We're playing for national flag, casteist slurs must stop, says Vandana Katariya

Tokyo: A day after reports emerged that upper-caste men had used casteist slurs to abuse Indian women’s hockey player Vandana Katariya’s family in her village in Haridwar, the player said that she was playing for the national team and wished that such incidents would not happen. A report in The Times of India said that the incident had happened in Roshanabad village, where she’s based, after the women’s team lost in the semi-final to Argentina. Katariya scored a goal against the Great Britain team in the bronze medal playoff at the Tokyo Olympics on Friday. Reportedly, the men who hurled the abuses told Katariya’s family that India lost the match because there were “too many Dalit players” on the team. The Indian women narrowly lost the match 3-4, but not before making a statement of sorts by reaching the bronze medal playoff match, a result that not many would have expected from the team before the tournament.

After the match, the soft-spoken Katariya made a statement off the pitch too. “Hum log country ke liye khel rahe hai aur sabhi matlab jo bhi kuch bhi ho raha hai, uske liye kuch bhi na kare, like caste-ing baazi jo maine thoda sa suna tha, woh sab na ho. (We’re playing for the national flag. Please don’t do anything, particularly things like casteist attacks, which I heard of in passing just recently),” she told a select group of reporters on Friday. “Sirf hockey ke baare mein soche aur country se even aur bhi young girls aaye. Aur hum log country ke liye he khel rahe hai toh hum sab ko ek hona chahiye matlab har cheez ko (I hope people just think about hockey and more young girls pick up the sport of hockey after this result. Since we’re playing for the country, I wish everyone gets united under this mission).” She went on to add: “Actually abhi meri baat nahi hui hai is cheez ke liye. Jab baat hogi tab mein is cheez ka answer doongi. Bas yehi abhi country ke liye khel rahe hai hum log. (I haven’t spoken to my family about this issue. When I’ve had the chance to speak with them, I will answer this. Right now, my focus was on playing for the country.” She had kept her phone switched off from the time she got to Tokyo, which is why she hadn’t spoken to anyone. On being asked about the team’s performance in Tokyo, she said: “First of all, our entire team has worked very hard for this and I am really, really proud of them. We improved match by match. It feels really nice to reach this far.”