The Victory of 1911: The Forgotten Historical Event

I was in class nine probably when I first heard about the famous victory of Mohun Bagan in 1911. At that time it was for me like any other victory for the giants of Calcutta and the importance of which I could comprehend only in the later years of my life when I became interested in the sociology of sports. Why did I come to know about this victory so late in my life? Had it been an era of globalization where players from different corners of the world are a household names, these greats, who made the mighty English look humble on that day would had become an integral part of our sporting culture.  This article tries to analysis why these greats or the great victory did not become a sporting culture drawing relations with the present day football playing world. 

Football In India

Football is the most popular game in the world. The history of football in India can be traced back to the pre-independent period, when the British people brought the game to the sub-continent when they colonized this country. The initial football matches were played between army teams. With their conquest of the different parts of the country they also popularized football. In particular, it was after the ‘first war of Indian independence’ in 1857 that football began to assume wider social significance in the subcontinent (Burdsey 2007). A number of football clubs in India were soon created, during the British Empire. Playing the game of football is an accessible social activity for the young and hardy men (now it is gaining popularity even among the women). It is a way of socializing with your friends and community members in a recreational way. This requires the minimum of economic and social capital. The game is played extensively in India with the maximum fan following in Goa, Kerala, West Bengal, and the entire North East than in the other parts of the country. Football has its own rich tradition and history in India.

The First Tournament

In 1898, the oldest football tournament in India, and one of the oldest in the world, the Durand Cup commenced in Shimla,. The tournament was named after the then Foreign Secretary of India - Sir Mortimer Durand, who inaugurated it. The Indian Football Association (IFA) came into existence in 1893 and the first IFA shield tournament was played in that year. The teams from the British Army were dominant in the tournament as they were exposed to the game much earlier than the Indians. Apart from this the Indian players also lacked the basic facilities to compete with their British opponents. Sheer determination and the tenacity to stand up against the odds made the victory of 1911 much more cherished for the Indians.

The First Victory

The first victory for footballer of India was registered in 1911, when Mohun Bagan Club won the IFA-Shield Trophy. This victory has secured a special place in the history of football in India, because it was the first occasion that an Indian club had won the trophy. Till then the tournament was always won by the British teams based in India. The salient feature of the victory was at that time India was in the midst of the freedom struggle and anything to do with the ‘disgrace’ of the colonial masters was a victory for the entire nation. This is precisely what happened in the eve of 11 Septeber 1911. The bare footed footballers representing Mohun Bagan defeated their much accomplished rivals from the East Yorkshire Army 2-1 after being down one goal till the 70^th minute. Football in India was introduced as a military pursuit. It was transformed by the emergence of Mohun Bagan. Under constant attack from the established teams of the British Army, Mohun Bagan’s place was assured in the history of football in India, in 1911 when they won the IFA for the first time. At the time, it was the biggest win for any club of India. This is the story of the David slaying the Goliath; it is a story of the have-nots’ triumph over the haves.

As the country was in the midst of the freedom struggle the final match was also represented as being part of the freedom struggle. The power of sport to produce intense passions amongst its followers cannot be overlooked. Football has the ability to elicit highly intense emotions from its spectators. Football is, arguably, the only universal language of the masses and the large crowd gathered to witness history in the making shouted vociferously Bande Mataram, the slogan for freedom. The team was seen as the representation of entire India in its fight against the colonizer. It was the case of ‘us’ versus ‘them.’  The victory was much needed revenge for the people who had gathered to witness the game, against the British, who in any pretense was not lagging behind to embarrass the Indian. Why has such an important event forgotten in the history? What are the reasons for it being not celebrated as any other historical events? The sections below try to analyse such questions.

Post Independence Football

After independence football was very popular in India. There were many strong centers of football like Calcutta (now Kolkata), Hyderabad, Dherandun. The standard of football was always on the rise. India was the team to beat in the entire Asia. Till 1970 the standard of football was relatively high in India. During this period India achieved many feats like the gold in 1951 and 1962 Asian games, fourth place in 1956 Olympics and the bronze medal in 1970 Asian games. The most important recognition of football playing and loving fraternity in India came in 1950 when FIFA, the world football governing body invited to participate in the world cup. After the 70s football in India gradually started to decline as other nations improved and also other nations in Asia started to enter professionalism. India did not improve on the prevailing structure and also remained semi profession which adversely affected the development of the game in India.

