The reasons behind India's designation of hockey as its national sport.

As one of the oldest sports, hockey is regarded as the national sport of India. The Indian Hockey Federation gave it the thumbs-up in 1925. India played New Zealand in 21 games during their first-ever international hockey tour, winning 18 of them.

Due to its successes, the Indian hockey team became well-known and inspired a growing number of people to take up the sport. From 1928 to 1956, hockey was a vogue. India's six consecutive Olympic gold medal victories during this time were regarded as a turning point. It was once thought that hockey was India's national sport for this reason.