A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Indian History of a British Sport [Hardcover]

Ramachandra Guha (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2002

Ramachandra Guha is one of the world's foremost historians and writers on cricket. Here he is offering three books to Picador. The first will be an Indian history of a British sport - cricket which will be written in his usual animated and highly informed way. The second book is a fascinating anthology of what people have said about Gandhi - from politicians, writers, artists. It will be very international and hugely enlightening. The third book is a definitive biography of Gandhi - Gandhi is regarded as one of the greatest figures of the twentieth century and Guha is the perfect biographer. Ramachandra Guha's book is an extraordinary work of non-fiction. Charting the social history of cricket in India he not only sheds light on the way a society works during a time of massive social and political transformation (the small but important social arguments that take place - for example, the staking out of territory in terms of public parks; the changes in position between the ruler and the ruled and within the limits of caste and class) but he also brilliantly traces the links between sport and politics. A Corner of a Foreign Field makes references to the 1936 Olympics and the cricket boycott of South Africa and it is in these references that the key to this extraordinary book lies. In prose that is entertaining and incisive, Guha subtly demonstrates that a national sport can not fail to have social and political ramifications and that these ramifications both reflect and often provoke major political change. This book is important not only as an historical record but also as an analysis of the way in which sport has affected modern history. It is, most importantly, very entertaining and is that rarest of things - a book about cricket that will grip both fans and non-fans alike.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ramachandra Guha is the author of several books, including How Much Should a Person Consume, India After Gandhi, and Savaging the Civilized.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 511 pages
• Publisher: Picador (August 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330491164
• ISBN-13: 978-0330491167
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,328,051 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Indian cricket pre-Test History, September 13, 2003

By 

"ubersportingpundit" (Athelstone, South Australia Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Indian History of a British Sport (Hardcover)

Why did the Indian sub-continent take to cricket so completely? And why can't India have a proper sporting relationship with Pakistan? Why are the fans so passionate, and why is Sachin Tendulkar revered as a God?

No Australian can really answer these questions, so I was glad to see Ramachandra Guha's "A Corner of a Foreign Field" which is an attempt to answer some of these questions.

For such a cricket mad nation, India has been surprisingly lax about chronicalling it's cricket history, but Guha has done what digging he can.

The cover of my copy is swathed in praise; the Literary Review calls it "wonderful". From a literary point of view, I cannot own that it is that good; the prose occasionally plays out a few maiden overs and it struggles to maintain a proper length.

From a historical point of view, though, it is excellent, and explains a great deal not just about how the game started in the subcontinent, but also it explains the attitudes of the people to the game. And, it might be said, about other things. The communal hatreds of India and Pakistan make a lot more sense when you understand the Pentagular tournament that was the focus of Indian cricket until India became a serious Test nation.

As an Australian, I got a mild sense of embarrassment reading this tome. It is clear that India's board and cricketing society have faithfully copied everything crass, commercial and nationalistic in the Australian game, and applied it to the subcontinent. Australians, cynical as we are, have managed to cope with this; Indians have not, and the result is displays like the 1996 World Cup semi-final.

This book is not exactly the Indian version of `Beyond a boundary' but it is well worth a read, especially for the "Anglo" reader.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books on Indian cricket, April 20, 2004

By 

A. Rajamani (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Indian History of a British Sport (Hardcover)

The title is deservingly flattering but then there are only a handful of Indian books on Indian cricket (Guha's own "Wickets in the East" is the 5 star rare-to-find masterpiece.) The book begins with a meticulous and stirring history & commentary on early Indian cricket. The focus gradually shifts onto the Quadrangular-Pentangular 'communal cricket' in Bombay from 1900s to the 1940s until MK Gandhi wisely raised his walking stick and put a stop to it. The high point of this book is Guha's reliving the cricketing struggles and exploits of the chamar (a still oppressed Indian caste) Palwankar brothers. After this Dr. Guha moves onto more contemporary stories in Indian cricket. This falls flat because in my opinion, it is too early to talk about the social ramifications of Indian cricket. (FYI, the Indian cricket is usually comforabally upper caste/class, despite the barriers broken by the Palwankar brothers many years ago.) But the story of early Indian cricket, the Palwankar brothers, and the description of early Indo-Pak cricket are more than enough to make this book a worthy read. Guha's writing talent lies in being able to provide a passionate commentary to this history while making sure one does not intrude on the other.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars excellent book on the early social history of Indian cricket, November 13, 2004

By 

A. Datta - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Indian History of a British Sport (Paperback)

Ram Guha is both an environmental historian and an avid cricket enthusiast. He dons the latter avatar here to write a fantastic history of Indian cricket. This is not just a history of cricket, but a history of Bombay in the late 19th-early 20th centuries as well, along with commentary on the battle fought by the Untouchables, and a biography of the Baloo brothers, all rolled into one. He also introduces what he calls the 'Empire of Cricket' hypothesis- that the English were encouraged that the Indians took to cricket, because they thought it was some sort of justification for their imperial mission.

One of the things I like about this book is that there aren't long winded descriptions of cricket matches. He picks out key matches, key innings, and doesn't go into laborious descriptions of the perfect square cut. By keeping it pithy he makes it way more exciting.

My only grouse is that I wish occasionally he'd be a historian more than a cricket writer. There is a lot of material there that is ripe for analysis, but I feel he deliberately subdues the historian in him to be accessible to the lay reader. I wish he'd looked at issues like land and space in Bombay a little more closely, using cricket as the nucleus.