1983 Prudential Cup Win

The world cup winning performance by the Indian cricket team also played its part in the decline of football in India. Until then cricket was played by the elites and football was still a game largely attracting people from the lower strata of the society. The dynamics of the game soon changed as many from the rural and poor background also got attracted to cricket. This led to the downfall of football in popularity. Soon the centers of football became centers of cricket. The rural areas which were the feeders for football in India were soon engulfed by the craze for cricket. The unprofessionalism in football structure and the frequently professionalizing cricket was the reason for the decline of football in India. The victory at Lords by the Indian cricket team was the biggest sporting success India had tasted and this led to the tangential rise of cricket. This brought about unprecedented recognition for the game as well as financial benefits to the players which subsequently affected the development of other sports in India.

The Emergence of Global Football Culture

Football is a cultural practice which is rooted deeply in the society. Any change in the society will produce a proportionate change in the game as well. From the 1960s society has changed tremendously. Phrases like modern, postmodern, industrial, postindustrial globalised and individualized has been used to describe the society today. The beautiful game has also been affected and transformed accordingly. The impact of mass media in the lives of the people has been sensational. People look upto the media for all kinds of information. The society has been converted into a mass society. This has also led the people to rely on the mass media for all the sporting activities. In this globalised world mass media has been capable of bringing all the sporting activities to the drawing rooms of the common people. This has made the Indian football lovers to be attuned to the more exciting football tournaments of the world and Europe in particular. The players plying their trade in the lucrative European leagues have become household names as the standard and excitement generated by Indian football teams cannot match that of the European teams. This has led to the decline in the popularity of Indian football within India.

Football has globalised and the dynamics of globalizing is also important to understand the forgetting of the 1911 victory. This transnational dynamics of football has emanated from the clubs driven in large part by the economics and markets.

The media has also been able to make football a market commodity which can be bought, sold and manipulated. Transnational companies have focused in capturing the markets with huge potential for profit making to show cause the achievement of football players and with such potential for profit making India was the automatic choice for many of such companies. The flooding of diverse and different television channels showing the best leagues of the world soon was able to capture the imagination of the people of India. English Premier League, German Bundesliga, Spanish La Liga all are allocated prime time in India for broadcasting which has forced the people to embrace such leagues rather than the I-League. The impact has been so immense that the fan following of the Indian clubs has reduced and local clubs (there are few exceptions like the East Bengal Mohan Bagan derby) to play their matches in empty stadiums. This has become a feature also for local tournaments in many places that use to get their dose of football through these local tournaments. Youths have become xenophobic and they feel proud to wear the jerseys of foreign clubs but not of Indian clubs. Youth wearing such jerseys throng all the corners of India but hardly anybody is seen wearing the jerseys of Indian clubs. Jerseys of the giants of Europe are seen in each and every mall but these malls do not encourage the sale of jerseys of Indian clubs. The entry of private television channels and the companies trading in the paraphernalia of foreign clubs have rubbed off the Indian clubs of any opportunity for commercial activity. The situation of football in contemporary India is that people do not follow club football like in the older days and this has also made difficult to remember and cherish the achievements of clubs.

Conclusion

The 1911victory was looked at as a triumph of Indian football. Then why is it that these players are not recognized or for that matter recognized by only a handful of football fans or this victory which was hailed as the start of the downfall of the British Empire in India has elapsed the mind of the people? Those days were the days of heroics on the field and anybody who were fortuitous to be on the field had the chance to witness these heroics. Today the age of globalization and media has arrived. Every bit of action on the field can be witnessed from the comforts of the drawing rooms. We sit in front of our television sets at home and it gives us the sense of belonging to the team we support. The television sets helps us to build an identity for us which is synergetic to the identity of the team. Therefore today we are aware and conscious of what is happening in the football fields of most parts of the globe and subsequently players belonging to any nation but playing for our beloved club becomes a household names for us. However, during those days when Mohun Bagan won the IFA Shield there were no televisions to bring us the heroics of the 11 barefooted players, to the confines of our drawing rooms. The officials of the football governing body are also to be blamed equally for such a dismal treatment of the heroes who had made the entire ill-treated Indian brethren proud and who could stand as tall as the British in those 90 minutes of history making.

Lessons for Sikkim from Uttarakhand

There is an ongoing debate regarding the devastation this north Indian state has witnessed, as being engineered by the activities of man or an act of nature. However, the overwhelming verdict seems to be that it is the result of human activities.

