The Politics of Sport in South Asia

Behind the spectacle of entertainment, sport is a subject with political issues at every level. These issues range from the social, with divisions created along gender and class lines, to the use of sport to pursue diplomatic and statecraft goals. In addition, some sports are positioned and promoted as national events both in public opinion and in the media. This book seeks to explore some aspects of the notion of power in sport in south Asia and among south Asians abroad. The first two chapters deal with the internal societal dimensions of the politics of sport; the next threerelate to the politics inside the sporting world in the subcontinent and its bridge with the broader arena of the society through the media, while the last fiverelate to the use of sports in statecraft, consensus building and international politics. This book was based on two special issues of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

1. Introduction: Fields of Power Subhas Ranjan Chakraborty, Shantanu Chakraborti and Kingshuk Chatterjee 2. Physical Education, Sport and the Intersection and Articulation of ‘Modernities’: The Hanuman Vyayam Prasarak Mandal Joseph S. Alter 3. The Hindu Ascetic as Fitness Instructor: Reviving Faith in Yoga Chandrima Chakraborty 4. The Centrality of Cricket in Indo-Australian Relations: India, Australia and the 'Cricket Imaginary' Brian Stoddart 5. Feel Good, Goodwill and India's Friendship Tour of Pakistan, 2004: Cricket, Politics and Diplomacy in Twenty-First-Century India Kausik Bandyopadhyay 6. The Golden Years of Indian Hockey: 'We Climb the Victory Stand' Boria Majumdar 7. 'The Wood Magic': Cricket in India– A Postcolonial Benediction Somshankar Ray 8. The Culture and Politics of Local Sporting Heroes in Late Colonial Bengal and Princely Orissa: The Case of Santimoy Pati Projit B. Mukharji 9. Fair's Unfair: Simulations of Consumption and Career in Indian Advertising Anisha Datta 10. The Great Indian Willow Trick: Cricket, Nationalism and India's TV News Revolution, 1998 – 2005 Nalin Mehta 11. Reading Cricket Fiction in the Times of Hindu Nationalism and Farmer Suicides: Fallacies of Textual Interpretation Nissim Mannathukkaren 12. Virtually There: Cricket, Community, and Commerce on the Internet Sanjay Joshi

Subhas Ranjan Chakraborty teaches European History at Presidency College, Kolkata. Shantanu Chakraborti specialises in Indian foreign policy, and teaches international relations at the Department of History, Calcutta University. Kingshuk Chatterjee specialises in Islamic Politics in the modern world, and teaches European History at Scottish Church College.