Swimming is not a sport that Pakistan is renowned for. However, over 60 years ago a Pakistani swimmer established a set of world records, that shook the world. The swimmer was the amazing and versatile Brojen Das, the only swimmer to have won Pakistan’s Pride of Performance Award for his achievements.

In Bengali the word Brojen means king of the heavens. Brojen was born in December 1927 in the village of Kuchiamora in the Munshiganj region of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). His father Harendra Kumar Das was a supplier for the army and ran a cement trading business.

Brojen did his early schooling in Dhaka and then proceeded to Kolkata for his graduation. East Pakistan was a land festooned by rivers and like young boys of his age Brojen from his childhood would swim in the local Dhaleshwari river and the famous Buriganga.

He displayed a special knack and ability in the sport and won inter-school competitions between 1943-45 and inter-collegiate tournaments between 1948-49. He started as a sprint swimmer and won the West Bengal 100 metres freestyle championship in 1952. He showed his versatility by becoming the East Pakistan champion in the 100 metres, 200 metres, 400 metres and 1500 metres freestyle at the same time. In 1955 he also became the Pakistan Inter-University champion in the 100, 200 and 400 metres freestyle events and the Pakistan national champion in the 100 and 200 metres freestyle competitions.

Brojen was essentially a short course swimmer and a sprinter who was looking forward to being selected to represent Pakistan in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. He was, however, hugely disappointed when he was not chosen for the national team for the Olympic Games because of an injured arm. He did not give up though and changed direction to take up long distance sea-swimming instead. Showing great resolve and resilience he started preparing himself for this endeavour through a hard and punishing training regimen. He would swim regularly in the Shitalakshya river and the turbulent lower part of the Meghna river, both of which were close to his hometown, routinely covering a distance of 46 miles between Narayanganj and Chandpur.

Another testimony to his endurance and stamina at the time is a documented non-stop 48 hours swimming stint in a Dhaka swimming pool in which he covered 97 km. In 1958 Brojen secured an invitation to participate in the Billy Butlin English Channel Crossing event. To prepare for this race Brojen entered the 33km long Capri Island to Naples swimming competition and secured 3rd position in it with a time of 13 hours and 18 minutes. In the Billy Butlin race from France to England, there were 39 competitors from 23 nations. 21 of the original entrants dropped out during the race from exhaustion, but Brojen completed the race and secured first position in it. He thus became the first Asian to swim the English Channel. His time was 14 hours and 52 minutes.

In 1959 Brojen Das became the first swimmer to complete three long distance competition swims within the same year. He again entered the Capri to Naples competition and improved his time by over an hour to 12 hours and 6 minutes. He then re-participated in the Billy Butlin tournament, swimming from France to England in a time of 13 hours and 53 minutes, which was almost an hour faster than his previous effort. He followed this up a month later by crossing the English Channel in the opposite direction, from England to France, in 13 hours and 26 minutes, thus becoming the first swimmer to swim the channel in both directions in the same calendar year.

1960 saw a fourth channel crossing by Brojen in August. However, it was in 1961 that Brojen really reached his peak as a channel swimmer. On 8th September, in good weather, he began a swim from France to England, hoping to break the world record that was held by an Egyptian Hassan Abdel Rehim, who had swum the Channel in August 1950 in a record time of 10 hours and 50 minutes. Brojen reached the English coast the next day in 11 hours and 48 minutes, which was a great improvement on his own previous best, but still short of the world record. The sea had remained calm but Brojen had suffered from extreme sea sickness on at least four occasions during this swim, and this had slowed him down.

Despite this setback, Brojen was determined to try again. The English Channel is 32 kilometers long at its shortest width. However, the swimmers can rarely swim in a straight line. This is because of the currents and the tides whose direction is perpendicular to the swimmer’s course. This means that the swimmer is constantly pushed sideways and swims in an arc where the actual distance he swims is much longer than 32 km, and can reach 60 km and beyond. The channel’s cold water temperature also makes swims possible only between June and September, and that too when the wind speed is 3 knots or less. Swimmers also prefer to attempt the swim during the neap tides, which are the mildest tides in the channel, and occur after the first and third quarters of the moon.

Twelve days after completing his earlier swim, at 6 pm on 21st September, Brojen stepped into the channel waters again at Cap Gris-Nez, near Calais, on the French side of the channel. In attendance was J.U Woods, the Secretary of the Channel Swimming Association and the skipper of the accompanying motor boat Envictor, Hutchinson. Both these gentlemen had predicted about Brojen that, “Give him good weather and he will take the world record to Pakistan.” Brojen’s trainer and coach Mohammad Ali was also in the launch boat with arrangements for nutrition and fluids.

The sea was calm and Brojen began swimming at a rate of 61 strokes per minute. However, he soon moved to a more relaxed pace of 48 strokes per minute as he had learnt from his previous experience the danger of going too fast initially and tiring himself out. After two hours he was given his first full feed and then every subsequent hour received a further feed of chicken soup, coffee, tea, juices and glucose. By 8.15 pm he had completed 5 miles of the swim, which represented a very good speed. At 9.45 he was already 9.5 miles from Cap Gris-Nez.

An hour later, at 10.45 pm Brojen was only 7.5 miles from Dover. Around this time there were some strong flood tides but Brojen battled on. At 1.00 am he was only 3.5 miles from Dover and his speed had reduced to 42 strokes per minute. By 3 am he was very tired, but encouragement from the people on the motor boat and flashes of light from the Kent coast kept him going. After a final feed he braced himself for a last surge and soon felt sea weed in his hand. Knowing that he was almost there he gritted his teeth as the sharp, craggy, coastal rocks began to scrape his torso. He climbed out of the water on to the shore at 4.35 am, having broken the world record by a full 15 minutes. He later recalled “Then I remembered my parents. I had not failed my country.”

Brojen set many new records that day. This was the fastest Channel swim from France to England, it was the first time that anyone had swum the channel twice within 12 days, and it was his sixth channel crossing which was also a world record. He had shown immense courage, an indomitable spirit and brought great honor to his country.

Brojen had made the amazing journey from a speed swimmer to an endurance expert. Rotund in shape with a 5 feet 6 inch frame supporting a body weight of 75 kilos, Brojen felt that the extra weight was an asset as he could lose an average of 5 kilos during a channel swim. He was awarded the Pride of Performance Medal by President Ayub Khan and also received the Leytona Trophy, or the King of the Channel Trophy, from the Channel Swimming Association. He received a special commendation from Queen Elizabeth for his achievement and Lord Mountbatten also conferred special praise in his capacity of the Grand President of the Royal Life Saving Society of the UK.

Brojen settled in Bangladesh after 1970. He passed away from cancer in 1998 and was posthumously awarded the highest state award of the Bangladesh Government, the Independence Day Award.

Brojen’s achievements are unique and occupy a special place in the history of Pakistan sports. When the famous boxer Mohammad Ali met Brojen in 1985, he told him “You are the King of the Channel and I’m the King of the Ring, but I think your achievement is even greater than mine.”

Dr Salman Faridi is a senior surgeon, poet, sports aficionado and an avid reader with a private collection of over 7000 books. salmanfaridilnh@hotmail.com