Question

"Cricket in colonial India was organised on the principle of race and religion". Elaborate.

Answer 1

(i) Cricket was first played In India from 1721 by English sailors in Cambay. The Calcutta Cricket Club (the first Indian club) was established in 1792.
(ii) The origins of Indian cricket can be traced to Bombay. The first Indian community to start playing the game was the Panda.
(iii) The Parsis founded the first Indian cricket club, the Oriental Cricket Club In Bombay in 1848, Parsi club, was funded and sponsored by Parsi businessmen like the Tatas and the Wadias. The Parsis built their own gymkhana to play cricket in.
(iv) The establishment of the Parsi Gymkhana became an example for other Indians who, in turn, established clubs based on the idea of religious community.
(v) By the 1890s, Hindus and Muslims were busy gathering funds and support for a Hindu Gymkhana and an Islam Gymkhana.
(vi) The British did not consider colonial India as a nation. They saw it as a collection of castes and races and religious communities and gave themselves the credit for unifying the sub-continent.
(vii) In the late 19th century, many Indian institutions and movements were organised around the idea of the religious community because the colonial state encouraged this division, and was quick to recognise communal institutions. Thus, applications that used the communal categories favoured by the colonial state were more likely to be approved.
(viii) The teams that played colonial Indias greatest and most famous first-class cricket tournament did not represent regions, as teams in today's Ranji Trophy, currently do, but religious communities.
(ix) The tournament was Initially called the Quadrangular because it was played by four teams: the Europeans, the Parsis, the Hindus and the Muslims. It later became the Pentangular when a fifth team was added, namely, the Rest, which comprised all the communities left over, such as the Indian Christians.