Karatoya: NBU J. Hist. Vol. 17 ISSN: 2229-4880 185 A Brief History of Sports in the Colonial Era and Its Post- Colonial Legacy Santu Halder Abstract: During the long period of colonial rule, their influence on the society, economy, and culture of India was deep and far-reaching. During that time period, mainly Western sports were introduced in India. Although introduced by colonial rulers, Western sports gradually became an integral part of Indian culture. Sports like cricket, hockey, and football spread their influence and gained popularity in different regions over the vast landscape of India. Here, it is interesting to note that these sports got popularized specifically in different parts of the subcontinent, as cricket became popular in the western and southern regions of India, but football in the eastern region. The article attempts to find the answer to how Western sports were introduced in India in the early stages and which media played a significant role in their further popularization. Besides Western sports such as cricket, football, hockey, and athletics, indigenous sports such as hunting, wrestling, and polo continued to be practised in the colonial era. This paper also highlights how far the initiatives have been taken by the governments and private institutions in promoting sports in the post-independence era. Keywords: Cricket, Football, Hockey, Polo, Hunting, Wrestling, Gymnastics, Initiatives to promote sports. Introduction: Although sport is an integral part of human society and culture, its inclusion in conventional history writing is relatively recent. Basically, the practice of sports history began in the Western world in the 1970s and became a part of systematic history writing in 1982 with the establishment of organizations like the British Society of Sports History. Sociologists J. A. Mangan, Tony Mason, Allen Guttmann, Richard Holt, and others played important roles in institutionalizing the practice of sports history. This initiative to study sports history gradually spread to other countries outside of Europe, and sociologists from Asian countries joined this effort in the late 1980s (Bandyopadhyay 2019: 6). Indian social scientists such as Ramchandra Guha, Mihir Bose, Ashis Nandy, Boria Majumdar, Kausik Bandyopadhyay, etc., enriched the study of sports history in India. Historian E. J. Hobsbawm has rightly called sports one of the most important new social practices of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Hobsbawm and Ranger 2013: 298). Sports history can play a significant role in understanding the evolution of human civilization, society, and Karatoya: NBU J. Hist. Vol. 17 ISSN: 2229-4880 186 culture in a holistic sense. After the establishment of British rule in India, on the one hand, Western sports came into vogue, and on the other hand, traditional sports of the Indian subcontinent also became popular. The article gives a brief description of the sports practised in India in the contemporary period, as a legacy of what the scenario was in the colonial period and how it evolved. The year 1721 is the year when the English sailors who arrived on the Cambay coast of Gujarat first organised a cricket game among themselves, which is probably the first cricket game held in the Indian subcontinent. However, the eighteenth century gives no further information about the practice of Western sports in India. On the other hand, the nineteenth century gives a plethora of information regarding the spread of these sports. The year 2008 has been chosen as the end date of the discussion of the article as Abhinav Bindra became the first Indian competitor to win a gold medal in the men's 10-metre air rifle event in the individual category at the Olympic Games held in Beijing, China, which gives not only an impression of the legacy of the sports which started in the colonial period but also how it became professionalized Media of Transmission: With the arrival of the British in India, Western sports became popular in this country. The British and other Europeans who came to this country introduced sports that were common in their native lands as part of their entertainment and leisure. The European clubs formed in different parts of India were mainly based on sports activities. In the early stages, clubs were a leisurely entertainment area for Europeans to socialize and drink among themselves. George Orwell, a strong critic of colonialism, said about the European clubs established in India in the following words, “The spiritual citadel, the real seat of the British power” (Orwell 1989: 14). Bombay Turf Club centered on horse racing was established in 1800, Madras Cricket Club in 1846, Calcutta Rowing Club in 1875, Bangalore Club in 1868, Bombay Gymkhana in 1875. The main objective behind the creation of Bombay Gymkhana was to bring sports like cricket, football, polo, etc., under the umbrella of one club, which was later joined by sports like tennis, hockey, and badminton (Bombay Gymkhana 1964: 2). All these clubs were reserved for whites. Even among the British, there was a financial stratification, with Indian Civil Service officers at the highest level and ordinary soldiers and Eurasians at the lowest level. In many cases, the clubs were reserved or specified for certain professional people, such as the United Service Club, which was reserved only for military professionals (Allen 1975: 101). From the beginning of the twentieth century, various British clubs began