Sport in South Asia (Anthem South Asian Studies)

In 1896 an Indian played in the England cricket team against Australia and became the star of the series; in 1911, an "Untouchable" toured the UK with an All-India team, and was offered a contract by a number of top English domestic teams. In the same year, a crowd of 60,000 celebrated a nationalist victory as an Indian football team beat an English regiment to win the Indian Football Association Shield for the first time; some 90 years later, in 1998, 141,000 fans attended the derby match between Mohun Bagan and East Bengal in Calcutta, one of the largest-ever crowds at a football game anywhere in the world. In 1993, the dead body of an Indian wrestler was paraded at the front of a Hindu crowd, inciting the attacks on the Muslim neighbourhood that sparked the Aligarh riots of that year in which almost a hundred people were killed. Sport in South Asia has a long and varied history that is often dramatic, sometimes violent and that reveals much about the broader currents that have shaped culture and society. This volume brings together for the first time in one book the work of several academics that have begun to explore this relationship between sport, history and society in South Asia. The stories above contain elements of colonialism and show the rise of nationalism and the emergence of communalism; other examples show how the establishment of nationhood in a post-colonial world, the challenge of the regions to the political center and the impacts of globalization and economic liberalization have all left their mark on the development of sport in South Asia. South Asian history and society have transformed sports in the region; at the same time such games and activities have often shaped the history and society of South Asia. This book, therefore, does not only act as an introduction to the sporting histories of the region; it also analyzes these relationships and draws conclusions both about the history and the sociology of sport, and about the histories and societies of South Asia.