PIO representation in Indian sports

The PIO representation in Indian sports refers to the participation of People of Indian Origin (PIOs) and including Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) in international events of both senior and junior level representing the Republic of India. As India prohibits dual nationality, sports representation in international events with respect to Indian participation has generally followed the norm of selection of sportspeople of Indian nationality.

Despite this due to the ambiguity of representation law till 2008, many PIO sportspeople have represented India at international events. While individual sports such as tennis, figure skating etc, dominate PIO sportspeople representation, rugby union remains the only major team sport with PIO players,  until 2008 when the PIOs were disqualified from representing India.

History
In India however, the National sports representation law stems from a circular issued by the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs in December 2008, wherein it directed all national sports federations that any sportsperson representing India at the international level must hold a valid Indian passport. The rule was upheld in 2010 by the Delhi High Court in the Karm Kumar vs Union Of India and Ors.

The Indian law, with respect to the eligibility of PIOs representing India stands at odds with the eligibility criteria for national representation of any sports governing bodies since 2008 when the current regulations were enforced and PIO representation was abolished. Before 2008 order and 2011 enactment of National Sports Code, due to ambiguity and lack of any sports law in the country with respect to player representation in international events, many PIO sportspeople had represented India in certain sports such as tennis, winter sports, swimming, etc.

PIO sportspeople representing India
This is a list of PIO sportspeople (both men and women) who have represented or are currently representing India in any sport at international level.


 * Players of Indian origin, who represented India while retaining their original nationality.
 * Players of Indian origin, who represented India while or after giving up their original nationality and taking up Indian citizenship.

Note:
 * Representation after 2008: Despite the 2008 rule change, a handful of PIOs continued to represent India in certain individual sports such as tennis, winter sports, badminton etc., but this continued without Indian sports federations' support and also international rules for national representation remained unchanged. But while they represented India on an individual capacity at the international events, due to the withdrawal of the Indian sports federations' administrative and financial support, they remained ineligible to represent India at multi-sport events such as Olympics, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games.
 * Dual citizenship for minors: Dual citizenship in India is allowed in certain cases of minor children, as those who are born outside the territory of India can obtain Indian citizenship through descent (by Section 4 of The Citizenship Act, 1955) as well as of the foreign country (by Jus soli, e.g. United States). Thus the minors in such cases can remain dual citizens till 18 upon which they will have to choose only one citizenship. This has enabled some minor PIOs to represent India post 2008, but will become ineligible if they choose the foreign citizenship upon attaining majority.
 * Status of Unrecognised sports: Certain major sports such as Mixed martial arts (MMA) have not been recognised by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (India) as a sport in India, which are instead held as events. The Indian MMA federations do not form a part of the National Sports Federations and thus they are not covered under the National Sports Code 2011. Thus the PIO fighters can represent India as individual representatives at professional MMA fights as they do not come under the purview of any sports federation.

• {{legend|#ffff99|Acquired Indian nationality}}
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