Sen - Nation at play: a history of sport in India

NATIONATPLAY

Contemporary Asia in the World

Contemporary Asia in the World

David C. Kang and Victor D. Cha, Editors

This series aims to address a gap in the public-policy and scholarly discussion of Asia. It seeks to promote books and studies that are on the cutting edge of their disciplines or promote multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary research but are also accessible to a wider readership. The editors seek to showcase the best scholarly and public-policy arguments on Asia from any field, including politics, history, economics, and cultural studies.

Beyond the Final Score: The Politics of Sport in Asia, Victor D. Cha, 2008

The Power of the Internet in China: Citizen Activism Online, Guobin Yang, 2009

China and India: Prospects for Peace, Jonathan Holslag, 2010

India, Pakistan, and the Bomb: Debating Nuclear Stability in South Asia, umit Ganguly and S. Paul Kapur, 2010

Living with the Dragon: How the American Public Views the Rise of China, Benjamin I. Page and Tao Xie, 2010

East Asia Before the West: Five Centuries of Trade and Tribute, David C. Kang, 2010

Harmony and War: Confucian Culture and Chinese Power Politics, Yuan-kang Wang, 2011

Strong Society, Smart State: The Rise of Public Opinion in Chinas Japan Policy, James Reilly, 2012

Asias Space Race: National Motivations, Regional Rivalries, and International Risks, James Clay Moltz, 2012

Never Forget National Humiliation: Historical Memory in Chinese Politics and Foreign Relations, Zheng Wang, 2012

Green Innovation in China: Chinas Wind Power Industry and the Global Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy, Joanna I. Lewis, 2013

The Great Kant Earthquake and the Chimera of National Reconstruction in Japan, J. Charles Schencking, 2013

Security and Profit in Chinas Energy Policy: Hedging Against Risk, ystein Tunsj, 2013

Return of the Dragon: Rising China and Regional Security, Denny Roy, 2013

Contemporary Japanese Politics: Institutional Changes and Power Shifts, Tomohito Shinoda, 2013

Contentious Activism and Inter-Korean Relations, Danielle L. Chubb, 2014

Dams and Development in China: The Moral Economy of Water and Power, Bryan Tilt, 2014

Marching Through Suffering: Loss and Survival in North Korea, Sandra Fahy, 2015

The JapanSouth Korea Identity Clash: East Asian Security and the United States, Brad Glosserman and Scott A. Snyder, 2015

NATION AT PLAY

A HISTORY OF SPORT IN INDIA

RONOJOY SEN

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS

New York

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS

PUBLISHERS SINCE 1893

NEW YORK CHICHESTER, WEST SUSSEX

CUP.COLUMBIA.EDU

Copyright 2015 Columbia University Press

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sen, Ronojoy.

Nation at play : a history of sport in India / Ronojoy Sen.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-231-16490-0 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-231-53993-7 (electronic)

1. SportsIndiaHistory. 2. SportsSocial aspectsIndia. 3. IndiaSocial life and customs. I. Title.

GV653.S46 2015

796.0954dc23

2015020972

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For Rousseau (my son, not the philosopher),
who is obsessed with cricket but has also begun to appreciate other sports.

CONTENTS

This book has been a long time in the making, gestating in my head for several months before I actually put finger to keyboard. The opportunity to write it came when I began a fellowship at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) at the National University of Singapore (NUS). The illegitimacy of sport in the hard-nosed world of politics and policy, which Im supposed to specialize in, meant that much of the research and writing for the book was done after office hours, in the evenings, late at night, and over weekends. This also meant that very little of the book was presented in public. The exception was the section on Mohammedan Sporting, which I presented at a conference on Islam in South Asia at the ISAS and has appeared in an edited volume.

Writing a book is, of course, not a solitary endeavor. In Singapore, Robin Jeffrey, who is most catholic when it comes to following sports, was an exceptionally encouraging interlocutor. He not only discussed my research and read parts of this book but also put me on to several fruitful leads. Others at NUS, John Harriss in particular, read and commented on parts of the book. I am thankful to the ISAS and the Asia Research Institute (ARI) and their directors, Tan Tai Yong and Prasenjit Duara, respectively, for providing a congenial work environment.

Among my friends and colleagues, special thanks are due to Abheek Barman, Avijit Ghosh, Niladri Mazumder, Aakar Patel, Tushita Patel, Archishman Chakraborty (Bambi), Subodh Varma, Saikat Ray, Moyukh Chatterjee, Sandeeep Ray (Shandy), Michiel Baas, Boria Majnmdar, Nalin Mehta, and Arun Thiruvengadam. Over the years, Niladri and I have watched several sports events together, on television and, on many occasions, at Eden Gardens. Avijit was my companion during a visit to Mumbais (Bombays) Azad Maidan and gave me access to his many writings on sports in the Telegraph and Pioneer from the pre-Internet era. Kausik Bandyopadhyay was unstinting in his support for the project and provided me with valuable material in Bengali, as did Dwaipayan Bhattacharya. Souvik Naha helped me with research in New Delhi. (Field) hockey enthusiasts K. Arumugam and P. K. Mohan kindly passed on research materials. Without the help of Krishnendu Bandyopadhyay, I would not have been able to get some of the images used in the book. Thanks to Saunak Sen for sending me material from San Francisco on Gobor Guha. I benefited greatly from chats with Ashis Nandy, Ramachandra Guha, and Rupak Saha. My teachers and mentors, Lloyd and Susanne Rudolph, encouraged this project. Their amazing breadth of scholarship covers a fascinating aspect of the story of sports in India: polo in Rajasthan. I would like to thank as well my teachers at Presidency College for sparking an abiding interest in history, which stood me in good stead while researching this book. Let me also record my thanks to the two anonymous reviewers of my manuscript.

This book would not have been complete without conversations with some of Indias finest sportspersons. I consider myself blessed that I was able to interview Leslie Claudius (who died while the book was being written), Ahmed Khan, Chuni Goswami, Gurbux Singh, Ramanathan Krishnan, and Arumainayagam. The book is a tribute to them and the many sportspersons and administrators who feature in the following pages. The morning spent with Ibomcha Singh in Imphal was an eye-opener. Among the more intriguing locations that I visited was a small museum dedicated to the Bengali wrestler Gobor Guha in Goabagan Lane, not far from where my parents-in-law, Asutosh and Mitali Law, used to stay (and my mother-in-law still does) in north Kolkata (Calcutta). My father-in-law, who unexpectedly passed away shortly after Id finished writing the book, was a fount of information about north Kolkata. He would have been extremely happy to see the book in print.