Sport and South Asian youth: the perils of ‘false universalism’ and stereotyping

Abstract

Studies of the sport-ethnicity relation have tended to neglect young South Asians in Britain and although there has recently been an increasing interest in the role of sport in South Asian lifestyles, the significance and function of sport in South Asian cultures remains confused and ill-informed. This paper offers a critical reflection on some of the important studies that have informed this under-researched area of leisure studies, and considers two key themes. First, that the failure to fully acknowledge South Asian heterogeneity — a failure manifest as ‘false universalism’ — operates at three different levels: collective treatment of all minority groups; mistaken assumptions about all South Asians; and a misunderstanding about the full complexity of South Asian heterogeneity. Second, that false universalism leads to the sort of crude stereotypes about the sporting aptitude and preferences of young South Asians that are generally prevalent, and can also become internalized by South Asians themselves.