099 First Asiad in Delhi 1951

Dear Friends and Readers

As the biggest Asiad in history comening to end in Guangzhou, it's has been evident as one of the world's premier multi-sport spectacles next to Olympiad. While the event has come a long way since the first Asiad in Delhi in 1951, it's important to recall the central role India played in giving birth to the Games. It's a legacy integrally linked with India's independence, the brain behind the first Asiad is Jawahrlal Nehru and behind him for the sucess are Yadavindra Singh,Gen K M Cariappa G D Sondhi,Anthony De Mello played a crucial role in the birth of the Asiad.

The Idea of the Games itself was born at the Asian Relations Conference held in Delhi on the eve of Indian independence in 1947. After several talks with Internation Olympic Assosation (IOA) by the members Asian Games Federation, IOA agreed and award Delhi the first Asian Olympic Games

The first stamps of Asian Games

As the organizers scrambled to arrange the funding, the Games were first postponed from February 1950, to November 1950; and then finally the 4th March 1951 “The first Asian Olympic Games” was organized, the earliest prototype of what later became the “Asian Games”, and the Games movement had so caught the imagination of sports administrators in India that they played a pioneering role in building the Asian Games movement.



For Publicity and to raise funds for the Games, Indian P&T and Sports Administrators in India, commemorated such achievements and various activities of the first Asian Olympic Games movement though Postal stationery



Courtesy: Boria Majumdar