Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

Guha's book is an wonderfully researched work on the evolution of cricket in India starting from the early adoption of a British game by the Bombay Parsis to the 1999 world cup. The book meanders through the history of British India - interestingly, cricket & politics were largely more separate then, than after the Indian partition, particularly since Kashmir emerged as an issue of central importance - the kings & commoners, the religious commune of the pentangulars, the MCC teams & the ambivalent loyalties of the British in India, not least divisive among them the team captained by Douglas Jardine. Combine this with the complex caste hierarchies, the constitutional & the revolutionary nationalists, throw in a little Gandhian intervention & you get quite a concoction of history, politics & sports stirred up with something mischievously spicy.

But of particular interest to me was what I learnt about Indian cricketers before Pakistan was another country, & what I learnt about India & Pakistan, after they separated but before cricket really established itself as a mirror of popular sentiment & a benchmark of national prestige. There are certain interesting notes on why cricket is indeed so popular in India or the Indian subcontinent - the most popular one being a sort of national pride in beating the British at something, the more exalted ones around the cosmic sensibilities of a 5 day game to the Hindu.

Interesting also are the notes on contradictory positions on cricket when it comes to India playing Pakistan - largely in the final decade of the twentieth century with India rife with riots & religious divide as is the ubiquitous & timeless gentility of the men who have played this game for more than a century separated from the social, historical, religious, & racial biases of its gargantuan following.

If history & cricket both interest you, then this book is your poison.

2008 was a great year for me. One of the highlights was regular book club meetings where I got introduced to Ramachandra Guha (by a friend).

I got the book "A corner of a foreign field" by Ramachandra Guha for coming second in a quiz. I liked owning the book because it had the book smell which I adore. I never got around to reading till March 2009.

The main reason - I thought it would be a book filled with details and scores of Cricket matches played through the ages. I could not have been more wrong.

The book is a look back on history of India through evolution of Cricket. It is a breezy read even for a non cricketing buff. The most important part of the book was the rise of Palwankars in cricketing world. Baloo Palwankar was born in the caste of Chamar (cobblers) and became one of the best bowlers in the pre-independent India. It is his skill which allowed him to play along with "so called" high caste players.

This is the time when untouchables were not allowed inside homes, temples and other public places. Even though Baloo Palwankar represented India, he was not allowed inside the pavillion during the initial years. He formed a great partnership with a wicket keeper called Seshasayee. Seshasayee is a Tamil Iyengar. For those of you who do not know caste equations; Tamil Iyengars are considered on top of the caste heaps. I am sure the spirit of the game would have made Baloo and Seshasayee hug each other and dance with joy when ever they took wickets together. I would give a million dollars to see the sight.

Baloo was denied captaincy through out his life because of his caste. This created lots of furore amongst the fans arguing for and against the practice. There is no doubt in my mind that this debate contributed a lot for removal of untouchability.

Baloo inspired his brothers to become Cricketers. One of his brother Vithal Palwankar became Captain of the Indian team. This could happen because the Captain of the Hindu team would stand down during the matches citing injury and forcing the hands of the team managers.

The most telling part of the book was comparison between under privileged sports persons in India and the rest of the world. I am sure very few of you would have know about Baloo Palwankar. However every one in the US remembers Jackie Robinson the first black person to play major league base ball.

Jackie was remembered by the US president Bill Clinton and made a moving speech on the 50th anniversary of the first match Jackie played in the major league.

Why is that we forget our heroes who are not even remembered even by Dalit leaders asks the authour. He tries to deduce himself;

a. Is it because Palwankars played Cricket before India became a full test playing nation?

b. Or should we blame politics because Baloo Palwankar fought an election against Dr. Ambedkar and lost

c. Or should we simply pin the blame on that always available scapegoat, the lack of interest in history among Indians

The book has enthused me so much that I plan to start a sports scholarship in the name of Palwankars. Ofcourse, I need to get a job first.

The book also clearly showed why Advani was misunderstood when he said Jinnah was a secularist. The book has a speech by Jinnah where he praises the hindu muslim unity and says that the communities should laud cricketing victories acheived by each other.

I wrote a longish review because any thing less would not do justice to this wonderful book. It goes without saying that you can borrow this book on condition of returning it to me. Normally I am not possesive of any book as I always felt sharing with out any condition enhances the book value. However I would like to posess this book.

Cricket is a passion in India that is probably matched only by South America in soccer. I share the same generation as Guha and have been reading his cricket dispatches for several years. I had always wondered about the origins of cricket in India and Guha has unravelled that mystery beautifully.

Love Ram's style of writing. Have been an admirer of his writing since quite a few years.