ABSTRACT
This essay charts the relationship between cricket and an emerging urban society in India in the first half of the twentieth century through an analysis of the Bombay Pentangular cricket tournament. The foremost tournament in pre-partition India, the Bombay Pentangular, controlled by the communal gymkhanas1 in the city, had its inception in the Presidency matches of the 1890s.2 These matches were initially played between the Europeans and the Parsees. In course of time, the Pentangular tournament came into existence, with the inclusion of the Hindus in 1907, the Muslims in 1912 and the ‘Rest’, comprising mainly Christians and Anglo-Indians in 1937. Despite considerable opposition, the tournament continued until the 1940s, to be finally abolished in January 1946.3 The eventual discontinuance, as existing historiography would tell us, was the outcome of prolonged agitation against the communal organization of the tournament. However, beneath this politically correct rhetoric, aligned with the broader vision of a secular nation state, may be found deeper politico-economic factors, which played a significant role in guiding the course of the anti-Pentangular movement. The influence of these forces of commercialization, bureaucratization and professionalism, components of a heightened urban consciousness in Bombay/Indian society of the early twentieth century remains obscure in any study of sport in the Indian context.
