Cricket, Public Culture and Postcolonial Society in India

"Indian cricket mobilised a large and diverse popular following in the twentieth century. What was so special about cricket and why was it so important to a large number of people? In this book, the author tells the story of this banal humanity that historians tend to forget. Why do postcolonial Indians identify with the colonial game the way they do? Is the engagement with English culture a mechanism for empowering and modernising themselves? What does cricket tell us about the making of a public culture? Cricket, Public Culture and the Making of Postcolonial Calcutta uncovers the various modes through which the Indian public have been moulded as followers of cricket and examines the emergence of a postcolonial society through its lens. Through thematic explorations of cricket's significance for the people of Calcutta, the book discusses the making of public culture in a postcolonial city. The six chapters survey long-term social, cultural and political processes through which cricket became an accessory to emerging identities and ideologies. By closely examining these processes the author analyses the discourses of postcolonialism, collective history and space-making in an urban context. The followers and critics of cricket in Calcutta are the protagonists in this book. A study of their entanglement offers two important insights into the making of postcolonial society. First, it enables us to understand how people attach symbolic values to cultural forms to reimagine and reinvent themselves. Second, it enhances the analytical value of cricket as a cultural tool that empowered, modernised and gave new meanings to its community"--