to open their membership to Europeans as well as Indians. Both British and Indian members were accepted in the Calcutta Club (1908) and the Wellington Club (1918) (Sen 2015: 35). Throughout the nineteenth century, except for a few schools and missionary institutions, the British did not take any initiative to promote their sports among Indians. Nevertheless, ordinary Indians were attracted to Western sports and started forming clubs to organize games. The Parsis were perhaps the first among Indians to be attracted to Western sports, especially cricket, and organized the games on a larger scale and formed clubs. In 1848, the Parsis established Karatoya: NBU J. Hist. Vol. 17 ISSN: 2229-4880 187 the Oriental Cricket Club and, in 1850, the Young Zoroastrian Club. In the second half of the nineteenth century, the process of club formation among the Parsis accelerated, and by 1888, the Parsis had formed about 27 clubs centered around the game of cricket, as noted by the Parsi cricketer of that time, Mehallasha Edulji Pavri. Following the Parsis, other Indians were attracted to European sports and started forming clubs to organize the sports. The Maratha students at Elphinstone High School formed the Bombay Union Cricket Club in 1861 and the Hindu Cricket Club in 1877. Aligarh Cricket Club was founded in Mohammedan Anglo Oriental College in 1879, and Madras United Cricket Club was founded in 1891 by Buchi Babu Naidu in Madras (Sen 2015: 47-8). Just as the game of cricket became popular in the Bombay Presidency in the western part of India and the Madras Presidency in the southern region, and clubs started forming based on that game, in the Bengal Presidency in the eastern part of India, the game of football became popular, and clubs were formed. In 1878, the Traders Club was formed as the first football club in India, which was later renamed as the Dalhousie Club. It should be noted that although the Calcutta Football Club was formed in 1872, it was mainly formed around the game of rugby. Various teams of British military regiments in the city of Calcutta and its surrounding areas introduced the game of football. Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari was probably the first Indian to participate in a major football game, and the Boys Club formed under his initiative was the first football club formed by Indians. The Howrah United Club, the Calcutta Rangers, Naval Volunteers, Armenian Club, etc., were formed during this period. After this, Presidency College, Calcutta Medical College, and Shibpur Engineering College formed their own football teams as important educational institutions in Kolkata. Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari was associated first with the Presidency College Club and later with the Wellington Club, and finally in 1877 with the Sobhabazar Club. In the 1880s, several football clubs were established in Calcutta, among which the most notable are the National Association, Town Club, Kumartuli, Aryan, Mohun Bagan, etc. The Muslim community established a football club called Jubilee Club in 1877, which was known as Mohammedan Sporting Club from 1891. Apart from Calcutta, football clubs were also established in other important cities in Bengal. Town Club in Chinsurah in 1883, Chinsurah Sporting in 1890, Howrah Sporting Club in Howrah in 1889, Wari Club was established by a zamindar named Surendranath Roy in Dhaka in 1898, and Victoria Sporting Club was formed in 1903 as a rival of Wari Club (Sen 2015: 50-2). Outside of the clubs, one of the areas where Western sports were popularized in India was among the British Army. Sport was one of the means for British soldiers to entertain themselves outside the homeland and to preserve the link with the culture of the homeland. A British soldier wrote, “We had one great weapon against boredom. The answer was sport, sport, sport” (Allen 1975: 156). Sport was particularly prevalent in the British army. Even when various regiments of the army were travelling from one place to another, they used to organize exhibition games with the students at local colleges and participate in the games. At the government level, encouragement was also given regarding the introduction Karatoya: NBU J. Hist. Vol. 17 ISSN: 2229-4880 188 of various sports in the army. In 1863, the Royal Commission on the Sanitary State of the Army in India report attributed the high mortality of British soldiers in India to their lazy lifestyle and lack of physical exercise (Mason and Riedi 2010: 33). After the Great Revolt of 1857, when the colonial government decided to increase the number of British soldiers in the British Army stationed in India to a ratio of 1:2 to Indian soldiers, sports also became important as a means of bonding between Indian and British soldiers. British troops in India always consisted of both English and Indian soldiers. Sports such as cricket, football, and boxing were prevalent in the army, and even in the early stages, football competitions were dominated by army teams (Sen 2015: 37-8). The British government had no specific policy regarding the spread of Western sports in India and the colonies as a whole. The personal role of Christian missionaries and teachers of English-medium schools was particularly important in the spread of Western sports in the colonies. After the Great Revolt of 1857, the British Government of India and the rulers of the native states tried to establish good relations between themselves. When the