| Athlete | Makhan Singh — Indian 400m runner, Army man, Asian Games gold medallist, Olympian and Arjuna Award recipient |
| What the record book shows | Asian Games, Jakarta 1962 — gold in the 4×400m relay and silver in the 400m. National Games, Calcutta 1964 — first in the 400m in 47.5 seconds, Milkha Singh second in 47.9. Arjuna Award, 1964. Tokyo Olympics, 1964, in India's 4×100m and 4×400m relay teams |
| What the record book didn't show | A truck driven for a living after the Army. A leg lost after an accident. A railway pass his award entitled him to, which his widow said never came. And, eleven years after his death, a family prepared to sell his Arjuna Award |
| The moment | Calcutta, 1964. The 400 metres at the National Games. Milkha Singh was the Flying Sikh — fourth at the Rome Olympics, Asian champion, the most famous athlete in the country. Makhan Singh beat him |
Some later accounts place this race in 1962. This episode follows the contemporary Indian Express report of 2 March 1964, and the official list of National Games hosts, which places Calcutta (West Bengal) in 1964 and the 1962 Games in Madhya Pradesh.
Episode 04 looked at a result the record book recorded as nothing; Episode 05 looks at a record that is full, accurate and honoured — and still leaves out what happened next.
The Hook
There are victories that make headlines. And there are victories that history quietly files away.
In Jakarta in 1962, Milkha Singh won the Asian Games 400 metres. The silver medallist was his teammate and training partner, Makhan Singh. At the same Games, the two of them ran together in the Indian team that won the 4×400m relay gold.
Then came Calcutta, 1964. The National Games. The 400 metres. The two men again.
This time Makhan finished first: 47.5 seconds to Milkha's 47.9.
That same year, he received the Arjuna Award. A few months later, he was at the Tokyo Olympics, running in India's relay teams — one of them alongside Milkha.
Yet the man who beat Milkha Singh would later drive a truck for a living. He would lose a leg. He would die in 2002.
And in 2013, his widow said the family was struggling so severely that she was prepared to sell or pawn his Arjuna Award and medals to make ends meet.
The Margin Note
As a Chartered Accountant, I find a familiar distinction in this story.
In financial reporting, we distinguish between a transaction and its consequences — between a number and the economic reality it represents.
Sport keeps its own records. A result sheet records a time and a position. A medal table records a podium. An award records that a contribution was formally recognised.
Every one of Makhan Singh's entries is accurate. None of them tells us whether he had a livelihood after retirement, whether the benefits attached to his honour were accessible, or whether his family could withstand a medical or financial crisis.
Recognition is not the same as protection.
That is what this episode is about.
The Record-Book Split
What the record book told us
- Asian Games relay gold and 400m silver, 1962
- National 400m title, ahead of Milkha Singh, 1964
- Arjuna Award, 1964
- Olympic selection, Tokyo 1964
What the record book couldn't tell us
- What it was like to earn a living after the Army
- What it cost to lose a leg
- Whether the benefit attached to the award could actually be claimed
- What his family faced after he was gone
The Medal and the Man
Makhan Singh was born on 1 July 1937 in Bathulla village, in Punjab's Hoshiarpur district, and built his athletic career alongside his Army service. He won his first National Games medal in 1959 and a long run of national titles before Calcutta.
He was not ignored. His achievements were recognised — with medals, a national award and, later, newspaper attention to his circumstances.
What that recognition did not do was make his later life secure.
When the Career Ends, What Remains?
Makhan Singh retired from the Army as a Subedar in 1972.
He drove a truck in Nagpur to earn a living. After an accident, he lost a leg — The Tribune's 2013 report says the injury led to gangrene.
In 1995, according to his widow's account to The Tribune, he opened a stationery shop in Chabbewal, a few kilometres from his village, and cycled to it on one leg for four years before he could no longer manage it.
She also told the paper that in 1999 he went to Delhi to seek the complimentary railway pass Arjuna awardees were entitled to, and that the pass never came.
He died on 21 January 2002.
In August 2013, The Tribune visited his family. His widow, Salinder Kaur, spoke of the family's hardship and of her intention to pawn or sell his Arjuna Award and medals to keep the household going. Reports that month also noted that two of the couple's sons had died after illness.
What Happened Next
After a television programme carried the family's plight, it was raised in Parliament during Zero Hour.
- The Petroleum Minister announced that the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board had agreed to release ₹5 lakh.
- The Union Sports Minister gave ₹2 lakh from the National Welfare Fund for Sportspersons and approved ex-gratia assistance for his widow.
- The Punjab Government appointed his son as a helper in the District Welfare Officer's office in Hoshiarpur and announced disability relief.
The institutions responded once the family's plight became public.
The episode raises a harder question: why did assistance become urgent only after the hardship attracted attention?
Recognition
- 1962 — Asian Games relay gold, 400m silver
- 1964 — Beat Milkha Singh, Calcutta
- 1964 — Arjuna Award
- 1964 — Olympian, Tokyo
Protection
- 1999 — Rail pass sought; widow says it never came
- 2002 — Died, after losing a leg
- 2013 — Widow prepared to sell the award
- 2013 — Aid came after Parliament heard
The Accounting of Sporting Success
A single biography cannot prove that an entire sporting system failed. An athlete's circumstances can be shaped by many factors, and awards were never meant to be lifetime pensions.
What a single biography can do is show where recognition stops.
If an award is an honour, let us call it an honour. If a scheme offers financial assistance, let us define the eligibility, duration and conditions. If a benefit is attached to an award, let us make sure it can actually be claimed.
The distinction between symbolic recognition and material support should never be obscured by ceremonial language.
The scoreboard does not mislead us when it records Makhan Singh's medals. It misleads us only when we assume those records tell us everything worth knowing about his life.
Beyond the Scoreboard
Makhan Singh's 47.5 seconds are part of India's sporting record. So are his Asian Games medals, his Olympic races and his Arjuna Award.
But the record also contains a question that no medal table can answer: what happens to an athlete when the competition ends, the applause fades and the need for support becomes real?
A country cannot guarantee every athlete a secure life. It can, however, make the benefits it promises accessible — and ensure that those who have represented it do not have to wait for public attention before their hardship is addressed.
Makhan Singh's story is not proof that every sporting institution failed him. It is evidence of the distance that can exist between honouring an achievement and supporting the person behind it.
"He had earned the honour. Why did his hardship have to become a public story before help arrived?"
That is the question worth carrying beyond the scoreboard.
— Mahesh Ramanujam, FCA, DISA(ICAI) · R. Mahesh & Associates, Chennai
- Indian Express, "Milkha beaten in pet event", 2 March 1964 — print report of the 47.5–47.9 result; no online copy located. Cited in Makhan Singh (sprinter)
- Lok Sabha answer, Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, listing National Games hosts (Madhya Pradesh 1962, West Bengal 1964) — eparlib.sansad.in
- 1962 Asian Games, Jakarta — 400m and 4×400m relay results
- Athletics Federation of India — list of Arjuna Awardees (Makhan Singh, 1964)
- Tokyo 1964 — men's 4×100m relay and men's 4×400m relay
- The Tribune, "Makhan Singh dead", 22 January 2002
- The Tribune, "Makhan Singh — A sporting icon forgotten by the nation", 21 August 2013
- Deccan Herald, "Arjuna awardee's family wants to sell medal for money", 25 August 2013
- The Pioneer, "Punjab Govt offers job, disability relief to Makhan Singh's son", 4 September 2013