ABSTRACT
The relationship between politics, economics and soccer in colonial and post-colonial India has hardly ever been a subject of serious scholarly inquiry. There has been major development in this field in Europe, Latin America and Australasia, where soccer is recognized as a phenomenon of growing significance in society. In view of the limited coverage given elsewhere to the subject, Striving to Score in the first three essays gives due attention to the association of soccer with burgeoning anticolonial nationalism. It also explores the role of soccer in the formation of a distinctive, Indian identity in the face of self-assured imperial rule. From the closing years of the nineteenth century both took the lead in promoting soccer among the masses of the province. Soccer is the lens that helps us understand the complexities of colonial and post-colonial India, to place in proper perspective the changing social circumstances, economic realities and political needs that compelled Indians to redefine their involvement with sport.
