Sanjana Ahuja (Roll no.

223)
Political Science 3B

Q. How did cricket during colonial times reflect social tensions of

that period? Discuss.

Ans. Cricket is recorded as having been played in India as early as 1721-

among sailors off a merchant ship, and subsequently by European
soldiers. They played the games among themselves in their bungalows
and between different regiments. The first club was not set up until
1792 with the establishment of the Calcutta Cricket Club on the site
where Eden Gardens now stands, although its membership was
restricted to Europeans. Five years later Bombay hosted its first match.
And it was in Bombay that Indians first began to play the game. The first
Indians to engage in Cricket were the Parsis of Bombay who were an
educated, prosperous and westernised community. In the 1830s, Parsi
boys began to imitate the white soldiers in the game of cricket by using
hats as wickets and umbrellas as bats. In 1948, these same Parsi men
established the Oriental Cricket Club. At least 30 Parsi clubs were
formed in the mid 1830s. They were named after British lords, viceroys,
or Roman Gods.

The Hindus started playing cricket as a form of competitive

communalism as the Bombay Parsis had long been their social and
business rivals. The first Hindu club was formed by boys from the
Prabhu caste and called the Bombay Union.

Muslim cricket was pioneered by the Luxmani and Tybjee families

known for their work in establishing schools and for their presence in
courts of law. The first Muslim Cricket Club was formed in 1883. Other
small communities soon formed their own clubs too.

By the late 19th century, the game had acquired a genuine popular
appeal in Bombay. At first, the British saw it as a strategy of the subjects
to take over their national game. They sneered at the Indians clothes
and techniques and joked that they threw balls like young girls.
However, the Indians soon evolved their techniques and stopped
wearing the dhoti while on the field. The Parsis also appointed
professional cricketers as their coaches.

In 1877, the Parsis were invited to play against the Bombay Gymkhana,
the association that represented the Europeans in the city. This match
soon became an annual event. In October 1881, a petition was sent to
the Governor of Bombay to protect the sporting rights of the Indians.
The problem was twofold- the Bombay Gymkhana had taken over one
third of the Esplanade and maintained the ground for their own
practice. Second, the playing gymkhana members used to corner the
native players and their ponies completely ruined the grounds, making
it unsuitable to play cricket on. Hence, the Indians requested that polo
should be played on another spot or that the natives should be allowed
to play on the same grounds as the Bombay Gymkhana members. To
this, the decision was that the Indian players would be allowed to use
the Esplanade Parade Ground when it was not being used for other
purposes. However, the polo players countered this as it questioned
their supremacy over the natives.

In 1886, the Hindus were added to this tournament between the Parsis
and the Europeans, and it became the Triangular Tournament. Five
years later, the Muslims were invited to join, making it the Bombay
Quadrangular. In 1937, with the addition of the rest, it became the
Pentangular.

The Bombay Cricket Carnival spawned a series of tournaments on

similar lines. Local demographics and power relations influenced the
regional variations on the Bombay pattern. Definition of community
was fliud: the Sikhs were willing to be clubbed with Hindus in Bombay
and Delhi but not in Punjab. The Europeans recruited Euroasians and
Indian Christians in Nagpur and Madras, but the Bombay Gymkhana
was more exclusive and considered recruitment to be a question of
status. In this way, all over British India, cricket games were organised
on communal lines where teams could be formed on the basis of
ethnicity, race or religion.

Some British cricketers saw the sport as a way of feeling less out of
place in a hostile climate. Others saw it as a vehicle for cementing
relations between the rulers and the subjects.
The links between cricket and the colonising mission were made more
explicit in an account of a cricket tour in India in 1902 by men from
Oxford and Cambridge. They travelled across India and played cricket
whenever possible. This tour was timed to coincide with the coronation
Durbar that was organised to honour the new monarch, King Edward
VII, and signal the keenness of the British to rule over India. It was said
that cricket educated the Indians and trained them better than the
knowledge from a book.

At the same time, cricket also created divisions between the rulers and
the natives. As the Indian cricketers skills improved, the polo players
felt threatened and clamped down on the natives by mocking them and
taking over their grounds.
The Indians also face discrimination on the field in the way of the
Europeans not abiding by the decisions declared by Indian umpire.
When a Hindu umpire took a decision against an English cricketer, he
was mocked and his character was questioned.

