ABSTRACT
In the modern world sport in its political implications is perhaps more significant than sport as an integral component of leisure. Colonial India was no exception to this rule. An atypical representation of unconventional cultural nationalism was reflected through the Indian pursuit of football as an everyday cultural activity in late-colonial India, especially in Bengal. The massification of Indian football and the sub-cultures that grew out of it gradually came to be intertwined with the rising tide of nationalism. Football as a novel instrument of cultural nationalism had managed to establish a distinctive domain, free from colonial interference, in early-twentieth-century Bengal. This spirit of nationalism affected the patterns of spectator culture and fan sub-culture in colonial Indian football to a great extent. The trend of British racism on the soccer field came to a head in 1925 on the issue of East Bengal Club’s promotion to the First Division of the Calcutta Football League.
