Question

write short note on "caste and cricket".

Answer 1

Introduced in the late 18th century, it caught the imagination of Indians for varied reasons. It met urges for social mobility by uplifting the underprivileged in a caste-ridden society. To others, it was a non-violent way of challenging the British - "a desire to meet the Englishman on equal terms on the ground and vanquish him".Until the 1880s, cricket in India was an upper-caste preserve. The Parsis of Bombay, comprador capitalists, were the first to adopt cricket in the late 1830s. Early Hindu cricket was also of an elite nature. Cricket's social base widened from 1884, when patriarchs around the country recruited low-class sportsmen as professionals. Dalit star Palwankar Baloo broke new ground toward egalitarian society.