Keep Casteism Away

Gail Omvedt writing in The Times of India(29/09/2005)(http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1245774.cms) has asked Indians to “ Don’t Cheer for Your country”, and prescribes a revival of Indian sports in schools, towns, villages. The prescription is based on a very superficial understanding of India and Indians. The comparison with the American situation where parents flock to watch their children at play and where Americans cheering Boston Red Sox or the neighbourhood school shows that such phenomenon can be seen in India also.
Omvedt refers to decentralised patriotism called small town patriotism. Such patriotisms have existed in this country for over a century. The rivalry between Mohun bagan and East Bengal in Kolkata, St. Stephen’s and Hindu in Delhi are a part of folklore. Inter village rivalry is also not unknown and the Times of India recently reported on a tournament in Bihar where even gangsters played cricket in a 20:20 format.
Omvedt has written a whole article without naming Cricket and refers to it as “a single game played in lands of the British Commonwealth” and “a colonial gentleman’s game”.
In her enthusiasm to deride cricket, she refuses to see the continuing tradition of indigenous games and sport in India. In the villages Kabaddi and KhoKho are played regularly and in any number of middle class apartment blocks games like Pitto and Kho Kho are played especially in view of constraints of space.
When people cheer Sania Mirza, Uberoi sisters and Rohan Bopanna, they are supporting players of other sports. Gail Omvedt must see DPS versus Modern basketball match to gauge local patriotism.And here local patriotism extends to things like Debate and quizzes. The annual Mukarji Memorial debate at St. Stephen’s in Delhi resembles a football match in terms of barracking.
The article however lapses into obscurantism and assumes that only upper caste people play cricket. The India seen from Nehru Memorial Library is of course very limited, but kids can be seen playing cricket in every nook and corner in Delhi and elsewhere , often with improvised bat and ball. There is a Hindi saying that forbids anyone asking a Sadhu his caste. This applies to the Indian cricket team as well. Class, yes but caste is generally not in public domain. Swaminathan Aiyar told us in the Economic Times that Sachin Tendulkar belonged to lower middle class. We all know that Kambli lived in a chawl in Mumbai and Solkar was son of a groundsman. But do we need to know their caste? Let us promote indigenous sports and also treat cricket as an international sport widely played in India and at the same time refrain from dividing sportspersons on caste lines. And surely Gail Omvedt has heard of Palwankar Vithal who led the Hindus in the Pentangular in 1923.