native rulers became interested in English education, English-medium schools were established in different parts of the country for the rulers and princes of the native states. Most of the teachers in these schools were British, and most of them started giving special importance to Western sports in these schools (Sen 2015: 60-9). Most of the rulers of Indian native states were educated in British-run schools, so they took an interest in Western sports from the late nineteenth century onward and organized and sponsored Western sports (Sen 2015: 74). Thus, through various media, Western sports became popular in India. And despite these games having colonial cultural elements, people from the larger Indian society were attracted to them. Gradually, these sports became associated with issues like nationalism and communalism and eventually became an integral part of the Indian socio-cultural milieu. Cricket: With the arrival of the British, all the Western sports that came to India included hockey, football, and cricket. In the early days, the sailors and workers of the merchant ships of the English East India Company who came to India used to participate in sports among themselves for leisure in the port cities. In 1721, English sailors at the port city of Cambay on the Gujarat coast participated in a game of cricket among themselves, possibly the first cricket competition organized in India (Majumdar 2008: 75). The British government also encouraged the spread of cricket in India, seeing cricket as an unrecognized means of national cultural integration and an “unofficial instrument of state cultural policy” (Appaduria 1996: 93). The game of cricket gained popularity mainly in the western part of India in the then Bombay Presidency, i.e., present-day Maharashtra and Gujarat, and later in the Madras Presidency, i.e., present-day Tamil Nadu region. Among the Indians, the Parsis were probably the first to be attracted by Western sports and organize the game of cricket on a large scale. Proximity and affinity with the British due to trade probably also attracted the Parsis to British sports. Since the second half of the nineteenth century, they Karatoya: NBU J. Hist. Vol. 17 ISSN: 2229-4880 189 have built clubs based on the game of cricket. The Parsis’ love of cricket was not well received by the British, and there were even signs of conflict between the two in Bombay from 1868 onwards, particularly over the use of playing fields (Sen 2015: 47-9). Although they eventually obtained permission to build their own gymnasium, similar to the Bombay Gymnasium, which consisted of British. Earlier in 1886 and 1887, a group of Parsis visited England and participated in cricket games with various teams there. In 1889, the Parsi Gymkhana defeated the Bombay Gymkhana, which later became an annual competition. . In 1890, they also defeated an English team. These games used to attract huge crowds, which is indicative of the popularity of the games. Parsis' victories against white cricket teams were seen by many ordinary Indians as a victory of non-white Indians against the white British, while many Parsis saw it as an expression of their deep affection for British culture. Inspired by the Parsis, the Hindu and Muslim communities of Bombay also tried to establish their own gymnasiums. As a result, the Islam Gymkhana (1891) and the Hindu Gymkhana (1892) were built after getting usable ground from the government. In this regard, the contribution of the then Governor of Bombay, Lord Harris (1890-1895), is particularly significant. Under his initiative, vast land along the sea in Mumbai, as individual plots, was given to different cricket clubs. Keeping his contributions in mind, the ‘Harris Shield Cricket Tournament’ was started in 1896 at the school level in Bombay, which is still the oldest cricket competition in India (Majumdar 2019: 17). The first cricket competition between Parsis and Europeans started in Bombay in 1889, and in 1912, the Hindu and Muslim Gymkhana joined this competition. And still later, the Pentangular cricket competition was started with the addition of the Anglo-Indian cricket team, along with the above-mentioned teams. Thus, the cricket competition that started in Bombay on the basis of the division of communities continued till 1946 (Sen 2015: 53-6). From the end of the nineteenth century, English-educated rulers of native Indian states were also attracted to the game of cricket because this sport was one of the means of establishing rapprochement with the British rulers. Historian Richard Cashman said, ‘‘Cricket was one of the languages of the Raj and those who could master its subtle inflexions and rhythms could expect to exert a greater influence on colonial policy makers’’ (Cashman 1980: 47). The rulers of the native states made a special contribution to the spread and development of cricket. The small states patronized the game of cricket for two reasons: firstly, because of their small size, they chose cricket as a means of integrating themselves into the British administrative structure, and gaining due importance from the British, and establishing an alliance with them; secondly, due to the small size of these native states, the financial resources were much lower and the cost of sponsoring cricket was much less than maintaining polo horses, i.e., sponsorship of cricket was less costly in terms of finances, which made it attractive to them (Sen 2015: 93). Cricket in Bengal also received