In March 1947,
Jawaharlal Nehru, who later became the first
prime minister of India, held the Asian Relations Conference in
New Delhi—a meeting with a prospect to bring the possibility of Asian Games under the attention of participating countries. Before the conference,
Guru Dutt Sondhi, who was the member of the
International Olympic Committee for India, encouraged
Yadavindra Singh,
Maharaja of Patiala and the then-president of the
Indian Olympic Association (IOA), to communicate with meeting attendees to establish the Asian Games Federation. The proposal was not acknowledged by some representatives and the rest, who approved, refused to make any commitment.
Meeting in London During the
1948 Olympic Games, Sondhi held a meeting on 8 August 1948, at Mount Royal Hotel in London. Invitations were sent to all the Asian
National Olympic Committees present in London at that time. Chief Managers of
Korea,
China,
Philippines,
Singapore,
Burma,
Ceylon,
India,
Pakistan,
Afghanistan,
Iran,
Iraq,
Lebanon and
Syria were called for the meeting, but only representatives from Burma, Ceylon, China, India, Philippines, and Korea attended.
Meeting in Delhi The Asian Athletics Championship was not realised due to "unsettled conditions" and economic difficulties of participating nations, but a meeting was organised at the
Patiala House, in Delhi, among the representatives of nine Asian nations, on 12 and 13 February 1949. The meeting was attended by the representatives of
Afghanistan,
Burma,
Ceylon,
India,
Indonesia,
Nepal,
Pakistan,
Philippines and
Thailand. The drafted constitution, presented by the sub-committee, was again revised as per the
Olympic Charter—the constitution of the International Olympic Committee—and accredited. To avoid the ambiguity generated by the literal meaning of term "athletic", sub-committee rectified the primitively proposed title of the federation from Asian Amateur Athletic Federation to Asian Games Federation. Afghanistan, Burma, India, Pakistan, and the Philippines became the first five members of the Asian Games Federation after signing the constitution in its full term; the other four attendees also signed it, but it still needed the ratification by their governments or their National Sports Associations or
National Olympic Committees. The federation elected Yadavindra Singh as the president, Jorge B. Vargas as vice-president, and G. D. Sondhi as secretary treasurer. ==See also==