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CCI NG 3.7 Product: TOIDelhiBS PubDate: 26-09-2019 Zone: Delhi Edition: 1 Page: CAPDEL2 User: mohit.mathur2 Time: 09-25-2019 21:43 Color: CMYK THE TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHI THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2019 Why Gandhi said no to British India’s top cricket tournamentSUNDAY TIMES OF INDIA BENGALURU , 0 SUNDAY BEST SEPTEMBER 29, 2019 ahatma Gandhi and cricket Hindu Gymkhana, calling for a with- drawal from the tournament, it had the sounds a bit odd to start with. As much as the spectacles and the spinning wheel, walking MThe Mahatma, never of any support of only 70 members of the Gym- keen athletic dis- was one of the most iconic aspectskhana. of Gandhi’s The total persona membership of the position, trying Gymkhana stood at 900. This resolution THE SEVENTEENTH Mhis handAN at what was eventually passed by a small mar- commentary. classwas professional a colonial as captain. im- gin of 37 votes (280–243), particularly as A DALIT CONNECTION The West Indies only had Of ‘Silver Gandhi’ and The Mahatma a mark of regard for Gandhi. Gandhi began his crusade whiteport captains, to keep till 1960. the After may not have against untouchability with- decadesempire of injustice,together Frank Within a couple of weeks of Gandhi’s in a few years of arriving Worrell,wasn’t finest the of cricketers,most pronouncement against the Pentangu- played or followed from South Africa. On every noblest of men, became the occasion and at every forum, firstlogical black to thing captain to them. do. ahimsa for thelar, the police Maharajkumar of Vizianagram, the game but such Gandhi hammered away and AndYet, South he Africa,did have where one of the key patrons of cricket in co- was his leadership his speech at Nagpur in De- Gandhi’shis run-ins lifelong fight with began Jayanth Kodkani lonial India, declared that, “Mahatma cember 1920,Boria asking Majumdar people to on the night of 7 June, 1893 of nation and banish this most sinful, inhu- atthe Pietermaritzburg gentleman’s Station? nce again we hear Gandhi has expressed unequivocally society, cricket man practice, was a water- Apartheidgame Southfrom Africa time was scholars decon- on communal cricket. He gave it as his shed moment. In 1920, the banned from the Olympics in struct Gandhi sto- considered opinion that communal- Hindusto team time, had aeventually trio of the 1964 playing even as theya serious continued ries, analysts split became a willing O ism carried into the domain of sport is finesthand cricketers in – theall three discontinuance playing rugby andof cricketthe hairs over his political stance ally in his struggle brothersBombay – from the Pentangular Dalit com- with tournament, white teams from the Aus - and followers sing the gospel no happy augury for human growth. It munity. Baloo Palwankar, the tralia, England and New Zea- of satyagraha and ahimsa. S Giridhar and VJ Raghunath eldest,foremost had already cricket made a tournamentland. Matters came in tocolo- a head Some talk only about his be- is high time that we gave Pentangular name fornial himself India, as a spinnerwhere whenteams MCC were selected named Basil liefs. Others take a deeper cricket the burial it always deserved.” y all accounts, includ- of greatafter ability. communities: He had gone D’Oliveira Hindus, (a Muslims, mixed race look at the man who said his Other princes concurred. Following ing his own autobiog- with the All India team to South African who had be- “life is an open book.” raphy, Gandhi kept EnglandParsis, in 1911 Europeansand was out- andcome thea UK Rest. citizen) for their From the ninety volumes them, P Subbaraon, the BCCI president, more than a fair dis- standing Kausikon that tour Bandyopadhyay with 1968-69 tour in to hisSouth work Africa. of his collected works to the declared, “Now that Mahatmaji has spo- tance between him- over a“Mahatma 100 wickets. Even on at the his Pitch”Vorster, puts the it South nicely, African “It millions of words others have ken, I feel free to say that the authori- Bself and sports. A reluctant peak, because of his caste, Premier, threatened to not written about him makes for LITTLE satYagrahis: The young still rate Gandhi, and often evince a participant at school in the Baloois was interesting never made tocap explore- allow MCCthe illusions to play if itof in - massive trove of Gandhiana, healthy curiosity of the manties who sacrificed will be so doing much for the India right thing if they compulsory games, he never tain; lessera sporting players fromGandhi, the whocluded played D’Oliveira. little MCC but re - but there are ordinary as well abandon communal cricket.” was convinced that sports upper caste were made cap- fused to budge and called off as wondrous aspects about the a “silver-painted