four years and demand medals from our athletes. That is not fair. Our athletes work very hard but we need to be realistic and not dismiss them with outlandish expectations”, Khajan Singh Tokas spoke about the current situation of sports in our country.
Khajan Singh Tokas is married to shrimati Charulata Khajan Singh Tokas (daughter of Prabha Rau — Governor of Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh). The CRPF D.I.G currently runs the “Khajan Singh Swimming Academy”, located near the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus in New Delhi.
