The medal is a single bright spot in India's otherwise miserable recent Olympic history. Despite its size and rich sporting traditions in cricket, polo and many racket sports, India last won a gold medal for men's field hockey in 1980.

Immediately, Mr. Bindra, chief executive of a computer-games equipment company in the city of Chandigarh, was hailed as a national hero. The Minister of Railways awarded him and a companion a free, lifetime rail pass to travel in a first-class, air-conditioned compartment. The Board of Control for Cricket in India, cricket's governing body and the most powerful sporting institution in the country, said it would give Mr. Bindra a cash award of about $62,500.

His victory also may engage India in the Olympics after a decidedly ho-hum reception to the Games so far, aside from widely held admiration for archrival China for the efficiency and spectacle of the opening ceremony. The India-Sri Lanka cricket match is taking much of the limelight. It doesn't help that DD Sports, the Indian government-run channel broadcasting the Games, makes some unusual spectator choices: The U.S.-China basketball game, one of the highlights so far, was frequently interrupted for women's judo, even though the judo featured no Indians.