patronage from the native states. King Nipendrakrishna of Cooch Behar and King Yogendra Narayan of Natore patronized the game of cricket out of their personal rivalry. Among them, Yogendra Narayan was influenced by the nationalist spirit and formed a cricket team with Karatoya: NBU J. Hist. Vol. 17 ISSN: 2229-4880 190 indigenous players, one of whom was Balo Palwankar and his two brothers, Vithal and Ganpat. However, he stopped sponsoring cricket when the rivalry ended with the death of the King of Cooch Behar (Sen 2015: 89-90). Cricket in India grew in popularity after independence in 1947 and later became widespread, although the Indian team’s success in the game at the international level was negligible until the 1983 World Cup victory. While describing the popularity of cricket in India, Ashish Nandy rightly said that “Cricket is an Indian game accidentally discovered by the English” (Nandy 2001: 1). In India, since 1948, cricket has been broadcast mainly through All India Radio (AIR) in major cities. Commentary on the game began, which played an important role in creating mass public support for the sport, as described by Richard Cashman (Cashman 1980: 142). In the 1960s, the sport’s audience expanded further when cricket was broadcast in major Indian languages such as Hindi, Bengali, and Tamil (Appadurai 1996:102). Ashish Nandy while describing the popularity of cricket in India and highlighting the similarity of test cricket matches with Indian, especially Hindu tradition, said, “The duration of a test match lasting up to thirty-three hours and even then often ending in a draw, would tax the patience of most people except the Gita-devouring ahistorical Indians, who continue to try to see it as pleasurable and as an epitome desireless, karmic life’’ (Nandy 2001: 21). Similarly, historian Ramchandra Guha while analyzing the reasons for the popularity of cricket in India said, ‘‘Indians have more time, Indians like doing things together, Hindu don’t really mind a ‘draw’, Hindus are culturally syncretic and choose to absorb foreign imports rather than reject them: those are the lines on which we might begin to explain the extraordinary Indian love for cricket” (Guha 2014: 340). Broadcasting of cricket games on television and the start of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2007 made cricket more popular. However, Ramchandra Guha criticized IPL, saying it was ‘‘Representative of the worst sides of Indian capitalism and society” (Guha 2013: June 1). According to Mihir Bose, IPL is an entertainment with which the film world and politicians, as well as cricketers, are associated (Bose 2006: 86). Football: Football, another sport originating from the West, gained great popularity in the eastern part of India, especially in the Bengal Presidency. More specifically, several football clubs were established around the greater city of Kolkata. Although in the early stages, British club football teams, especially army football teams, maintained their exclusivity, gradually, Indian football teams were also formed. Several competitions were being organized on football games. The Durand Cup is the oldest football tournament in India, having been established in 1888 in Shimla. For a long time, this competition was limited to only British football teams. The Traders Challenge Cup started in 1889, and was the first football competition where European teams, as well as Indian football teams, also got the opportunity to participate. The Rovers Club was formed in Bombay in 1890, and the Rovers Cup competition was started in 1891. In 1892, the Indian Football Association was formed without Indian representatives, and under its supervision, the IFA Shield Karatoya: NBU J. Hist. Vol. 17 ISSN: 2229-4880 191 competition was organized in 1893, which was reserved only for British teams for a long time. From 1894, the First Division Football League started in Calcutta, which was limited to British teams only until 1914. Apart from Bengal, football clubs started to be formed, and competitions were organized in other parts of India, especially in Deccan, as evidenced by the start of competitions like the Madras Gymkhana Cup, the Bangalore Brewery Cup, the Local Gymkhana Cup in Secunderabad, etc. Until 1930, the army's regimental football teams dominated all competitions. Indian football clubs formed in Calcutta started to compete with the British, and Sobhabazar Club was the first team to compete with the British teams. Shobhabazar began participating in the Traders Cup competition from 1889 and became the first Indian team to defeat a British team in 1892. Although the National Association became the first Indian team to win the Traders Cup in 1900 (Sen 2015: 52- 6). Influenced by the nationalist spirit in the early twentieth century, the playing field also became a centre of patriotism, and the IFA Shield victory by Mohun Bagan in 1911 against the British teams became a symbol of national inspiration (Sen 2015: 102-12). Founded by the Muslim community, Mohammedan Sporting Club won the Calcutta League and the IFA Shield simultaneously in 1936. After the partition of the country in 1947, the team faced a setback due to a lack of proper patronage, as many of the wealthy Muslim community members, who were mainly the main patrons of the team, left West Bengal and migrated to the then East Pakistan, the present-day Bangladesh (Sen 2015: 121-33). The establishment of the East Bengal Club in 1920 and its rivalry