ABSTRACT
This chapter is a modified and extended version of the paper I presented at an
international conference on ‘Sport, Culture and Society in Modern India’ held in Calcutta University in 2003. I am delighted to offer it as a part of the effort to celebrate
the achievements of Professor. J.A. Mangan, who has shaped the course of the development of sports studies in South Asia. His keynote address at the department of
history, University of Calcutta, in September 2003 inspired many social science students, with the result that sports studies is today formally a part of the postgraduate teaching
curriculum in India.
