Politics of Leisure in Colonial India: 'Lagaan': Invocation of a Lost History? Author(s): Boria Majumdar Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 36, No. 35 (Sep. 1-7, 2001), pp. 3399-3404 Published by: Economic and Political Weekly Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4411061 Accessed: 19-08-2019 05:58 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Economic and Political Weekly is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Economic and Political Weekly This content downloaded from 134.114.107.45 on Mon, 19 Aug 2019 05:58:14 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Politics of Leisure in Colonial India 'Lagaan': Invocation of a Lost history? It is possible to read in 'Lagaan' not only evidence of Indian resistance to British imperialism but in the filmic and imaginative mode, a commentary on the evolution ant development of cricket in colonial India and an attempt to recover, in fiction, some of the lost history of the game. BORIA MAJUMDAR darity against the might of the colonial Champaner is outraged that a young, state. 'Lagaan', for me is a commentary, spirited, peasant boy, Bhuvan, describes ricket is a fascinating subject but in the filmic and imaginative mode, on cricketthe as 'feringhee' version of 'gilli Indian cricket is more so because evolution and development of cricket danda',1? in a game which he, Bhuvan, has of the peculiar traits of the Indian colonial India. In the last scene of the film, played since he was a child. Captain Russell people who play it. On the field of play there is a voice-over by Amitabh challenges Bhuvan in the presence of the the Indian, it has been correctly said, isBachchan6, a lamenting that despite his provincial Raja and the rest of the villagers split second sooner in sighting the ball. Hisvalour on the sporting field, Bhuvan, the to beat the English team in a cricket match, reflex is quicker and his wrists more flex- central character in the film, has been failing which the entire province would be ible and pliant than those of his, say, English relegated to the dusty shelves of news- charged three times their share of annual counterpart...That is why you see a Nayadu paper archives, a very apt comment on the tax or 'Lagaan'. Should these country or a Constantine doing the 'impossible' lost history of our de facto national game7. bumpkins succeed in the impossible task things - things that shock the orthodox In this paper, I draw on the representations of defeating the English team, their taxes, mind. "It's not done", they say, brought ofup the game in the film to comment on the and those of the entire province shall be as they are in the exactitudes of the cricket- lost realities of Indian cricket, facts largely revoked for three years. With the odds so ing science. They forget, though, that ignored in existing historiography on the heavily against him, since twice the tax cricket is after all, a game and a game does subject.8 Furthermore, 'Lagaan' helps was already upon the village, Bhuvan not remain quite a game if it is does not rectify certain conventional wisdoms about accepts the challenge notwithstanding bring out the characteristics of an indivi- the evolution of cricket in India, viewing opposition from his fellow villagers. dual as much of a nation. That is why it aas more than an aristocratic pastime of The cricket match thus becomes an arena Ranji or a Duleep, schooled in the exact certain elite groups. for asserting indigenous strength against science as is'taught an Englishman, never- the might of the colonial state. The sport- theless revealed his national traits, uncon- II ing prowess of the villagers and their sciously perhaps, in a flick here or a tap there ultimate victory help them emphasise that which were peculiarly native but which 'Lagaan' goes deep into the psyche of their 'Indian' identity was in no way in- became great contributions to the game the Indian masses. It brings together the ferior to the whites'. Native mastery of the itself. To point this out is not to extol thetwo most potent components of Indian colonial sport of cricket emerges as the Indian at cricket as against others, just cultural as life - the magic of Hindi cinema leveler between the coloniser and the colo- Gandhiji's loin cloth does not necessarily and the excitements of the game of cricket, nised. The film however, goes beyond the constitute the ideal in the Indian national told against the setting of the traditional cricket field. The aspirations of the village dress nor an example to the rest of the Indian village. It is therefore a collage of of Champaner to enjoy their own agricul- world. Yet, both are significant; they re- the most powerful elements in Indian mass tural produce, the victory of rural goodness veal the nation through the game or through culture, a colourful and patriotic tale of the over imperial craftiness can be seen as an the kit - for the better or for the worse. glories of Indian cricket, told through the evocation of a Gandhian critique. Cham- A three hour 42 minute film with a medium of Hindi cinema. The infallibility paner becomes a filmic embodiment of a budget of Rs 25 crore, Aamir Khan2 ofand this formula is not accidental. Hindi pristine village community, untainted by Asutosh Gowarikar' s3 Lagaan'4 has filmsbeen and cricket are pillars of Indian public the vices of industrial modernity. The Indian accepted as one of the most successful culture, and unlike other 'cricketing' films9 farmer takes centre-stage in the film, Bollywood5 blockbusters of recent years, which have failed miserably at the box- emerging as a modern citizen asserting his both in India and abroad. The film's suc- office; the success of 'Lagaan' has accrued right of self-determination by successfully cess, as I see it, goes much beyond the from an ideal blending of the two. ousting the foreigner from his domain. fantastic camera work, gripping story line Set in 1893, 'Lagaan' is the tale of a team Indeed there is an element of the 'feel and melodious music. As a sport historian, of village men playing cricket against angood' of the Bollywood blockbuster genre working on the historical centrality of oppressive colonial regime in the village ('Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander', 'Ghulam') to cricket in Indian socio-economic and of Champaner in Kutch to save their lives, the plot. But, there is much more in the political life, I read 'Lagaan' not simply families and land. At the outset of the film, film that distinguishes it from other rep- as a lore of Indian resistance to British captain Russell the arrogant British army resentatives of this genre. Released in the imperialism, or the victory of rural soli-officer in charge of the cantonment firstat year of the new millenium, 'Lagaan' Economic and Political Weekly September 1, 20013399 This content downloaded from 134.114.107.45 on Mon, 19 Aug 2019 05:58:14 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms captures the pulse of the Indian nation sion of capital, its western education and superiority. As Guran, the village state. It is a nationalist tale depicted via an urge for social mobility within the godman,20 plays an impossible shot hit- the fortunes of the country's most popular colonial framework. All these factors it ting the ball over the wicketkeeper the game. To this extent, the film is a first and may be noted were also present among audience erupts with joy. This shot can crucial cinematic tribute to India's buried other Indian communities in the early 19th easily be perceived as that 'moment of cricket history. century. Yet, they did not take to cricket departure', 21 when an indigenous brand until the 1880s and 1890s. As a result, the of Indian nationalism takes off. When 1l explanations advanced in existing histo- Deva22 hurls his deliveries at an English riography fail to successfully account for batsman, nationalism is at its 'moment of Historians of the game in India 1 have the origins of the game in India. How was arrival'.23 The colonial mission of import- always attempted to represent cricket as a it that the Parsis, who, while they displayed ing sport as a civilising tool is successfully sport appropriated from the British rulers the same characteristics as many others, turned on its head. A non-violent arena of as part of an emulative enterprise. The were the only ones who started playing assertion, cricket is successfully trans- close links, if any, between cricket and organised cricket in the early 19th century, formed into a tool to subvert colonial rule. nationalism are seen as a very contempo- while it was only in the later years of the 'Lagaan' also leads us to rethink certain rary phenomenon. That the two could be 19th century that the game was taken upclaims that have been made on behalf of linked historically is still seen as an un- by the rest of the country? Generalisations, nationalism; namely that it arose in the founded and fallacious proposition, as on the basis of the Parsi experience, such 'spiritual' realm of society.24 Yet, in many evidenced by the following description by as the ones documented above, fail to take ways the process of cricket's appropria- Richard Cashman: into account the complex historical rea- tion in the film resembles a 'derivative Indian nationalism was less radical, in a sons that spurred the introduction of cricket discourse'.