Gandhi” told of him as a walker. He who should occupy much of school tain. observed,Now in 1920, told he alsoor wrote the tour.a bit In about 1970, Southsports Af - Lalaman Amarnath you might have scored read ina brillianta news photographer241 for in theThe didn’t Pentangular tire of walking, thewas el- eventually curriculum. As for adults, he foundin himself general out and of cricketthe rica in was particular.” banished from in- theregular Hindus news in columns. the 1938 Pentangular.late 1980s. This He was a manabolished like ders in in my January village used 1946to say.” making way could never understand the team. His brothersMore than Vittal anda player, ternational young cricket. Gandhi It wasji and Aseveral workshop other on ahimsa players for boycottedmany we have the seen, ubiquifor -theSometimes Ranji Trophy foot-cramps as would India’s foremost time and effort they invested Shivram opted out in protest. only when South Africa lift- the Brazilian police, for exam- tous at fairs and exhibitions strike Nagaraju because of in this pastime and believed Theirwas team a lost much-respected the first ed apartheid umpire,The Times Of Indiaand - Delhi,an initiated 9/26/2019 as- Croppedtournament pageple. This report,Page: AA4after which Gandhi’s ap- across call the country, “imper- fatigue and dehydration, but it occupied an unnecessarily match.pect The PJof Hindu his Gymchildhood- steps for peared over sonating” Gandhi. Call him he stood frozen. large space in their lives. khanahighlighted management observed by Pyarelal racial in- a decadematch. ago, I understandNagaraju, a man this in his fifties,The TimesIn South of Africa, India, Gandhi Dec 7, 1940 SIGNING UP: The MCC team autographs, with Gandhi’s signature. this, saw the public support tegration said the idea hired by organisers of an ex- had set up Tolstoy Farm, THE AUTOGRAPH (Right) The India-SA Freedom Trophy for matches between India for thein Dalit his cricketers biography and ofand the demo - wasas toa markhu- hibition of grief as a liveover model of the about 20 miles away from Jo- And therefore, it is per- and South Africa, with Gandhi and Mandela’s images reinstatedMahatma Baloo and publishedhis cratic non GANDHI@ manizethe arrests the leader. and Everything impris- about him hannesburg. He frequently haps a most delicious piece of brothers. Vittal Palwankar – racial force. Gan- – the loin cloth, the watch had to leave the commune to our history, that in an auto- we believe he more than he arrived in India. His was a was madein captain1965. in“On 1923 and moonlit govern - dhianonments follow- ofhanging the satyagra- by the left side of his practise law in the city and so, graph book that had the sig- made up. constant battle–cry (since the when nights,the Hindus parties won theof Hindument that inghis, in Brazil more waist,especially the round-rimmed the walked the distance. Even in natures of the 16 cricketers of When people speak of Gan- apostle of non-violence has tournament,and Muslim he was carried boys assem-they re- isn’trecent un arrest- spectacles of leaders.” and the staff – his sixties, he chose to travel the MCC team that toured dhi and cricket, the story of called himself a commander on the shoulders of the other entered known to us, on foot, be it during monsoon India in 1933, the Mahatma the pernicious cricket tourna- in some context, our use of membersbled of thethere team. from differ-interna- thanksHe went onSOFT to add, COP “I Y or in the heat of May. Histo- has autographed it, nominat- ment called the Quadrangular the phrase battle-cry should ent quarters of thetional city mainlywould to discountenance rian Ram Guha quotes what ing himself as the seven- established by the British of- be alright) imploring the two and played games forcricket. an 150 thesuch efforts amusementsof made for the atfamiliar a image he wrote to Kasturba: “One teenth player of an English- ten comes up. The tourna- major communities to em- Fittingly, the first tour by the disciples like Lia Diskin, an of Gandhi. Except that his cannot propagate dharma by man’s party. Apparently, ment, as fans know, had four brace the spirit of living to- hour or so after dinner.reinstated He South (Gandhi Africaji was) timeArgentinian when whothe founded whole the ofbody the was thinking smeared with silver travelling in train or cars, nor Laxmi Merchant, sister of teams based on their religious gether. Though the Ranji Tro- did not participate into Gandhi’sthem but India loved in 1991.to worldPala Atenashould organisation be in mourning in paint, over so when a war he stood mo- in bullock carts. That can be India’s legendary opening affiliations contesting for a phy came into being in 1934, The two countries now play Sao Paulo, and thinks non- tionless for minutes at vari- done only on foot.” batsman Vijay Merchant, had trophy.