In 1921, when the Prince of Wales visited India, there was a call by
Gandhi to boycott the cricket tournament. From the mid 1930s, the
nationalist opposition to the Quadrangular intensified. While the
Europeans had begun to acknowledge caste/religion based Indian
cricket, different groups like the Muslims, Parsis and Sikhs started
viewing a separate team as a way to demand a separate nation, away
from the majority Hindus.
Some critics like A.F.S. Talyarkhan were of the view that the
Quadrangular had crystallised religious hatred in the country. He said
that no one was born with the belief that they were
Hindu/Muslim/Parsi, but one learnt the distinction through
communalised cricket. He also extended such communalism to the
English idea of divide and rule.

The links between caste and cricket can be seen by studying the life of
Palwankar Baloo. Baloo was a slow left arm bowler who dominated the
Bombay Quadrangular year after year. He was the first great Indian
cricketer, and also among the first public figures to emerge from the
ranks of the untouchables. He was born in 1875 to a family of chamaars,
a caste that lies at the bottom of the Hindu social hierarchy.

In 1892, Baloo took a job at the European Cricketers Grounds at the

Poona Club where he bowled to the leading English cricketer, Captain
Greig. This helped him perfect his technique and improve his bowling.
He was never allowed to bat because batting was the preserve of the
aristocratic elite.

Though the Hindu club of Poona wanted to recruit Baloo to defeat the
Europeans, they were divided over including a chamaar bowler- while
Telegu members were keen to include him, local Marathi-speaking
Brahmins were not. Even though he was ultimately invited to play with
them, he had to have his tea outside the Pavilion in a disposable matka,
eat off a separate table and use separate plates. However, the social
reformer M.G. Ranade told the other Brahmins that if Baloo could play
with them, he could eat with them.

Despite his exceptional performance and talent, Baloo due to his low
caste lineage, was never made captain of the Hindu team. The position
was given to Pai, the Brahmin batsman. Honour seemed to be restored
when after many protests, he was made vice captain.
No one illustrated more neatly the links amongst cricket, colonialism,
and the princely order, and the strains therein, than Kumar Sjro
Ranjitsinhji, known to the cricket world as Ranji. Few have noticed that
his cricket mirrored the strengths and weaknesses of cricket as a model
of westernization developed by the Parsis, cricket as a symbol of
domesticated Kshatriya valour, held on a short leash by the raj, and
cricket as a celebration of the alternative concepts of power, elegance
and civility. Ranjis banishments put him on trajectories of life he would
otherwise never have traversed. John Lord said that Ranji was the first
Indian of any kind to become universally popular, and the first to touch
the imagination of the British people. He believed that competitive
cricket could only be played by Indians in England, because Colonial
India could not afford to defeat the British and vice versa.

Even though Ranji was widely respected, they admired him mainly as a
gentleman cricketer of esoteric background, prefering to ignore the
personal and cultural experiences he lived or tried to transcend. When
he performed well, they would clap, but when his performance wasnt
great, they would curse him.

Ranji entered Trinity college in 1892 and was predictably a bad student.
However, he had managed to brush up his cricket by employing
professional bowlers one month at a time. His batting had by now
acquired a sharp edge and people had begun to take note of his talent.
However, his first chance to play cricket came late. There may not have
been an official color bar, but there were prejudices galore. Thus, at
first he found it difficult even to get in Cambridge eleven.

However, after the Cambridge captain visited India, he did manage to

enter the University Team in 1893. To begin with, he often had to sit in
the pavilion alone, friendless, he gradually made his world into the
world of cricket. However, inspite of all the hurdles, we can see that
Ranji managed to carve a niche for himself. Ranji made his test debut in
1896 at Old Trafford in Lancashire when he played England against
Australia. English fans soon called him magical, and appreciated his skill
inspite of his physique.

Thus, while the sport of cricket seemed to instill notions of

discrimination and division among different sections of people, there
were still Indians who shone due to their exceptional talent on the field.
Parwankar Baloo broke through a previously impregnable social barrier
and inspired many including B.R. Ambedkar. When Ranji retired, many
English admirers said that it was the end of an era.