Sports for Disciplining and Character Formation: The Study of English Public Schools in Colonial India

Abstract

The politics of the body in colonial India was intrinsically linked with the imperial project of hegemonic rule. The colonial imaginary that stereotyped the Indian body and character as effete and effeminate was employed to justify British rule in India. The politics of the body in colonial India manifested at the different contested sites of powers viz. medicine/hospitals, lunatic asylums, prisons, and educational institutions. However, the most aggressive expression of colonization of the Indian body concerning the imperial project of ‘disciplining the body’ was most apparent in English public schools. In this context, the present paper deals with the politics of body centred around sports as manifested in the English public schools of colonial India. Taking case studies of some public schools established in India during the colonial period, the paper examines colonial raison d’etre for introducing sports.