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Honours for NRI martial arts veteran
Martial arts veteran Mohan Hira received the second annual "Honour Those Who Serve" award from a Gujarati body here for his lifetime of commitment to fostering sport in the community without expecting any reward.
Martial arts veteran Mohan Hira received the second annual "Honour Those Who Serve" award from a Gujarati body here for his lifetime of commitment to fostering sport in the community without expecting any reward.
Hira, who came to South Africa from India in 1947 at the age of nine, started a Judo club in Johannesburg nine years later and, against many odds during the apartheid era when all sport was segregated by race, developed young Indian and African men and women to build champions.
Hira's passion for the martial arts has taken him all over the world with his pupils and he has received numerous honours, including a Platinum Award in Durban for being a founder member of the Karate Association of South Africa, the first non-racial body for the sport.
But for Hira, a soft-spoken man of few words, the award by the Shri Bharat Sharda Mandal (SBSM), from the ranks of the Gujarati community that he comes from, was the ultimate accolade.
He said so in a simple "thank you" speech while receiving the award from last year's inaugural winner, veteran ANC freedom fighter Issu Chiba.
The ever-humble and popular sportsman has been running classes in various areas of Gauteng for decades and continues to do so, often using his own limited resources to support those who were less privileged.
"Mohan Hira did not become a millionaire," said Shashikant Daya of SBSM.
"He charged minimum fees and more often than not his classes were free to the disadvantaged. It was this sense of total selfless service as expounded by Mahatma Gandhi that we have karate in our community that is on par with international standards."
In the past decade, Hira continued his lifelong belief in Gandhian philosophy by initiating several projects to revive the Indian leader's memory here.
The first was an attempt to revive the neglected Tolstoy Farm near Lenasia, where Mahatma Gandhi ran a commune at the turn of the last century during his tenure in this country.
Hira organised a walk from Johannesburg to Durban to raise funds for this restoration project in 1988. The Tolstoy Farm restoration project has since been taken over by provincial and local authorities.
In 2000, Hira also sponsored five people to join him on a walk from Dandi to Ahmedabad in Gujarat to commemorate the famous "Salt Walk" organised by Mahatma Gandhi.
His latest venture was the first annual Heroes' Night earlier in August, at which 10 veterans of the South African freedom struggle were given special awards.