with Mohun Bagan started the Ghati-Bangal conflict, which intensified with the partition and the subsequent influx of refugees, as the refugee population saw the East Bengal team as their representative on the football field in terms of cultural rivalry. Although barring some periods during the 1920s, players from the two teams never specifically represented Ghati-Bangal (Bandyopadhyay 2019: 87-97). The post-independence success of the Indian football team was, however, very limited. Winning the first Asian Games in 1951, winning the Colombo Cup four times, which was played between India, Pakistan, Sinhalese and Burma between 1952 and 1955, finishing fourth in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, and winning the Asian Games in Jakarta in 1962 are some of the notable achievements of the Indian football team. The bronze medal at the 1970 Asian Games was the Indian football team’s last significant success on the international stage. Indian football gradually lost its public support when European Football Leagues began to be shown on television, and Indian audiences became aware of the difference in quality of play compared to their own domestic football teams. Hockey: Hockey is perhaps India's most successful Western sport in the colonial and post- independence eras. The first organized game of hockey in India started in Calcutta in 1885, and the first hockey club was formed in that year. A decade later, in 1895, the Brighton Cup in Calcutta and the Aga Khan Tournament in Bombay began. In 1903, the Army Cantonment and then the Punjab University Sports Tournament and the Lahore Water Karatoya: NBU J. Hist. Vol. 17 ISSN: 2229-4880 192 Tournament started. Like the Bombay Pentangular in cricket, the Brighton Cup in hockey popularized hockey outside the army cantonments. In 1925, the Indian Hockey Federation was formed with the support of the British colonial government. The organization achieved world recognition in 1927, and that led to the first Indian hockey team to participate in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. Between 1928 and 1956, India won six Olympic gold medals in hockey. India won gold medals in the Olympics again in 1964 and 1980 (Majumdar and Mehta 2020: 147-51). During this entire period, the growth and stature India achieved in hockey were unmatched in any other sport, like cricket or football. After the 1980s, India's ranking in hockey declined, and India again failed to achieve significant success in any international competition. Polo: In addition to the introduction of Western sports by the British in India, polo was one of the sports that the British also adopted in India. While describing the game of polo, the British rightly said that “Indian game before it becomes an English one” (Blunt 1937: 221). The English first observed the game in Manipur and started forming clubs to organize the game. In 1863, the first polo match between Barrackpore Club and Calcutta Club was held at Calcutta Maidan (Younghusband 1890: 2). Inter-Regimental Competition and Indian Polo Association Championship were the two main polo competitions of that time. After gaining popularity among the English and being adopted and spread by them, polo became a modern sport and spread throughout the world. In 1871, a game of polo was held on Hounslow Heath, England (Sen 2015: 38-44). Since polo required high-quality horses that were very expensive to maintain, ordinary, low-paid workers couldn't participate in the game. Only high-paid workers could get a chance to play the game. The game of polo has always been a symbol of the aristocracy. Since the game of polo was already popular in India and because of its connection with the nobility, as the high-ranking British participated in the game, the rulers of the Indian native states also participated extensively in the game as a means of establishing good relations with the British. The game of polo became a symbol of the nobility. Rulers in states like Hyderabad, Gwalior, Mysore, Kashmir, Jodhpur, Patiala, etc., took special interest in the game of polo and formed their own polo teams, which participated in various competitions in the country and even abroad (Sen 2015: 78-81). Hunting: Hunting as a leisure or sport became quite popular during the British rule, but originated as early as ancient and medieval times. Indian native rulers, from time immemorial, preferred hunting as an activity of profound importance. As hunting has always been associated with the aristocracy, the British have always been particularly interested in hunting. Hunts were organized in their honour, especially when high-ranking British officials visited native states. Besides various species of deer, tigers were also hunted and hunting the latter has been considered immensely prestigious. Hunting as a whole was seen Karatoya: NBU J. Hist. Vol. 17 ISSN: 2229-4880 193 as a means of displaying masculine prowess. There are several accounts in various contemporary sources of how large numbers of wild animals died as a result of hunting by the rulers of native states and the British across India. This period also saw major changes in hunting equipment. In the case of ancient and medieval hunting, bows, spears, etc., were the main tools. Although the use of firearms gradually started in the Mughal period, these became the sole hunting tools during the British rule (Sen 2015: 44-7). Wrestling: Wrestling or Malla-kriya, which was prevalent in modern times, had its origin