Spectator and violence: football in colonial and postcolonial Calcutta

Abstract

Football fandom and spectator violence remain mostly an under-researched field in India. Despite a rich heritage of fan culture in Bengal football, scholarly intervention into the subject has been few and far between. The present essay makes an attempt to redress this imbalance by focusing on the variegated aspects and nature of spectator behaviour in Calcutta football during colonial and postcolonial times. In doing so, fan culture becomes a lens to highlight the importance of wider forces such as nationalism, communalism, and sub-regionalism in the history of Calcutta football in the twentieth century. It also examines the trends of change and continuity in fandom, particularly in spectator hooliganism and violence, in the transition from colonial to postcolonial society.