ABSTRACT
Although the countries of South Asia cut a sorry gure in FIFA rankings,1 football in this region ranks high in terms of its culture, tradition and mass following. While South Asian society and culture have shaped the history of football in the region, the game in turn has in uenced the various processes at work in South Asian society, politics and culture. The history and evolution of football in South Asia have to date centred round certain key themes – broad histories of football in these countries; history of the clubs, tournaments and associations; football’s interface with colonialism, nationalism and communalism; regional growth, politics and rivalry of soccer; the impact of Partition; the club-nation con ict; place of South Asian states in international football; football culture; fandom and spectator violence; football literature and histories; professionalism and commercialism; the impact of globalisation and satellite revolution; women’s football; and so on, in the backdrop of the game’s evolution from its introduction and adoption as an unimportant pastime to its adaptation and popularisation as a mass spectator sport in colonial and postcolonial South Asia. By revisiting these themes, the chapter will attempt to reconstruct the history of the game in South Asia through a study of the evolution of football in two of the most football-crazy nations in the region – India and Bangladesh. In the process, it will also try to identify questions that still need to be asked, raise issues that urge serious debates and o er insights that can stimulate future research on football in South Asia.
