Against the Odds

Hokato Hotozhe Sema, who lost a leg in Kashmir, has redrawn the boundaries of military service and transformed India’s Paralympic imagination.

While there are military decorations that reward courage under fire and sporting medals that honour excellence in competition, it is rare for the two to converge in one life. That they have done so in the career of Subedar Hokato Hotozhe Sema says as much about the changing face of India’s armed forces as it does about the country’s belated embrace of Paralympic sport.

Earlier this week, Sema became the first Indian Paralympian to be awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM), which is India’s highest peacetime military honour for distinguished service. The distinction is remarkable not merely because such decorations seldom go to a Junior Commissioned Officer, but because it recognises an achievement that transcends conventional military notions of service.

Sema has become the embodiment of an institution’s refusal to see disability as the end of usefulness. A native of Nagaland's Niuland district, Sema joined the 9 Assam Regiment in 2000. Barely two years into service, during a counter-infiltration operation along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, he stepped on a landmine. The explosion claimed his left leg below the knee. For many soldiers, such an injury would have marked the end of a career and the beginning of a life measured by rehabilitation rather than ambition.

But Sema chose another path. Introduced to para-sports by Colonel Gaurav Dutta at the Army Paralympic Node in Pune, he took up shot put under coach Rakesh Rawat. Fellow villagers questioned whether the pursuit was worthwhile. They asked his parents why he persisted in sport after so many years with little to show. Sema’s response was simply to urge them to wait.

The wait has been worthwhile. At the 2024 Paris Paralympics, Sema threw a personal best of 14.65 metres to secure bronze in the men's F57 shot put. It was India’s first medal in that event and the culmination of two decades spent rebuilding a life interrupted by violence. The medal followed another bronze at the Asian Para Games in Hangzhou and brought with it an Arjuna Award.

But this success was followed by injuries and disappointment. Rather than quitting, Sema instead returned to training. Earlier this year, he won the National Para Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar before setting a new national record of 15.21 metres at the Indian Open International Para Athletics Championships in Bengaluru, qualifying for this year's Asian Para Games in Japan. His ambition is now to throw beyond 16 metres and stand atop the podium.

Heroism, in Sema’s case, was not a single act of battlefield courage but the daily decision to return to the training ground despite pain, doubt and public scepticism. It is in this light that his AVSM matters.

Military honours are symbols as much as rewards. By conferring one of its highest peacetime decorations upon a Paralympian, the Indian Army has expanded the very meaning of distinguished service. It has sent out a clear message that service need not end with injury, nor is excellence confined to the battlefield. The award means that rehabilitation itself can become a continuation of duty, carrying the nation’s colours into arenas where victory is measured by other means rather than military objectives.

India’s Paralympic movement has undergone a quiet revolution over the past decade. From being an afterthought in sporting administration, para-athletes have increasingly become some of India's most dependable medal winners. Improved coaching, specialised training centres and greater public recognition have begun to replace the charity-driven approach that long characterised disability sport. Yet the ecosystem remains uneven, dependent upon a handful of institutions, most notably the armed forces, that possess the resources to identify and nurture talent.

Sema illustrates what becomes possible when those resources are matched by individual determination. His career suggests that disability need not diminish excellence; when properly supported, it can redefine it. His rise carries particular significance for India’s volatile north-east region.

Nagaland has produced soldiers of distinction for generations, but international sporting icons have been comparatively rare. Messages of congratulations from political leaders captured a wider sentiment that Sema had ventured into “uncharted territory” by creating possibilities that scarcely existed before.

By becoming the first Paralympian to receive the AVSM, Sema has expanded the meaning of military service and reinforced the idea that resilience deserves recognition no less than sacrifice. For a country only beginning to take Paralympic sport seriously, that may be the longest throw of all.