Sport and imperialism

Abstract

Over the last two decades, many Western writers have tried to situate the analysis of sport within the context of history and social development. Rather than viewing the development of sport in isolation, interests have been directed towards tracing its role in relation to politics, economics, power, ideology, religion, tradition and culture in the society. It is reviewed that in the history of British colonialism, the development of British sport has carried a significant function of cultural control and domination across colonies. In the following study, I will(1)provide a theoretically analysis on cultural imperialism(2)examine the inter-relation of sports and British cultural imperialism in South Africa, India, and Ireland(3)highlight the function of sport and physical education as a tool of British cultural imperialism. In the end, we will discover that the British cultural imperialism is not just a product of political, economical and military imperialism, but also of cultural imperialism through which her ideas, beliefs, language, rules, hobbies, custom, conventions and etc. are spread.