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The Kila Raipur games have not only maintained their traditional flavour but also
The Kila Raipur Rural Sports Festival, better known as the Mini Olympics, embodies the transformation of an entirely local sports contest, arranged by amateur sportspersons of a village seven decades ago, into a globally recognised mega event. With a capacity to accommodate more than one lakh spectators, the Grewal Sports Stadium, Kila Raipur, the multi-gym and the hockey field have the privilege of being termed as the heartland of a rural sports revolution that ,besides drawing the natives, has been attracting sportspersons from across the globe. Much of the essence of the broad spectrum of the games lies in the traditional contests: volleyball, kabbadi and a few track events that originated in 1933. The bullock-cart race, introduced by Baba Bakhshi the next year, is now the major attraction.
The 75 years of its existence have seen such a change that earlier Baba Bakshi had to request his relatives to send bullocks in the competition to make the event a success, but now hundreds of bullock carts appear in time trials and heat races every year all by themselves. The contemporaries of the founder of this unique event do not know how and when the rath race transformed into a bullock-cart race. Being the major attraction of the sports festival today, the bullock-cart races attract spectators from not only the state but also NRIs. Bullocks worth lakhs are prepared as athletes compete in the mega event. Bagga, a bullock belonging to Bachan Singh of Dhandari Kalan village, was the cynosure of all eyes at this year’s games. Purchased for Rs 7 lakh by the farmer, it had many takers but Bachan Singh did not want to sell it. "He is like my son. Will anybody sell his son for money?" asked Bachan whenever he was approached to sell it. The Bhagwant Memorial Hockey Gold Cup, the next biggest attraction of the mega event, was launched in 1964, when Prahlad Singh Grewal of Narangwal village donated more than 1.5 kg of pure gold in memory of his son. The cup has been attracting frontline hockey teams of the nation to the fair all these years. The Grewals, the founder organisers of the festival, have renovated the place at such a cost that a large number of sportspersons insist on showing their valour here every year. Domestic animals, including horses and dogs, too, make for an attractive sport, but the organisers have banned any form of cruelty on them since the past few years. Unfailingly, the stadium has been providing a stage for everyone to show his or her coordination of mind and body. Several hair-raising feats, including lifting of a plough with the teeth, pulling of a Maruti car and a tractor with the hair, swallowing iron nails or broken glass, passing through burning tyres, somersaults on bottles by differently abled persons, and performances by children and veterans have been lauded by mediapersons, including those from Japan, Germany and the US. The festival has achieved more importance with the active involvement of Punjabis settled in western countries , including Canada, the US, Germany and Japan. The sports calendar of the association suits both natives and the NRIs. The pre-harvest leisure period of the local farmers and the homecoming schedule of NRIs facilitates a massive turnout in the stadium every year. As the village has produced a large number of sportspersons of international fame, a number of residents of this area have found top positions in the civil and police administration of the state. Besides helping organisers in the smooth conduct of the games, these officials arrange sponsors for various events. Unfortunately, the smooth conduct of the games has been obstructed due to varied factors during the past decades. While the 1980s witnessed derailment on account of terrorism, the following decades saw opposition from political bigwigs. The planting of a bomb in 1991 followed by a massacre that claimed more than 25 lives at Kila Raipur railway station have had a long-lasting effect on the minds of organisers and the spectators, who were afraid of coming to stadium for obvious reasons. Though the organisers have been following a set protocol about inviting dignitaries of the state and union governments, irrespective of their political alliance, certain political leaders, for reasons best to them, had been envying the success of the event. They even tried to disturb its sequence during regimes favourable to them. This year also, the controversy erupting out of the splitting of the Grewal Sports Association (GSA)was set to cast its shadow on the games but the will of some villagers made them happen. Another jolt the festival received was from organisations claiming to be working against cruelty to animals. The controversy over the ban imposed on animal events in the traditional sports festivals had taken rural Punjab by storm during last decade. The blanket ban, imposed by a former Ludhiana Deputy Commissioner, as a sequel to a letter received by him from the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, had threatened the future of the much-applauded bullock-cart races and other fascinating events connected with animals. As hundreds of villages had been organising these annual festivities for many years, people raised their voice against the arbitrary decision to ban the rural sports. A majority of the spectators and sportspersons felt that neither the district administration nor the Union Ministry concerned had understood the sentiments of rural Punjab. When the administration came to learn that for farmers their animals — bullocks, dogs and camels — were more precious than their wards, it took a lenient view and restored the status of the festival. Besides games, the festival has provided a rich cultural feast to the spectators. A long profile of bullock carts, tractors and other vehicles can be seen queued up around the stadium on all the three days of the festival. Yamla Jatt, Asa Singh Mastana, Parkash Kaur, and Surinder Kaur have enthralled spectators for years together.
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