Diasporic pugilists and fighting for national belonging: Haroon Khan and the 2010 Commonwealth Games

Abstract

The 2010 Delhi Games, anticipated as a chance to prove the administrative acumen of Britain's former colony, became a debate about infrastructural failures and Indian governmental incompetence. Within this charged atmosphere of postcolonial rivalry, Haroon Iqbal Khan's decision to represent Pakistan was regarded with suspicion in the British press. His subsequent success at the Games resulted in his popular repatriation by the press. Considering Khan's portrayal in the British sporting media within the history of British Asian representation, I argue that the Khan case demonstrates that the widely reported and publicly debated membership decisions on the part of British Asian athletes are framed in terms of the athletes' ‘personal choice’, and as evidence of their successful assimilation. Despite their celebrity status, they are subject to the same contingent national belonging of other diasporic Asians in Britain. Their ‘Britishness’ itself is contingent upon sporting success, even as their success is claimed as a national victory.