In this era of globalization, privatization and liberalization economic development has become the paramount concern for everybody even at the cost of social and environmental degradation. Economic development has led to unequal growth leading to the ever widening gap between the haves and the haves not. Environment also has had to pay its own price which has resulted in the loss of natural as well as human resources. Environment has been exploited beyond repair and it has avenged itself in the form of landslides, cloudburst, floods, tsunami and other natural calamities. However, man has shown no respect for environment and nature and has kept on exploiting her without paying any attention to her warnings.  

What has been the most glaring of all forms of environmental exploitation? Is it deforestation, changing the course of the river system thereby damaging the hydrology, construction of dams and restricting the natural flow of water, urbanization and building of roads which the hill slopes of the young Himalayas cannot support? All these are responsible for what has happened in the state of Uttarakhand.

Sikkim is also a small state in the young Himalayas and all the activities mentioned above are taking place to enhance its economic growth and bring about development. The only highway which connects the state of Sikkim to the rest of India is constantly disrupted owing to frequent landslides. The volume of traffic has increased in the state beyond comprehension, a result of  the newly acquired  economic status. This increase in the volume of traffic is not supported by the roads there and to correspond with the growing number of vehicles the road is being constantly widened cutting the fragile slopes of the young Himalayas. This has its collateral damage in the form of deforestation and the loss of very rare species of flora and fauna. Due to the growth of vehicular traffic and its movement the level of pollution is also rising which also has its share on the environmental degradation of the state. The often heard political statement in Sikkim is that the government is trying to make Sikkim another Switzerland but the point being missed is that the former is in the Alps which is far older mountain system and is stable than the young Himalayas therefore the developmental model undertaken has to consider this as well.

Sikkim as many of the other Himalayan states has a huge potential to generate hydro electric power. Therefore it is one of the hot spots where dams are being conceived along with other north eastern states of India. The paradox related to environment and development seen in Sikkim is in line with the arguments made by emerging Green Political theories which have argued that economic growth and environmental crisis are positively related thus greater economic development would call for additional environmental damage (Paterson 2001). The state has embarked upon building dams of different sizes and at different places along the course of river Tista. This has had its own share of environmental degradation. People have been asked to move away from their homes and habitats. The cultural affinity between the people and the place is lost. Water is stored beyond the capacity of the river and during monsoon when there is rainfall water is released beyond the carrying capacity of the river thereby posing danger to the people living near the river banks. Especially the people of Singtam are in a danger of catastrophic event like the one witnessed in Uttarakhand. The area can submerge if anything like what happened in Kalijhora is to happen again. The incident in Rongli, East Sikkim, is another reminder to the people of Sikkim and the government that nature can make this earth a wretched if its warnings are not paid heed to and if it is exploited.

Rapid urbanization also poses a threat to the state. My friend’s mother who visited Sikkim a year ago lamented that Sikkim has become an urban jungle. High rise buildings and concretization of the place is taking place at a rapid pace. Though the government has some policy in place to take mitigate such growth, such constructions are pressurizing the ground below and god forbid that something like the September 18 were to happen again. If that is not taken as a warning there is a huge price to pay for in the future.

The influx of tourist is a good for economic reasons to the state of Sikkim. To accommodate the large number of tourists hotels are being constructed which is adding up to the already fragile ground reality. The inflow of tourist is forcing the state to urbanize more. Gangtok, by virtue of it being the capital of the state has become the center of all forms of urbanization. Huge population growth, concretization and lack of basic amenities have become its characteristic. The concentration of people in one particular place increases its population density and in case of any kind of hazards, both natural and man made, the chances of losses to both lives and property is bound to be heavy.

Luckily for the state of Sikkim there is only river Tista to confront with unlike the state of Uttarakhand where the tributaries of Ganga played havoc. If it is to show its anger like what Mandakini, Bhagirathi and others did in the state of Uttarakhand then Singtam and its people face the utmost danger. Not to mention, Dzongu, the cradle of civilization and identity for the Lepchas is also in the danger of being submerged. All the urban centers in the state vis a vis Gangtok, Singtam, Namchi and Rangpo are in a danger of being destroyed, beyond repair, in event of any earthquake of higher magnitude occurring in the state.

The state needs to be prepared for any kind of untoward incident in the future. Institutions of the state needs to be proactive from now onwards as this is a very possible threat to the state. For being prepared the state has to make use of Sikkim University and especially the Departments of Geography and Natural Resources Management in general and the Department of Earth Sciences in particular, which was envisaged to look after such needs of the state.

  

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