The game of football in colonial
India was introduced by the expatriate writers and factors of the British East
India Company and army personnel for their exclusive enjoyment and fun,
although it is claimed that the game was started by the Christian Missionaries.
Whatever may be the origin, it cannot be denied that it was the British rulers
in India who patronized the game as a prominent recreational activity for their
peers in India.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century,
the modern competitive football was first introduced in Bombay and Karachi and
was gradually picked up by Calcutta, which became the capital of the British
Empire in 1858. The first recorded football match was played in India in 1802
in Bombay between two teams, ‘Military’ and ‘Island’. The duration of the match
was of 30 minutes, but no record was found about the two participating teams. The
first recorded football match was played in colonial Calcutta in 1858 between
Calcutta Club of Civilians and Gentlemen’s of Barrackpore. A number of
competitive matches were played thereafter among the British forces in the
Calcutta and Barrackpore regions.
The club system in football in colonial
Calcutta was started with the setting up of the Calcutta Football Club in 1872.
This Club, despite its name, was primarily a rugby playing club which did not
survive long. The formation of the Trades Club in 1876 introduced a new
phenomenon in football in colonial Calcutta. In 1884, Sir Martin Durand revived
The Calcutta Football Club and football emerged as the prominent discipline of
sports of that club by replacing rugby. Gradually, a number of football clubs,
including the Rangers Club, Howrah United Club, American Club were set up which
formalized the system of football among the Europeans residing in colonial
Calcutta.
The confinement of football among
the European community, resided in colonial Calcutta, did not survive long and
the wealthy Bengalis gradually attracted towards the game initially due to the
lure of demonstration effect and later used it as an instrument of nationalism.
Shri Nagendraprasad Sharbadhikari, who discovered football as a mere spectator, and
Shri Nagendranath Mallik of Mallik family of Chorebagan, played an instrumental
role in setting up football teams at the school and college levels. A number of
amateur clubs, whose memberships were given to the students of the Presidency
College, Calcutta Medical College, Shibpur Engineering College, St. Xavier’s College
and Hare School, were gradually set up. However, the Bengali participation was
limited to the teams of the Hare School and the Presidency College only, which
shows the racial policy adopted by the British rulers in the game of football
in colonial Calcutta.
The Bengali participation in
football was not limited to the teams at the school and the college levels, but
various football clubs were established in different localities to provide
playing opportunities to the youth of Bengal. Shovabazar, Kumartuli, Town, Sporting,
Chandannagar, Chinsura, Aryans and Mohun Bagan were some of the prominent
names. All these teams used to play against each other as no competition
structure was available. Even, the European teams could not take part in any
competition till the Trades Cup was introduced in 1889.
Shri Nagendraprasad Sarbadhikari played
an important role in broad-basing football in colonial Calcutta. Shri
Sarbadhiakri, often considered as the ‘Father of Indian Football’, inspired his
fellow-mates of the Hare School to play football in 1877. The journey of the
Bengali community with football started since then. Shri Sarbadhiakri, who
kicked a football for the first time at the age of ten, tried to make a social
reform by using the medium of football. He, along with Shri Nagendra Mallik, set
up the Friends Club in the premises of Rajendra Mallik’s house. He made an
attempt to consolidate the Wellington Club (1884) with a vision of making the
Bengali community strong enough to compete against the British teams in the
game of football. The club authorities decided to offer membership irrespective
of caste and creed.
However, Shri Sarbadhiakri faced a strong
opposition from the high class and high caste members of the club while trying to
provide membership to a potter’s son, Moni Das. The visionary leader of
football was shaken by this opposition and decided to dissolve the club. After
that, he established Shovabazar club in 1887 in the premises of the Shovabazar
Rajbati. The club was unique in offering membership free of caste and creed.
They implemented this vision by making Moni Das a member of this club. Even the
Europeans and the Anglo-Indians could also become the members of the club.
Shri Sarbadhiakri, therefore, did
not restrict himself in promoting football in colonial Calcutta, but also played
an important role in promoting it to all sections of the society by making an
attempt of breaking the social barriers. He tried to make Bengalis physically
strong and technically sound to compete against the British teams in their own game,
football. However, he was unable to influence the British rulers to adopt a
liberal approach which would allow the Indian teams to participate in the
tournaments introduced by the British administrators.
The National Club was set up in
1885 by an idealistic teacher of the Kalighat School, Shri Manmatha Ganguly, with
an objective of establishing nationalism in the game of football in colonial
Calcutta by competing against the European teams. To achieve this purpose, in
the initial years, the club did not participate in any competitive match, but
prepared the players physically so that they could face the strong challenges
of the British players during the matches. Moreover, this club was instrumental
in building the characters of the local youth. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was
associated with this club as a player. This concept of nationalism in football
took a prominent shape with the introduction of a racial policy by the British
rulers in the ‘beautiful game’ which became evident with the emergence of a
competition structure.
In this blog, the initial phase of
football in colonial Calcutta is discussed. It is obvious that, in this phase,
there was hardly any structure of competitive football. Thus, it can be said
that football, at its initial phase in colonial Calcutta, did not follow a
structured path of development.
In the next blog, I shall discuss
about the second phase of football in colonial Calcutta.
