Aspy Adajania (1942–1994) was an

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

officer and boxing administrator. He served as a

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

in the Indian Army Infantry, after retirement from service he became known as a pioneer in the sport of Indian

amateur boxing Amateur boxing is a variant of boxing practiced at the collegiate level, at the Olympic Games, Pan American Games and Commonwealth Games, as well as many associations. Amateur boxing bouts are short in duration, comprising three rounds of three ...

Early life and service

Adajania was born into a

Parsi Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim conq ...

family and as indicated by his surname hailed from Adajan, a suburb of

Surat Surat is a city in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The word Surat literally means ''face'' in Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of the river Tapti near its confluence with the Arabian Sea, it used to be a large seaport. It is now ...

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

. Soon after leaving

St. Xavier's College, Bombay St. Xavier's College is a private, Catholic, autonomous higher education institution run by the Bombay Province of the Society of Jesus in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was founded by the Jesuits on January 2, 1869. The college is affili ...

, Adajania joined the Indian Army on an emergency commission to fight the

1965 Indo-Pakistani War The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 or the Second Kashmir War was a culmination of skirmishes that took place between April 1965 and September 1965 between Pakistan and India. The conflict began following Pakistan's Operation Gibraltar, which was d ...

as a Captain of the 5/9 Gurkha Battalion.

Boxing

Adajania was president of the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) in 1985, 1987, 1990 and 1991 and chairman of the Bombay Boxing Association. Adajania is credited with the development of Indian amateur boxing by bringing in Cuban boxing coach, Blas Iglesias Fernandez, the first foreigner to receive the

Dronacharya Award The Dronacharya Award, officially known as Dronacharya Award for Outstanding Coaches in Sports and Games, is sports coaching honour of the Republic of India. The award is named after Drona, often referred as "Dronacharya" or "Guru Drona", a ch ...

(the highest Indian coaching award), for coaching Indian boxers. Adajania officiated over six Olympic Games (1972 Munich, 1976 Montreal, 1980 Moscow, 1984 Los Angeles, 1988 Seoul, and 1992 Barcelona). He also brought the prestigious Boxing World Cup to India at a time when international sports of this magnitude were a rarity in the country. Held at the Bombay Gymkhana, Adjania chose Boman Irani to photograph the event. Irani would later go on to become a popular actor in Indian films. Adajania served as a member of the Executive Committee and the Grievance Committee of the

International Boxing Association The International Boxing Association (IBA), previously known as the Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur (AIBA), is an independent sport organization that sanctions amateur (Olympic-style) boxing matches and awards world and subordinate cha ...

and was the first and only Indian to hold this honour on an international platform. Captain Aspy Adajania died on July 17, 1994, while on assignment in Budapest, Hungary at the age of 52.

Awards and recognition

The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri in 1992 for his relentless service to Indian sport and commitment to promoting and supporting underprivileged Indian athletes.

Personal life

He was married to Persis Adajania with whom he had two children, Zia Diwan Adajania (d. 2014) and

Homi Adajania Homi Adajania (born 1972) is an Indian film director and writer. He made his directorial debut with ''Being Cyrus'' (2006), an English-language psychological drama. He followed this with the commercially successful Hindi-language romantic comedy ...

. Homi is a well known director of Bollywood films and is the husband of fashion designer Anaita Shroff Adajania.Director Homi Adajania's sister Zia Adajania Diwan passes away

India.com ''Zee Media Corporation Limited'' (abbreviated as ZMCL; formerly Zee News Limited) is the news broadcasting company of the Essel Group which is controlled by Subhash Chandra. The company is engaged mainly in the business of broadcasting of news ...

References

Recipients of the Padma Shri in sports Boxing people 1994 deaths 1942 births Indian boxing trainers Boxers from Maharashtra Indian sports executives and administrators Indian referees and umpires Indian Army officers Military personnel of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 Parsi people from Mumbai Sportspeople from Surat {{India-boxing-bio-stub

Early life and service

Boxing

Awards and recognition

Personal life

See also

References