in quite early times. Rajnarayan Bose strove to improve the Bengali physical culture as a protest against the image that the British portrayed of Indians and Bengalis as having weak physical abilities. Under his initiative and the patronage of the Tagore family, the Hindu Mela used to organize athletics, gymnastics, and other traditional Indian sports such as stick fighting. Competitions were conducted between Bengali wrestlers and Punjabi wrestlers, considered warrior castes. Joseph Alter states that all the wrestlers or malla warriors who received the patronage of the native nobility during the final phase of the Mughal rule belonged to the Muslim community. One of the wrestlers during the colonial rule is Gama, whose real name is probably Ghulam Mohammad. Gama, Imam Bux, Ahmed Bux, and Gamu from India participated in the world wrestling competition coordinated by the John Bull Society in London in 1910. Although earlier in 1899, two Indian wrestlers named Ghulam and Kalu, went to Paris under the supervision of Motilal Nehru and signed to participate in wrestling matches from different countries. Gobra Guha, a native of Bengal, also excelled in wrestling and travelled to Europe and the United States several times to compete with wrestlers there. Another notable wrestler from Bengal is Bhavani Charan Saha (Sen 2015: 165-85). Other Sports: Besides the above sports, sports like boxing, tennis, badminton, golf and modern gymnastics also became popular in India during the British rule. However, these sports did not gain much popularity in Indian society, unlike football or cricket. In 1905, B.K. Nehru participated in Wimbledon as the first Indian tennis player. In fact, the first Indian representation in Tennis happened at the Davis Cup in 1928, long before the Indian team was represented in cricket in 1932 (Sen 2015: 212). Although India participated in the first Olympics in 1920, it did not achieve significant success in this field for a long time. In terms of team success till 1980, India won the gold medal in hockey, but as the first individual medal in 1952, where K. D. Yadav won a bronze medal in wrestling (Majumdar and Mehta 2008: 311-3). India had to wait almost 40 years to win an Olympic medal again at the individual level, and again in 1996 when Leander Page won a bronze medal in tennis at the Olympics (Majumdar and Mehta 2020: 328-9). The success of Indian women players during this period was also limited. Kamaljit Sandhu’s gold medal at the 1970 Asian Games was the first individual medal in international competition won by an Indian woman (Sen Karatoya: NBU J. Hist. Vol. 17 ISSN: 2229-4880 194 2015: 293). On the other hand, at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Karnam Malleswari won the bronze medal in weightlifting in the 69 kg category, the first individual medal won by an Indian woman at the Olympics (Majumdar and Mehta 2020: 330). In fact, India continued to achieve significant Olympic success in the twenty-first century. Abhinav Bindra won India's first individual gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (Majumdar 2019: 165). Initiatives to promote sports: After independence, initiatives were taken to promote sports at the government level as well. The Central Advisory Board of Physical Education was established in 1951 based on the recommendations of the School Education Affairs Committee formed under the chairmanship of Tara Chand in 1948. In 1954, the All-India Council of Sports was formed under the chairmanship of K.M. Cariappa, whose task was to maintain coordination between the government and various national sports federations. The Sports and Welfare Department was formed in 1958 under the Department of Education, Government of India. Since 1961, the Arjuna Award has been given by the Government of India in recognition of special contributions in the field of sports (Sen 2015: 221-2). Private industrial Institutes also participated in the promotion of sports and appointed sportspersons to various positions in their departments. As one of the oldest and largest industrial conglomerates in India, the Tata Group has been providing commercial sponsorship to sports since colonial times, forming the Tata Sports Club in 1937 and being the first industrial-commercial organization in India to do so (Sen 2015: 230). Conclusion: Since sports are a part of contemporary society and since society is changing, as a living part of society, various changes occur in the field of sports. Since most of the sports practised in India today were introduced by the colonial rulers, they can be considered essentially as remnants of the colonial culture. However, these colonial sports gradually became an integral part of the Indian socio-cultural milieu. Since the colonial period, sports have become an arena of expression of nationalism where Indians could compete eye-to- eye with their colonial rulers and even defeat them. These sports have allowed India to showcase its talents on the international stage, as most Western sports are now organized at the international level. Just as India has placed itself at the seat of excellence in many fields, including cricket and hockey in Western sports, on the other hand, it has the potential to develop its talent in many other fields. India's sporting success in terms of population is indeed limited, and even in terms of importance, there is variation between different sports. 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